report on Ontolog units of measure ontology

Holger asked if I might say a bit about the units ontology work that  
the ontolog group is undertaking.  Unfortunately, I will not be on the  
call today, so I am writing a short report via email.

As some of you know, ontolog [1] is a discussion community started by  
Peter Yim years ago, and now boasts a considerable size. They offer a  
significant number of topics and on-line presentations. Recently, they  
identified units of measure as an area in need of serious ontological  
attention. Toward that end, they hosted a panel session of 7  
presentations (audio and presentations are online)[2], as well as a  
new discussion community[3].

Insofar as ontolog has some extremely erudite and practiced  
ontologists, it is no surprise that the discussions on this topic so  
far have become quite sophisticated. Nonetheless, they appear to be on  
track to continue moving in a productive direction, though as of yet I  
don't think they've chosen a particular way to host all their  
information.

Content of particular interest includes:
  - a collection of references to Units information (MMI has a much  
less complete collection) [4]
  - a description of their notional approach, similar to our own in  
many ways  [5]
  - a tentative decision to simultaneously express their model in
    - OWL (not sure if DL or Full, but probably OWL 2.0)
    - CLIF (about which I know very little)
    - some graphical presentation, of detail and precision to be  
determined

Hope this helps.

John

[1] Ontology Site: http://ontolog.cim3.net
[2] Units of Measure Panel: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/uom-ontology-std/
[3] Units of Measure discussion list: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/uom-ontology-std/
[4] References to Units information:  (hmm, can't find that email  
right now; it's in some ontolog list...)
[5] Description of their notional approach: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/uom-ontology-std/2009-07/msg00013.html


--------------
John Graybeal   <mailto:graybeal@mbari.org>  -- 831-775-1956
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Marine Metadata Interoperability Project: http://marinemetadata.org

Received on Wednesday, 15 July 2009 19:17:41 UTC