[closed] RE: "lastname" and "firstname" are not culturally neutral

Thanks to you all for the comment (and for the enlightenment on the 
many international variations on names).  We were not trying to be 
offensive, but anything that helps us in reaching a wider audience 
and avoiding offense is a great help.  Your recommendation that we 
use the email address example is a very positive one, and I am 
recommending to the editor of the use case document that we make this 
change.
  - Jim Hendler
    Web Ontology Working Group Co-Chair



At 18:14 +0100 4/2/03, Misha Wolf wrote:
>That would be an excellent example, as it is testable.  The
>experiment would be:
>
>A.  Concatenate:
>
>     1.  the unique-within-domain-part
>
>     2.  the "@" character
>
>     3.  the domain name
>
>B.  Send a mail to the resulting address, requesting a reply.
>
>If you get a reply, the experiment is a success.  If you don't,
>then ... hmmm ... choose someone who is willing to answer :-)
>
>Misha
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kurosaka, Teruhiko [mailto:Teruhiko.Kurosaka@iona.com]
>Sent: 02 April 2003 18:07
>To: Misha Wolf
>Cc: Www International; public-webont-comments@w3.org
>Subject: RE: "lastname" and "firstname" are not culturally neutral
>
>
>>  In general, the string formed by concatenating:
>...
>>  The implication that the resulting string is useful is not
>>  culturally neutral.
>
>I see.  Thinking this further, I think any operation or interpretation
>of the personal names cannot be culturally neutral.  Perhaps
>a better example to use would be something like the internet email
>address, composing of a name, "@" and a domain name ?
>
>KUROSAKA Teruhiko
>
>
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-- 
Professor James Hendler				  hendler@cs.umd.edu
Director, Semantic Web and Agent Technologies	  301-405-2696
Maryland Information and Network Dynamics Lab.	  301-405-6707 (Fax)
Univ of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742	  240-731-3822 (Cell)
http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/hendler

Received on Wednesday, 2 April 2003 13:11:47 UTC