Re: Interoperability and Vagueness
Boyan,
Let me start with your concluding paragraph:
> I'm trying to avoid the need to constantly
> "generate new types for your hierarchy"
> (assuming hierarchy refers to concept hierarchy),
> which could cause complications for downstream
> applications.
I was not talking about anybody's choice of
representation, but about reality. The simple
fact is that the number of options in the
world is unlimited. And the number of them
that people want to think about, talk about,
or do something about is also unlimited.
If you put an arbitrary limit on your ontology,
it will just prevent it from be a useful catalog
of what exists. You can do that, but I wouldn't
recommend it, and I certainly wouldn't suggest
that we standardize it.
In other words, the reason why dictionaries have
a lot of word senses is that people have found
them necessary for what they want to say about
what exists in the world. If your ontology can't
handle that, then too bad for your ontology.
John