Re: "what is an ontology?" stuff in requirements abstract/intro

On Mon, 18 Feb 2002, Pat Hayes wrote:

> >>    The term ontology may be unfamiliar to many readers of
> >>    this document.
> >>
> >>  That seems superfluous. I suggest striking it.
> >>
> >>    This notion of ontologies comes from Artificial Intelligence,
> >>    where ontologies are used to allow heterogeneous systems to
> >>    exchange and reason with information.
> >>
> >>  I'd suggest either citing specific work in this area
> >>  or striking the reference to Artificial Intelligence.
>
> I agree. In any case, you could equally well cite data modelling
> languages, say; and the basic ideas go back way before AI if you want
> to get historical, at least to the 1940s and maybe the 1880s.

On the prior art front, it wouldn't do any harm to chuck in a nod to
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/categories.html

...though wouldn't want to overstretch the historical parallel or we'll
find ourselves listing everyone who has every thought about cateogies,
taxonomies and formal models.

Dan


-- 
mailto:danbri@w3.org
http://www.w3.org/People/DanBri/

Received on Monday, 18 February 2002 16:10:02 UTC