Danny --

At 01:41 PM 11/25/2005 +0100, you wrote:

PS. What would be very useful to have would be some kind of
explanation (/proof) mechanism available with the results - so when
"population US" is solved by a "Semantic Web search and reasoning
engine", producing a single anwer: 278058881, you can tell it's what
you intended, and not the population of  "us", the subscribers to
semantic-web@w3.org...

How about the explanation/proof mechanism in the Internet Business Logic system  [1] ?

Here's part of an explanation that is automatically generated by the system:

estimated demand 523 in NJ is for 1000 gallons of product-y in October of 2005
for estimated demand 523 0.19 of the order will be product-x from  Shell Canada One 
1000 * 0.19 = 190
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
for demand 523 NJ for 1000 product-y we use 190 product-x from  Shell Canada One 


estimated demand 523 in NJ is for 1000 gallons of product-y in October of 2005
for demand 523 for product-y refinery  Shell Canada One  can supply 300 gallons of product-x
for demand 523 the refineries have altogether 1600 gallons of acceptable base products
300 / 1600 = 0.1875
0.1875 rounded to 2 places after the decimal point is 0.19
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
for estimated demand 523 0.19 of the order will be product-x from  Shell Canada One 


estimated demand 523 in NJ is for 1000 gallons of product-y in October of 2005
in October an order for product-y can consist in whole or part of product-x
in October the refinery  Shell Canada One  has committed to schedule 300 gallons of product-x
we have truck transportation from refinery  Shell Canada One  to region NJ
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
for demand 523 for product-y refinery  Shell Canada One  can supply 300 gallons of product-x


You can see the actual explanation by pointing a browser to [1] and running the example called Oil-IndustrySupplyChain1 .

Some background is in [2,3].

Thanks in advance for comments.               -- Adrian

[1]  Internet Business Logic, online at www.reengineeringllc.com.  Shared use is free.

[2]  http://www.reengineeringllc.com/Oil_Industry_Supply_Chain_by_Kowalski_and_Walker.pdf

[3]  Understandability and Semantic Interoperability of Diverse Rules Systems
http://www.w3.org/2004/12/rules-ws/paper/19
 

Adrian Walker
Reengineering
PO Box 1412
Bristol
CT 06011-1412 USA

Phone: USA 860 583 9677
Cell:    USA  860 830 2085
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