RE: Importing the correct version of an ontology

We're publishing OWL ontologies in the OASIS PLCS TC following the best practices from the W3C. So:

Version information is not encoded in the URI for an ontology. Version information is included as annotation properties. The latest and greatest release of the ontology is always available at a Web address (i.e. URL) that matches the URI. Previous releases are also available but at version-specific Web addresses - still with the same un-versioned URI.

For example:

http://docs.oasis-open.org/plcs/refdata is the URI for the ontology in all cases. It is also the Web address for the latest and greatest ontology.

http://docs.oasis-open.org/plcs/refdata/V1 contains the same ontology when version 1 is published.

When version 2 is published, then 

http://docs.oasis-open.org/plcs/refdata contains the version 2 ontology

http://docs.oasis-open.org/plcs/refdata/V2 contains the same version 2 ontology

http://docs.oasis-open.org/plcs/refdata/V1 contains the version 1 ontology.

This lets ontology importing tools/users decide when to use ontology V1 vs. V2 or whether to always use the latest and greatest. The Protege "Ontology Repository" capability is a simply example of how users can control this.

This is our current plan but our first publication has not yet happened. Given OASIS is a standards body an approach like this is perhaps more workable than in the free-for-all that is the Semantic Web.

Cheers,
David

-----Original Message-----
From: semantic-web-request@w3.org on behalf of Andrea Splendiani
Sent: Fri 2007-09-21 01:49
To: semantic-web
Subject: Importing the correct version of an ontology
 
Dear list,

I have a doubt:

To be able to refer to the correct version of an ontology, is the  
only way to encode the version information in the URI ?

The version information in the header is not clear (to me) how can be  
used for this.

And if I build an ontology that imports and extends other  
ontologies... I need to refer to a version of them! (think about bio- 
ontologies that have some level of dynamicity).

Any idea ?

best,
Andrea

-----------
Andrea Splendiani
post-doc, bootstrep project (www.bootstrep.eu)

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