Re: Confusing semantics of Ontology Versions and Version Series

Note: I think it's safe to say that the versioning story for OWL (or many things) has not been completed.

On 17 Mar 2014, at 14:01, Simon Spero <sesuncedu@gmail.com> wrote:
[snip]
> There are a few ontology annotations that seem like they almost address the problem, but which have restrictions specified which make them unsuitable for the purpose. 
> 
> §3.5 specified properties to indicate version compatibility; however, the properties are defined only between different versions of the containing ontology:
> The owl:backwardCompatibleWith annotation property specifies the IRI of a prior version of the containing ontology that is compatible with the current version of the containing ontology.
> The owl:incompatibleWith annotation property specifies the IRI of a prior version of the containing ontology that is incompatible with the current version of the containing ontology.
> 
> These definitions make reference to "the current version of the containing ontology"; this does not seem easy to work with, given that the current version may change subsequent to the publication of an ontology containing this assertion.

I don't think "Current version" should be read as an indirection, but as indicating the actual ontology object that contains the statement. 

(This is an issue with the language.)

>  It would make more sense to specify (in)compatibility with version recorded in the containing ontology. 

I would say that its incompatible with the axioms of the containing ontology.

This might be something worth working up in the community group.

Cheers,
Bijan.