- From: Andrea Splendiani <andrea.splendiani@bbsrc.ac.uk>
- Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 03:20:50 +0000
- To: Simon Reinhardt <simon.reinhardt@koeln.de>
- Cc: "semantic-web@w3.org" <semantic-web@w3.org>, "public-lod@w3.org" <public-lod@w3.org>
Hi, I think that if the need for modularization is real, it won't be a problem to have different prefixes, as these should map to distinct (hopefully) intuitive partitions of an ontology. I think some simple trick as choosing less confusing prefixed would help. ciao, Andrea On 26 Oct 2009, at 14:25, Simon Reinhardt wrote: > Hi, > > It is becoming somewhat popular for large ontologies to be split > into a core ontology file and module ontology files (which import > the core). Normally each module then gets its own namespace for the > terms defined in it. I was wondering though if that is too > complicated for users of the ontologies. I have seen confusion of > "sioc" and "sioct" (the prefixes for the SIOC core and the SIOC > Types module namespaces) and when such vocabularies get higher > adoption by people not so well versed with ontologies I can see it > happen a lot more often. > > So as an alternative I want to explore the idea of just using one > namespace shared between the core and the modules. The advantage > would be not having to guess which namespace to use. One > disadvantage for the developer(s) of the ontology is that a "local > name" can only be used in one of the modules or core, you can't use > the same "word" under a different namespace with a different > meaning. Another disadvantage is that if you want the terms to > dereference to the ontology files they have been defined in then you > can only do that with a "/" namespace (and you have to set up lots > of redirects). > > My questions: What do you think of that idea? Can you see any other > advantages or disadvantages? Do you think several namespaces are not > confusing at all? And what are the main advantages to splitting up > ontologies into modules other than being easier to organise? Do they > justify a higher burden on the ontology users? > > Thanks, > Simon > --- Andrea Splendiani Senior Bioinformatics Scientist Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, UK andrea.splendiani@bbsrc.ac.uk +44(0)1582 763133 ext 2004
Received on Monday, 9 November 2009 03:21:24 UTC