Re: OWL Lite vs OWL DL-Lite

At 23:01 +0000 2/16/03, Ian Horrocks wrote:
>On February 13, Evan Wallace writes:
>>
>>
>>  Deb McGuinness wrote regarding OWL F Lite and OWL DL Lite
>>
>>  >I think ian's examples are valid real world examples of usefulness
>>  >of OWL Lite DL.
>>  >
>>  >Essentially they are characterized by an application being able to
>>  >take advantage of a reasoner's ability to classify descriptions
>>  >correctly.  this requires iff semantics.
>>  >
>>  >Similarly I think there are users who come more from a modeling
>>  >orientation who would like a simple transition path up from rdfs
>>  >and would benefit from an OWL lite that does not require them to
>>  >understand the limitations imposed by DL.
>>
>>  Speaking as someone who comes from the world of modeling (which I
>>  take to mean data modeling and object modeling), I don't see this
>>  at all.  People who are currently modeling using NIAM/ORM, EXPRESS,
>>  or UML who are considering using Semantic Web languages will go
>>  directly to OWL DL Lite or OWL DL (or perhaps to DAML).  At OMG,
>>  we are specifically asking for a mapping to OWL DL in our RFP for
>>  Ontology Definition (an OMG version of a UML Presentation syntax
>>  for OWL).  This is because the motivation for moving models to
>>  ontology languages is to attain a practical capability for reasoning
>>  about those models.  I am not denying that there is a constituency
>>  for a migration path from RDFS to OWL F Lite, just that I haven't
>>  encountered it in OMG, ISO STEP, or other communities doing
>>  manufacturing, business, or systems modeling. 
>
>Good to hear you say that. This has also been my experience in the
>bio, medical and e-science communities.
>
>>
>>  Speaking for Two Dimensions in Lite
>>
>>  One public relations issue that I have encountered regarding OWL is
>>  the perception that it is not worth looking into the language because
>>  it contains a union of the problems, limitations, and disliked features
>>  of RDF(S) and DLs (many of which are actually mis-perceptions, outdated
>>  understandings, and/or prejudice).  This suggests to me a good reason
>>  for adopting a two dimensional structure for the OWL sublanguages.  It
>>  would show clearly that there is a partial decoupling in the language
>>  between RDF and Description Logics that allows users to pick the
>>  sublanguage with the features they need, rather than being limited to
>>  one design compromise in merging the two.
>
>The trouble with this is that it is VERY hard to see the justification
>for the existence of OWL F Lite - it is in no sense Lite, and the loss
>of a couple of constructors w.r.t. OWL full is of trivial significance
>compared to the semantic and computational complexities you get by
>mixing RDF with a standard logic.
>
>Ian

[probably chair hat off so as not to offend anyone by my having an opinion]

Very Hard??? We heard several implementors get up at the f2f and say 
they would like to do Full semantics limited to the Lite vocabulary, 
and we've seen similar on our public comments list and in the 
feedback we've gotten from RDF Core people -- so maybe as Pat has 
said there are two different communities here.  For what it is worth, 
not only do I find it not hard at all to see the justification but, 
in fact, the data seems to agree -- that is, many of the things using 
DAML or OWL right now are tools which add some Lite constructs to 
RDF-Schemas, thus "enhancing" the schema with more of our 
expressivity.  And, btw, the implementation simplicity argument 
(which you are on record as saying is the only one that matters) 
still holds - it is much easier to implement the Lite constructs than 
the whole kit and kaboodle.
  In fact, however, we need not really argue, because we have already 
created Owl Flite (it is simply using the vocabulary for Lite, as 
defined in the Overview, without the extra cosntraints of DL).  Thus, 
we are only talking about doing something expository.
  We can do it now, or wait until we get asked to do it in the 
requests from our LC -- it is an "editorial" change, not a technical 
one, so I'm not too worried about it
  -JH


>  >
>>  -Evan
>>
>>  Evan K. Wallace
>>  Manufacturing Systems Integration Division
>>  NIST
>>  ewallace@nist.gov
>>


-- 
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 Sunday, 16 February 2003 18:33:34 UTC