Re: What do the ontologists want?

>Ron Daniel wrote:
>
> > We will have
> > lots of statements such as
> >   <dc:subject rdf:resource="http://example.org/NAICS/1234"/>
> > which is a reference to a (hypothetical) node in the
> > NAICS industry sector classification system.
> >
> > We need to be able to tell certain things about these
> > statements, ...
> > One way of accomplishing those needs would be through
> > reification, although the current reification approach seems
> > overly cumbersome. Perhaps others can suggest other ways
> > of fulfilling those requirements.
> >
>
>Certainly being able to quote statements/triples is useful ... indeed a
>practical requirement.

Can you (or anyone) say why the ability to quote is considered a 
practical necessity? From where I am standing it seems an arcane and 
exotic ability, not one that is of central practical importance. What 
is the practical utility of being able to refer to a predicate, 
rather than use it?

Pat Hayes

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Received on Monday, 14 May 2001 16:49:29 UTC