Re: [sdw] Sample modeling in sosa/ssn (#1122)

Hi @croussey 

1. `sosa:Sample` is a subclass of `sosa:FeatureOfInterest` because every sample is expected to (eventually) be the feature-of-interest of a `sosa:Observation`, else it is of no interest

2. There are no `rdfs:subClassOf` axioms in sosa.ttl - the axiomatization in this graph was deliberately limited to weak schema.org style (but see [1]). The subclass axioms are in ssn.ttl. 

3. Subsumption and mereology are different kinds of relationship. The subsumption (subclass) relationship is general: it applies to all members of the class, i.e. 'every sample is also a feature-of-interest'. On the other hand, mereological relationships (part/whole) are between individuals, i.e. 'this individual sample is part-of that individual feature-of-interest'. We can axiomatize the definition of 'partOf' to say things like 'a partOf relationship always relates a sample to a feature-of-interest' but note that this only says 'if this relationship is seen, then the individuals on one end is a member of the class of samples and on the other is a member of the class of features-of-interest (which might be a sample as well)' 

4. The point of samples is that they provide a tractable thing for observations, but with the express intention that the result can be used (somehow) to characterize the thing that was sampled. A `Sample` is the _proximate_ feature-of-interest of the observation. The thing that was sampled is the _ultimate_ feature-of-interest of the investigation. 

[1] We made an error in using `owl:inverseOf`. This should have been `schema:inverseOf` but we realised that too late after the ontology had already been published. 


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Received on Thursday, 25 April 2019 09:00:39 UTC