Re: NAF v. SNAF - where is this being addressed?

I wrote:

>> FTR, I think the jury is still out on whether OWL is really a Semantic 
>> Web Language for distributed, extensible ontologies or just a lingua 
>> franca ("Web language") for DL+ ontologies.  So far, all I see is the 
>> latter, but OWL is young, and you have to have respected reference 
>> ontologies before anyone else can use them.

Jim Hendler wrote:

> I don't see how you can possibly say that, ...
> if you're looking for some good reference 
> ontologies, I'd direct you to the life sciences - NCI, OBO, the newer GO 
> stuff -- lots of OWL starting to grow out there.  It's early, but it is 
> growing.

Yes.  That is what I meant.  These things are solid and have real 
application, but they are self-contained.  OTOH, these will be the 
"respected reference ontologies" which *may be* referenced by other 
application ontologies.

> p.s. Any web language starts being used mostly local, and the links grow 
> as things find each other and find use...

That is what I meant by "OWL is young".  OTOH, after a while, the links 
fail, as sites are reorganized or lose support (like daml.org :-( ), and 
that is why the jury is still out.

One of the issues the Internet will soon need to address is the 
"protection of our unnatural resources" -- sites of considerable value 
that remain in existence out of the goodness of some not-for-profit's 
heart.  These things are regularly threatened by the often whimsical 
decisions of: (a) new management, (b) new Webmasters, (c) government 
agencies, (d) academic standards committees, (e) ... [your preferred 
Voodoo doll here].

-Ed

-- 
Edward J. Barkmeyer                        Email: edbark@nist.gov
National Institute of Standards & Technology
Manufacturing Systems Integration Division
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8264                Tel: +1 301-975-3528
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8264                FAX: +1 301-975-4694

"The opinions expressed above do not reflect consensus of NIST,
  and have not been reviewed by any Government authority."

Received on Wednesday, 29 June 2005 21:22:04 UTC