Proposed response to: #owlref-rdfcore-class-ontology

Brian McBride wrote:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webont-comments/2003May/0004.html

#owlref-rdfcore-class-ontology
> 
> RDFCore makes this point with some trepidation, not wishing to cause WEBONT 
> to waste time and energy on a discussion with little practical impact.
> 
> In 7.2
> 
> [[
> An ontology header component is represented with an instance of the class 
> owl:Ontology, which typically identifies the containing document with a 
> same-document reference [section 4.2 of RFC2396], and which may optionally 
> contain, in any order, any number of import and/or versioning statements.
> ]]
> 
> This seems to say that instances of the class owl:Ontology are 
> documents.  RDFCore suggests that the text be modified to be less 
> specific.  There are also potential difficulties with the reference to RFC 
> 2396; it would be better to refer to the RDF specs and let them take the 
> heat on any 'interpretation' of RFC 2396.
> 
> We suggest:
> 
> [[
> A document describing an ontology typically contains information about the 
> ontology itself.  An ontology is a resource, so may be described using 
> properties from the OWL and other namespaces, e.g.
> 
> <owl:Ontology rdf:about="">
>    <owl:versionInfo> ... </owl:versionInfo>
>    <rdfs:comment>...</rdfs:comment>
>    <owl:imports rdf:resource='...'/>
> </owl:Ontology>
> 
> This is commonly called the ontology header and is typically found near the 
> beginning of the RDF/XML document.  The line
> 
>    <owl:Ontology rdf:about="">
> 
> states that this block describes the current ontology.  More precisely, it 
> states the current base URI identifies an instance of the class 
> owl:Ontology.  As noted earlier, it is recommended that the base URI be 
> defined using an xml:base attribute in the <rdf:RDF> element at the 
> beginning of the document.
> ]]

Brian,

Thanks for the comment. We accept your suggestion.

Please let us know, cc-ing public-webont-comments@w3.org, whether this
response is satisfactory.

Guus Schreiber

-- 
Free University Amsterdam, Computer Science
De Boelelaan 1081a, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 444 7739/7718
E-mail: schreiber@cs.vu.nl
Home page: http://www.cs.vu.nl/~guus/

Received on Tuesday, 24 June 2003 07:33:15 UTC