Re: RDFCore Comments on OWL Reference

Brian McBride wrote:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webont-comments/2003May/0004.html

#owlref-rdfcore-class-ontology

 >
 > RDFCore makes this point with some trepidation, not wishing to cause 
WEBONT to waste time and energy on a discussion with little practical 
impact.
 >
 > In 7.2
 >
 > [[
 > An ontology header component is represented with an instance of the 
class owl:Ontology, which typically identifies the containing document 
with a same-document reference [section 4.2 of RFC2396], and which may 
optionally contain, in any order, any number of import and/or versioning 
statements.
 > ]]
 >
 > This seems to say that instances of the class owl:Ontology are 
documents.  RDFCore suggests that the text be modified to be less 
specific.  There are also potential difficulties with the reference to 
RFC 2396; it would be better to refer to the RDF specs and let them take 
the heat on any 'interpretation' of RFC 2396.
 >
 > We suggest:
 >
 > [[
 > A document describing an ontology typically contains information 
about the ontology itself.  An ontology is a resource, so may be 
described using properties from the OWL and other namespaces, e.g.
 >
 > <owl:Ontology rdf:about="">
 >    <owl:versionInfo> ... </owl:versionInfo>
 >    <rdfs:comment>...</rdfs:comment>
 >    <owl:imports rdf:resource='...'/>
 > </owl:Ontology>
 >
 > This is commonly called the ontology header and is typically found 
near the beginning of the RDF/XML document.  The line
 >
 >    <owl:Ontology rdf:about="">
 >
 > states that this block describes the current ontology.  More 
precisely, it states the current base URI identifies an instance of the 
class owl:Ontology.  As noted earlier, it is recommended that the base 
URI be defined using an xml:base attribute in the <rdf:RDF> element at 
the beginning of the document.
 > ]]


Brian,

Thanks for the comment. We accept your suggestion.

Please let us know, cc-ing public-webont-comments@w3.org, whether this
response is satisfactory.

Guus Schreiber

-- 
Free University Amsterdam, Computer Science
De Boelelaan 1081a, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 444 7739/7718
E-mail: schreiber@cs.vu.nl
Home page: http://www.cs.vu.nl/~guus/

Received on Wednesday, 25 June 2003 06:23:15 UTC