Re: owl:sameAs links from OpenCyc to WordNet

Hi all,

David, I know you already know my personal view of this stuff with our 
recent private interactions & on the umbel mailing list. For the LOD 
mailing list readers, here is the background for this conversation:

http://groups.google.com/group/umbel-ontology/browse_thread/thread/6bd977e50e1f372b


Matthias suggested to used rdfs:seeAlso. I think it would make sense to 
createa  subproperty of this property for that kind of purpose.

In UMBEL we created a property that "is like" owl:sameAs, but that 
doesn't entail as much as sameAs does. *I am not suggesting* to use it 
for this specific use case, but *I would* suggest it to use it instead 
of owl:sameAs when "automatic" linkage is done between two datasets 
where issues can arise. This property is called "umbel:isLike" and come 
from the UMBEL ontology here:

http://umbel.org/ontology/umbel.n3



The umbel:isLike property is described as:


"he property umbel:isLike is used to assert an associative link between 
similar individuals who may or may not be identical, but are believed to 
be so.  This property is not intended as a general expression of 
similarity, but rather the likely but uncertain same identity of the two 
resources being related. 

This property can and should be changed if the certainty of the sameness 
of identity is subsequently determined.
 
In general, we may not be able to assert that two individuals are the 
same based solely on current information on hand. However, there may be 
quite reasonable bases or methods that the two individuals are likely 
the same without being one hundred percent sure.

umbel:isLike has the semantics of likely identity, but where there is 
some uncertainty that the two resources indeed refer to the exact same 
individual with the same identity.  Such uncertainty can arise when, for 
example, common names may be used for different individuals (e.g., John 
Smith).

It is appropriate to use this property when there is strong belief the 
two resources refer to the same individual with the same identity, but 
that association can not be asserted at the present time with certitude."




Hope this helps this conversation, and helps to extends the "owl:sameAs" 
conversation that arise from time to time (here is another one: 
http://i9606.blogspot.com/2009/02/semantic-dissonance-in-uniprot.html)



Thanks!


Take care,


Fred

Received on Monday, 23 February 2009 19:11:47 UTC