RE: SUO: Proposal for Starter Content
Dear Pierre,
See comments below.
Matthew West
Principal Consultant
Shell Information Technology International Limited
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 7934 4490 Other Tel: +44 7796 336538
Email: matthew.west@shell.com
Internet: http://www.shell.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pierre Grenon [mailto:pierre.grenon@ifomis.uni-leipzig.de]
> Sent: 27 August 2003 15:46
> To: West, Matthew R SITI-ITPSIE
> Cc: standard-upper-ontology@ieee.org
> Subject: Re: SUO: Proposal for Starter Content
>
>
> >
> > The full document will be available shortly from your local
> > (national) standards body or ISO. However, the formal model is
> > available on the web in browsable html form at:
> >
> >
> http://www.tc184-sc4.org/wg3ndocs/wg3n1328/lifecycle_integrati
> on_schema.html
> >
> > It is written in EXPRESS, an ISO standard data modelling language
> > that is defined in ISO 10303-11.
>
> It's nice to have a look at this, I made me quite curious
> about it, suo aside.
> I haven't browsed much of it.
>
> > I should say that my intent/hope for future development may include
> > translation into a Description Logic language (OWL?)
>
> OWL is more like an enhanced markup language, isn't it?
MW: OWL is an XML based Description Logic language.
> The
> underlying DL is
> very poor in terms of expressivity. OTOH, it might suffice
> for most of the
> purpose at hand here. I can't really tell, though it seems
> that most of the
> structure expressed (the stuff in BOLD) are things that you
> could write in more
> or less straightforward way with such DLs.
MW: DL's have roughly the same expressivity as data models, so it
might make a useful first step.
>
> > or First Order Logic
>
> If you allow, I would strongly encourage you to do this. This
> would allow you
> to come up with a nice and clear axiomatic. In the worst case
> it will end up as
> a good documentation (though, who would use such
> documentation is maybe a
> question). In any case, you will have this basis clean. You
> could later choose
> any DL suiting your needs and end up leaving aside a non
> negligeable part of
> the 'ideal' axiomatic.
MW: My current thinking is to start by seeing how far I can get
in a DL. I should be able to move reasonably easily between OWL
and another Common Logic language. However, in reality I shall
probably want to hold it all in a database and generate the
different language forms - but I need to think a bit about that
first.
>
> Of course, you might want to do both, but to revisitate the
> point you make
> below, the DL stuff could be used to copy the EXPRESS specs
> in part or whole.
MW: Exactly.
> In order to lay out more formally some of the gloss, imho,
> the FOL way is the
> one to go. To finish with, it seems to me that in order to be
> comparable with
> existing starters, FOL is desirable as well.
MW: Possibly. On the other hand if I can manage with a DL then
I believe there are advantages. I am curious as to whether a 4D
approach will allow this.
>
> > language and the addition of further axioms than those that are part
> > of the structure of the data model, together with inclusion within
> > the IFF framework together with other upper ontologies with
> different
> > foundations.
> >
> > What I am not sure of is where we have got to with how we propose
> > content to be formally considered part of our work here.
>
> Some people have argued that a text file should be produced
> (this was actually
> imposed to cycorp). Is it possible to produce such a file
> with the gloss for
> each term and any axiom following? (Although, in the present
> state, the latter
> part would be mostly inheritance information, so it seems.)
MW: There is a plain text file available at:
http://www.tc184-sc4.org/SC4_Open/SC4_and_Working_Groups/WG3/N-DOCS/Files/WG3%20N1288%20Full%20lifecycle_integration_schema.exp
>
> What I am most unclear about is whether we have to vote...
MW: Not yet. We are currently in a time of discussing and proposing
amendments to the motion.
>
> Best,
> Pierre
>
> > Matthew West
> > Principal Consultant
> > Shell Information Technology International Limited
> > Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA, United Kingdom
> >
> > Tel: +44 20 7934 4490 Other Tel: +44 7796 336538
> > Email: matthew.west@shell.com
> > Internet: http://www.shell.com
> >
> >
>
> --
> Pierre Grenon
> IFOMIS Uni Leipzig
> Haertelstr. 16-18
> 04107 Leipzig
> http://people.ifomis.uni-leipzig.de/pierre.grenon/
> pgrenon@ifomis.uni-leipzig.de
> phone: 49(0)351971672
> fax: 49(0)3519716179
>