- From: Dan Brickley <danbri@w3.org>
- Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 04:21:35 -0400 (EDT)
- To: Jim Hendler <hendler@cs.umd.edu>
- cc: <connolly@w3.org>, <massimo@w3.org>, <www-archive@w3.org>
On Wed, 29 May 2002, Jim Hendler wrote: > > Issue 3.4 - daml:UnambiguousProperty > > Proposal - CLOSE THIS ISSUE > > The issue here was that the requirements document didn't motivate > this language feature. However, no one has advocated its removal and > there does seem to be consensus it is a desirable feature. It is > provided for in DAML+OIL and will be provided in OWL. Sounds good. For completeness, I'll try to motivate the issue: Many, perhaps all of the Web Ontology requirements are based around needs associated with the interchange of resource descriptions in the World Wide Web. The parties that produce and consume these descriptions will be loosly co-ordinated. As such, conventions are needed that make it possible for these parties to be clear _which_ resources are being described. The Web architecture provides for the use of URI syntax for naming resources in the Web. In addition, the use of 'uniquely identifying properties' (aka 'unambiguous properties') provides an additional mechanism for describing resources which, for example, do not have widely agreed URI-syntax names. The formal semantics of UnambiguousProperty allow loosly coordinated parties to draw inferences about the identity of resources being described in Web data that uses these unambiguous properties. This complements the URI technology by allowing resources to be identified indirectly, by description. "The company whose homepage is...; the person whose telephone number is...; the image whose sha1sum is...". Offlist for now. If useful, do what you will with this text. I don't want to slow down the issue closure. I've copied www-archive anyway, so this is hyperlinkable. hth, Dan -- mailto:danbri@w3.org http://www.w3.org/People/DanBri/
Received on Thursday, 30 May 2002 04:22:27 UTC