Re: SUO: Multi-Source Ontology (MSO) Draft Ballot Question
John,
I certainly agree with that point:
JB> ... it would be interesting to have the upper
> level commitments that have been found necessary
> spelled out from several different perspectives
> and that these commitments be compared.
Such a study is long overdue. We all would like
to do it, but we all have day jobs. A little
funding would help focus attention on the problem.
The other issues are mainly quibbles about where
to set the boundaries:
1. Nobody has actually determined how much should
be in an "upper level". I would guess that
it's probably more than a dozen categories
and probably less than a few thousand.
2. In order to determine whether any proposed
upper level is adequate, it is necessary
to show how it can support a fairly large
number of middle and lower-level categories.
3. Yes, WN is a lexicon rather than an ontology,
but the WN synsets represent a good checklist
of concepts that should be definable in terms
of an adequate upper level.
These three points would be good starting points
for a study and comparison of the adequacy of
different proposed upper levels.
John Sowa