- From: Je'ro^me Euzenat <Jerome.Euzenat@inrialpes.fr>
- Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 11:01:36 +0200
- To: www-rdf-logic <www-rdf-logic@w3.org>
Hi list,
as mentionned by James Hendler, the language has been given
an open character which follows the open character of the web. That
is: anyone can add new information about a class. This complies with
the DL vision taken in OIL.
However, it could be nice to allow users to close the meaning
of a name so that no one can add to it. This would be useful, for
ontology designers to state what a name exactly means and to allow
refinements (through subclassing) but no modification (through
asserting).
This would also allow for:
equivalentTo( X, closed( Y ))
stating that X is defined to have the exact meaning of Y at the
moment of interpretation (to be defined, ok), but not to endorse the
unknown statements that can be made elsewhere about X.
This would help to guarantee the result of subsumption
computation which are only valid as far as no more is asserted of the
subsumer.
More problems than solutions I am affraid, this could require
to close not only one term but a complete "microtheory"... but, in
such an open world, being able to close definitions seems to me very
important (even if overuse will limit the reusing of ontologies).
--
Jérôme Euzenat __
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INRIA Rhône-Alpes, _/ _ _ _ _ _
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655, avenue de l'Europe, (___/___(_/_/ / /_(_________________
Montbonnot St Martin, / http://www.inrialpes.fr/exmo
38334 Saint-Ismier cedex, / Jerome.Euzenat@inrialpes.fr
France____________________/ Jerome.Euzenat@free.fr
Received on Monday, 16 October 2000 04:59:20 UTC