- From: Jim Hendler <hendler@cs.umd.edu>
- Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 13:33:49 -0400
- To: webont <www-webont-wg@w3.org>
Much of the discussion on the 27 June telecon (log not yet posted to webont, but available at [1] in raw form) concerned the "Formal Specification of the OWL Web Ontology Language" [2] Document. It was felt that since none of the authors were present, a summary of the discussion should be posted to the mailing list. As chair I took that action, and here it is - participants, please feel free to help me out if I miss something important: The discussion generally concerned the releasability of the document in the current form - should it go out as a working draft as it is now, should it wait until the model theory is added in, is it more valuable as an internal document than an external one at this point, and is it needed at all as an external document. Concerns: - is the value of this paper to the WG or to the "outside public" -- since there is still a fair amount of churn w/respect to the layering/semantics issues, perhaps this document's major function is helping the WG in its preparation of a releasable document (likely the MT) rather than being released itself for public comment in the curent form. - the document is linked not only to the nascent MT [3] but to the non-normative XML presentation syntax, should this be merged into that document? - the mapping from this document to Mike Dean's and vice versa is not clear - and definitely should be included in one or both documents before they could both be released. Despite these concerns, it is important to mention that there were several strong voices in favor of releasing it at this point. (In the absence of the authors it didn't seem fair to take a straw poll, but it did seem there were voices in each direction) Summary: Sentiment was strong, but not unanimous, that the material in this document is useful, particular in its function as an anchor for the model theory cf. [3]. It was less clear if the sentiment was in favor of releasing it at this point (and thus having to maintain it) rather than waiting until it really became the "formal specification" document. (Chair's note: Remember that if we release a working draft we become responsible for answering each and every query addressed to the public list about it) other points: 1) There was a general feeling that the old title "Abstract Syntax Document" was actually better for the document at the current time - consensus appeared to be that if we do release it now it should be under that name. 2) There was a feeling that if we do go to release, the introduction has to make the purpose of the document clearer 3) The note that a substantive change from D+O is that "the removal of some unusual DAML+OIL constructs, particularly restrictions with extra components" still needs improvement - it was unclear to some what it means, or how general it is. 4) The value of a mapping from this document to Mike Dean's "concrete syntax" is clear and one should be included if the document it to be published. As chair I would welcome feedback on this last point in particular - I am willing to support the group's decision either way. [1] http://www.w3.org/2002/06/27-webont-irc [2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-webont-wg/2002Jun/att-0118/01-specification.html [3] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-webont-wg/2002Jun/att-0082/01-semantics.html -- 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 Thursday, 27 June 2002 13:33:53 UTC