Re: SSN Thread for github issue 378 - Side effects of ssn:Observation being a kind of dul:Event instead of dul:Situation

> I like that. I think it addresses my original concern nicely.
>
> Though I think I would adjust the naming to ‘stimulusTime’ vs 
> ‘phenomenonTime’ (the latter is still the time that most users care 
> about and preserves the current semantics).
>
> if the stimulus-time is omitted it is assumed to be the same as 
> phenomenon-time? 

I like the idea as well. But where is this all going a revised SSN? So 
are we introducing changes after all?

> 1) I think you mean manometer, which depends on the density of 
> mercury, not its compressibility. Different stimulus.

Thanks.



On 10/06/2016 11:50 PM, Simon.Cox@csiro.au wrote:
>
> I like that. I think it addresses my original concern nicely.
>
> Though I think I would adjust the naming to ‘stimulusTime’ vs 
> ‘phenomenonTime’ (the latter is still the time that most users care 
> about and preserves the current semantics).
>
> if the stimulus-time is omitted it is assumed to be the same as 
> phenomenon-time?
>
> *From:*Joshua Lieberman [mailto:jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com]
> *Sent:* Thursday, 6 October 2016 9:02 PM
> *To:* janowicz@ucsb.edu
> *Cc:* Cox, Simon (L&W, Clayton) <Simon.Cox@csiro.au>; 
> kerry.taylor@anu.edu.au; maxime.lefrancois.86@gmail.com; 
> public-sdw-wg@w3.org
> *Subject:* Re: SSN Thread for github issue 378 - Side effects of 
> ssn:Observation being a kind of dul:Event instead of dul:Situation
>
> Jano,
>
> 1) I think you mean manometer, which depends on the density of 
> mercury, not its compressibility. Different stimulus.
>
> 2) As long as it is clear that the stimulus time has to overlap the 
> measurement time at least in part.
>
> 3) Pondering further, I think it makes more sense for a prediction to 
> estimate an observable property in the future based on present 
> stimulus / stimuli (related to that property by a model). This does 
> carry the implication that some other, more contemporaneous stimulus 
> would also occur in the future if appropriate, but that stimulus would 
> not be a result of the predictive observation. Instead it would be the 
> stimulus for another observation that also takes place in the future 
> and results in another, validating estimate of the observable 
> property. This should work pretty well to represent both present and 
> future estimates, however, it will take some elaboration of the time 
> parameters, namely differentiation of PhenomenonTime from 
> ObservablePropertyTime.
>
> Josh
>
>     On Oct 5, 2016, at 5:46 PM, Krzysztof Janowicz <janowicz@ucsb.edu
>     <mailto:janowicz@ucsb.edu>> wrote:
>
>     IMHO, /Stimulus/ is best conceptualized as  detectable changes in
>     the environment that trigger the observation process. In 2010 (for
>     the SSO) Michael and I wrote:
>
>     "Stimuli are detectable changes in the environment, i.e., in the
>     physical world. They are the starting point of each measurement as
>     they act as triggers for sensors. Stimuli can either be directly
>     or indirectly related to observable properties and, therefore, to
>     features of interest. They can also be actively produced by a
>     sensor to perform observations. The same types of stimulus can
>     trigger different kinds of sensors and be used to reason about
>     different properties. Nevertheless, a stimulus may only be usable
>     as proxy for a specific region of an observed property. Examples
>     for stimuli include the expansion of liquids or sound waves
>     emitted by a sonar. The expansion of mercury can be used to draw
>     conclusions about the temperature of a surface that is in close
>     contact. While the expansion is unspecific with respect to the
>     kind of surface, e.g., water versus skin, the usage as stimulus is
>     limited by its melting and boiling points. Moreover, mercury is
>     not restricted to thermometers but e.g., also used in nanometers.
>     Note, that the stimulus is the expansion of mercury, not mercury
>     as such.”
>
> 1)
>
>
>     The last sentence (and assuming this definition is still
>     valid/acceptable for our current work), is the most important one.
>     A stimulus is an event (if we really, really, really want to use
>     these terms). The stimulus also has to start before the
>     observation can take place. Multiple possible temporal relations
>     can hold between the two. for instance, the mercury in the text
>     above will shrink after an measurement procedure (resulting in an
>     observation) is executed. This will (or will not) keep triggering
>     a sensor but we stopped caring because we arrived at the
>     observation we anted to archive.
>
> 2)
>
>
>     I like Josh's idea about predicting future stimuli but would
>     suggest not to mix this with the notion of an observation.
>     Predictions about the future are not observations in the sense we
>     use in the SSN; if they are, they are predictions based on
>     observations which in turn are based on stimuli that we consider
>     good proxies for the stimulus we want to predict :-).
>
> 3)
>
>
>     Best,
>     Jano
>
>
>
>     On 10/03/2016 08:36 PM, Joshua Lieberman wrote:
>
>         I do mean (topologically not logically) disjoint in time, i.e.
>         non-overlapping. If “isPostConditionOf” carries a strict
>         temporal meaning, then it breaks the relationship between
>         stimulus and observation. You can’t measure a temperature if
>         the temperature has gone away before you measure it. If the
>         meaning is only consequential, in the sense of observation
>         O→stimulus S, then it would be a reasonable predicate. Still
>         tricky for prediction, i.e. to assert that a stimulus in the
>         future is a consequence of a prediction in the present. I
>         suppose one could indicate in some way that it's a weaker
>         consequence.
>
>         One could also argue that an observation that overlaps its
>         stimulus in time is a measurement, while an observation that
>         doesn’t overlap its stimulus is a prediction. A model
>         procedure can predict the past, the present, or the future, or
>         none of the above if the model conditions are hypothetical. It
>         is going to require some more thought, though, to figure out
>         how to apply the SSN / O&M terms to this situation. Is a
>         prediction just another procedure within an observation, or is
>         a prediction a different type of event (e.g. a model run) that
>         generates an imaginary / potential observation?
>
>         —Josh
>
>             On Oct 3, 2016, at 1:31 PM, simon.cox@csiro.au
>             <mailto:simon.cox@csiro.au> wrote:
>
>             Weighing in maybe a little late:
>
>             One of the motivations for the term ‘result’ in O&M was
>             clarification of the post-condition of the observation,
>             understood as an event.
>
>             And (as Josh has pointed out) the concepts of
>             phenomenon-time and result-time were also a part of this
>             story. But O&M also included interpretation, numerical
>             modelling, and forecasting (i.e. when the phenomenon-time
>             is later than the result-time), so we need to be careful
>             here. Perhaps there is a useful taxonomy of observation
>             types on the basis of the relationship between
>             stimuls/phenomenon-time/result-time …
>
>             The notion of ‘stimulus’ was a very important contribution
>             from SSN - George Percivall was on my case about this
>             early in the story of SWE, but it didn’t get formalized in
>             the O&M model. But while it is relatively straightforward
>             how it applies to the classical notion of sensing, I need
>             some help to understand what the ‘stimulus’ is for a forecast.
>
>             Simon
>
>             *From:*Kerry Taylor [mailto:kerry.taylor@anu.edu.au]
>             *Sent:*Monday, 3 October 2016 5:05 PM
>             *To:*Joshua Lieberman <jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com
>             <mailto:jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com>>
>             *Cc:*Maxime Lefrançois <maxime.lefrancois.86@gmail.com
>             <mailto:maxime.lefrancois.86@gmail.com>>; SDW WG Public
>             List <public-sdw-wg@w3.org <mailto:public-sdw-wg@w3.org>>
>             *Subject:*RE: SSN Thread for github issue 378 - Side
>             effects of ssn:Observation being a kind of dul:Event
>             instead of dul:Situation
>
>             Hi Josh,
>
>             I am not sure I follow – because I am not clear what you
>             mean by “disjoint” here. For me, I meant it as “something
>             cannot be both of those things”,
>
>             but perhaps you mean something about non-overlapping time
>             intervals?
>
>             If we can’t live with “isPostconditionOf” (and I cannot
>             find any other alternative in dolce myself, but I would be
>             very grateful if someone can) then I can see only 3 other
>             options.
>
>             1) is to disconnect the observation from the stimulus –
>             which seems pretty dumb to me and if so then  I would
>             suggest we go even further and just drop stimulus entirely
>             ( or it could remain connected to a sensor, but if a
>             sensor could respond to multiple stimuli we would have no
>             idea which one provoked this observation.  Which gives
>             another option I suppose – insist that each sensor can
>             have at most one stimulus and then the stimulus could be
>             retrived with the observation by following the sensor –
>             but this is yet another change).
>
>             2) Make up a new term in ssn for the purpose --- but I am
>             not keen to introduce new terms without a really strong
>             reason.
>
>             3)Make up a new term in the alignment (in a new namespace)
>             but not in ssn proper --- I can’t see much value in that
>             for anyone.
>
>             I think I can live with “isPostconditionOf”
>
>             Maxime, did you spot any other problems with changing
>             observation this way?
>
>             --Kerry
>
>             *From:*Joshua Lieberman [mailto:jlieberman@tumblingwalls.com]
>             *Sent:*Thursday, 29 September 2016 3:59 AM
>             *To:*Kerry Taylor <kerry.taylor@anu.edu.au
>             <mailto:kerry.taylor@anu.edu.au>>
>             *Cc:*Maxime Lefrançois <maxime.lefrancois.86@gmail.com
>             <mailto:maxime.lefrancois.86@gmail.com>>; SDW WG Public
>             List <public-sdw-wg@w3.org <mailto:public-sdw-wg@w3.org>>
>             *Subject:*Re: SSN Thread for github issue 378 - Side
>             effects of ssn:Observation being a kind of dul:Event
>             instead of dul:Situation
>
>             This seems to be another consequence of the distinction
>             between Observation as record and Observation as event. It
>             makes sense that a record be disjoint with and later in
>             time than a Stimulus (ResultTime vs PhenomenonTime) but if
>             the event of sensing is disjoint with the Stimulus being
>             sensed,  there generally isn’t going to be any result.
>             Therefore, if om:Observation is to be adopted,
>             isPostconditionOf will not be the appropriate relationship
>             between Stimulus and Observation.
>
>             —Josh
>
>                 On Sep 28, 2016, at 9:23 AM, Kerry Taylor
>                 <kerry.taylor@anu.edu.au
>                 <mailto:kerry.taylor@anu.edu.au>> wrote:
>
>                 Maxime,
>
>                 Thank you so much for following up on this.
>
>                 isPostconditionOf looks ok to me because
>
>                 -(1) its rdfs:comment annotation says “ Direct
>                 succession applied to situations.  E.g., 'Taking some
>                 rest is a postcondition of my search for a hotel'.”
>
>                 -(2) and another reference says  ‘"Direct succession
>                 applied to situations. E.g., 'A postcondition of our
>                 Plan is to have things settled'."”
>
>                 -(3) it seems to capture the intended relationship
>                 between a stimulus event and an observation. Certainly
>                 we would not want that a stimulus causes an
>                 observation, nor that an observation is a necessary
>                 consequence of a stimulus, but I think we are ok here.
>                 It does say that the stimulus comes first, and then
>                 the observation, but that seems quite ok too.
>
>                 Note that the domain and range of isPostconditionOf
>                 are both the union of Event and Situation, so no
>                 problem there. includesEvent  had a range of Event, so
>                 this expansion of the range  to Event or Situation is
>                 not going to get existing implementations in to
>                  additional trouble  (ie beyond the trouble already
>                 implied by the descision to change Observation).
>
>                 It is a subproperty of directlyFollows (an
>                 intransitive ordering relation)  and an inverse of
>                 hasPostcondition.  While these may not have been
>                 intended by the original includesEvent (in which the
>                 situation of observation just  includes the Stimulus
>                 event),  I cannot see any problem in using
>                 isPostconditionOf, and indeed it looks to me like the
>                 difference in meaning is only the necessary difference
>                 that arises to the move of Observation to an Event.
>
>                 So I’d vote for isPostconditionOf, being the closest
>                 match possible to the previous.
>
>                 --Kerry
>
>                 *From:*Maxime Lefrançois
>                 [mailto:maxime.lefrancois.86@gmail.com]
>                 *Sent:*Wednesday, 28 September 2016 6:53 PM
>                 *To:*SDW WG Public List <public-sdw-wg@w3.org
>                 <mailto:public-sdw-wg@w3.org>>
>                 *Subject:*SSN Thread for github issue 378 - Side
>                 effects of ssn:Observation being a kind of dul:Event
>                 instead of dul:Situation
>
>                 Dear all,
>
>                 If each github issue shall have its own thread on the
>                 SDW list, this is the one for issue 378 -
>                 https://github.com/w3c/sdw/issues/378 :
>
>                 if|ssn:Observation|
>                 <http://www.w3.org/ns/ssn/Observation>is a kind
>                 of|dul:Event|
>                 <http://www.ontologydesignpatterns.org/ont/dul/DUL.owl#Event>instead
>                 of a|dul:Situation|
>
>                 there is an immediate side effect to resolve:
>
>                 /axiom:/
>
>                 |ssn:Observation rdfs:subClassOf [ owl:onProperty
>                 dul:includesEvent ; owl:someValuesFrom ssn:Stimulus ] .|
>
>                 /context axioms:/
>
>                 |ssn:Stimulus rdfs:subClassOf dul:Event .|
>
>                 |dul:includesEvent rdfs:domain dul:Situation ;
>                 rdfs:range dul:Event .|
>
>                 /solution to solve the side effect:/
>
>                 replace the mention of|dul:includesEvent|in axiom by a
>                 property that has for domain and range|dul:Event|
>
>                 the only such DUL properties
>                 are:|dul:isPreconditionOf|, and|dul:isPostconditionOf|.
>
>                 Neither of them seem to fit,
>                 so, should this axiom be simply deleted from the
>                 SSN-DUL alignment ?
>
>                 Kind regards
>
>                 Maxime Lefrançois
>
>     -- 
>
>     Krzysztof Janowicz
>
>     Geography Department, University of California, Santa Barbara
>
>     4830 Ellison Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060
>
>     Email:jano@geog.ucsb.edu <mailto:jano@geog.ucsb.edu>
>
>     Webpage:http://geog.ucsb.edu/~jano/ <http://geog.ucsb.edu/%7Ejano/>
>
>     Semantic Web Journal:http://www.semantic-web-journal.net
>     <http://www.semantic-web-journal.net/>
>


-- 
Krzysztof Janowicz

Geography Department, University of California, Santa Barbara
4830 Ellison Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060

Email: jano@geog.ucsb.edu
Webpage: http://geog.ucsb.edu/~jano/
Semantic Web Journal: http://www.semantic-web-journal.net

Received on Saturday, 8 October 2016 20:50:38 UTC