Re: Tech Plenary: agenda Best Practices

At 12:37 -0600 3/4/04, Pat Hayes wrote:

4. Finally, this is a negative suggestion, but I would oppose any 
attempt to tell the world how best to write ontologies; or if we 
cannot avoid doing that, then let the advice be severely pragmatic 
and free from philosophical punditry. There is a lingering 
(festering?) tendency among some folk to want to give instruction 
from on high to the great unwashed on how they should best think and 
express themselves. Unfortunately this advice is similar to most 
religious doctrine: most of the energy is spent in endless debates 
between rival doctrines, you can find some of it somewhere to justify 
almost any action you want to take anyway, and when the rubber meets 
the road most of it isn't really directly applicable in any case 
without an expert there to interpret it for you.


Hear, Hear - a big +1!  (or is it -1 in this case?)  I definitely 
agree w/Pat -- if for no other reason that I think as we explore the 
new space of the Sem Web, we discover new ways to use the old stuff, 
and we shouldn't over prescribe too soon

Pat
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