Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good

It's tough being a designer because it means that you need to let something go when there are still a few potential tweaks left.  However, a big part of the process includes the ability to know when your next tweak is essential or just polish. With that in mind, I urge you all to work together and make the recommendation. Because:

* Many ontologists do not have software development backgrounds and struggle with the few existing technologies.  But they can build shapes and bring tons of values to their work.  I know this because I work with such an individual and he is using SHACL today for our work (with the SPARQL extension).  
* To help the software development architects and managers who believe semantic tech is the way forward but struggle to show it is still alive and viable.  I know this because I recently had to do it.  Don't underestimate the power of the W3C's stamp of support.  A thousand hacker news posts of support is nothing by comparison.
* Offer an olive branch back to the many individuals who wanted to use these technologies but found the standards increasingly headed towards the arcane.
* Stop the bleed to graph databases that have given up on the standards community

Our non-profit mission at Healthwise is to help people make better health decisions. And our consumer-focused medical ontology is built to help them do just that.  So, I ask everyone on the committee to do the right thing for us and others who are working to deliver knowledge to a community-in-need.  Get the recommendation and get it released.  

Adam Kimball
Director of Engineering 
Healthwise, Inc.

Received on Tuesday, 13 December 2016 21:31:19 UTC