Re: ISSUE 5.14 - Ontology versioning

From: Jeff Heflin <heflin@cse.lehigh.edu>
Subject: ISSUE 5.14 - Ontology versioning
Date: Mon, 09 Sep 2002 18:06:32 -0400

> Here are my initial thoughts on the issue:
> 
> We need various properties to handle elements of versioning with
> ontologies.
> 
> My proposed solution consists of adding three new features to owl. These
> are for indicating prior versions, backward copatibility and
> deprecation.
> 
> 
> Prior versions:
> ----------------
> <url> priorVersion <url>.

[...]

> Backward compatibility:
> ------------------------
> <url> backCompatWith <url>.
> 
> The first URL is a later version of the second, and is "semantically"
> backward compatible with it. This is basically syntactic sugar with the
> following effects:
> 
> Assuming A backCompatWith B, then:
> * A priorVersion B.
> * all classes in B are the sameClassAs a class in A with the same ID. 
> * all properties in B are the samePropertyAs a  property in A with the
> same ID. 
> Note this depends on the resolution of the synonym issue (I prefer
> sameAs for both classes and properties).

It also needs a treatment of KBs as resources to work in a semantic
fashion.  Otherwise it is more ``magic'' syntax.  (I think that it *should*
be magic syntax.)

[...]

> Deprecation:
> -------------
> <url> deprecates <classId>
> <url> deprecates <propertyId>
> 
> This allows an ontology to deprecate a class or property. By deprecating
> the term, it means it still is sameAs a term with the same ID in the new
> ontology, but that the term should not be used in new ontologies. This
> allows an ontology to maintain backward-compatibility while phasing out
> old vocabulary. Deprecation should only be used in ontologies that are
> backward-compatible.

This is now in the area of pragmatics.  

> This has no effect on the semantics, but authoring tools should use it
> in error checking OWL markup.

[...]

> Jeff

[...]

peter

Received on Monday, 9 September 2002 18:19:46 UTC