RE: [Imports Task Force] revised imports spec

Hi Peter!

Peter F. Patel-Schneider wrote:

>Basic idea:
>
>Imports in OWL 2 are "by location": if an ontology O contains a
>statement "Import( someURI )", then "someURI" specifies the location of
>the imported ontology---that is, an OWL 2 implementation SHOULD access
>the ontology at the location "someURI" using the standard Internet
>protocols. 

I just dare to ask this heretic question, because I'm in the mood: Why by
location? 

My understanding of imports is /primarily/ that they are used to define
which axioms are in the ontology: 

  If an ontology O contains statements 
  "Import(someURI_1)", ..., "Import(someURI_n)",
  then the complete ontology consists of all the axioms defined in O,
  and (recursively) all the axioms defined in all the ontologies
  denoted by the URIs ..., someURI_i, ..."

If someURI_i has also a format which tells me how to get this ontology, then
that's "cool", of course, and people should IMO always build their URIs in
such a way. But I would expect to have this as a convenience, not to find
this specified by the OWL language itself.

Or am I horribly wrong here? :)

Cheers,
Michael