Re: FOAF spec revised - addtion of foaf:focus, a skos extension linking topical and factual information

Hi all,

apropos "hitchike": ok, if Christophe points to Douglas Adams, I'd like 
to point to the movie Matrix 1:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Matrix :
Morpheus: "Welcome to the desert... of the real"

  What we are talking about is the ontological relationship between the 
"very reality" and our concepts (our ideas) of this reality -- in terms 
of foaf:

http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/20100809.html#term_focus :
"The focus property relates a conceptualisation of something to the 
thing itself."

additionally foaf defines:
"Range: every value of this property is a *Thing*",
while Thing refers to owl:Thing.

and te subject of this email thread is:
"linking topical and factual information"

In my opinion owl:Thing is to generic here. Instead the range of 
foaf:focus should be something like "very thing" or "real thing" or "fact".
(a) If "yes" it would also help to find a better name for foaf:focus.
(b) if "no" we should clarify the conceptual relationship between 
skos:Concept and owl:Thing

To be more explicit in the case of (b): We have to decide which *theory* 
(or ontology?) we use in order to compare "concept of something" (pun 
intended) with "thing itself":
- Life in Matrix vs. Reality?
- Semiotics, i.e. use terms like sign, idea, reference ?

My suggestion: We should look at a ground top-level vocabulary (like 
"DOLCE+DnS Ultralite") and make foaf:focus (resp. skos:Concept) being a 
subproperty of a property (resp. a subclass of a class) which is already 
given there.


cheers
Johannes
-- 
Dr. Johannes Busse
Bahnhofstr.9, 68535 Edingen
www.jbusse.de | jbusse@jbusse.de

Received on Saturday, 14 August 2010 09:01:42 UTC