John,

+1

I believe the term Conceptual Schema (Complete truely Conceptual Data Model) as introduced in ISO TR9007 is quite precise.

If your statement:

But I doubt that any two of the active participants could agree on a precise definition of the word 'ontology'.

is true, then I recommend to this forum to give priority to a better set of definitions of ontology, concentrating on convincing illustrations, without any highfalutin. I believe that more than one definition is necessary to cover the various concepts referred to by ontology in this forum.

A good theory and engineering practice can only be built on a much more precise definition than used sofar.

Regards

Sjir Nijssen

Chief Technical Officer

PNA Group

Tel: +31 (0)88-777 0 444

Mob: +31 (0)6-21 510 844

Fax: +31 (0)88-777 0 499

E-mail: sjir.nijssen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Namens John F Sowa
Verzonden: vrijdag 11 januari 2013 21:04
Aan: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Onderwerp: Re: [ontolog-forum] [External] Re: What is Data? What is a Datum? 2013年01月09日-0930

On 1/11/2013 1:20 PM, Burkett, William [USA] wrote:

> So, IM-ever-so-HO, terms like "knowledge representation"/"ontology"

> and "reasoning" are just high-falutin' names for "carefully

> constructed data models" and "clever data processing", respectively.

I make careful distinctions in the technical terms that are used in talking about a particular formalism (or collection of formalisms, such as various logics or various programming languages).

But broader terms are always vague, and they change with every update and innovation in the technology. For example, this forum is devoted to ontology. But I doubt that any two of the active participants could agree on a precise definition of the word 'ontology'.

For example, the widely quoted "formalization of a conceptualization"

defines the term 'ontology' in words that are less precise and much more confused and confusing. The best that can be said for that phrase is that it rhymes.

The terms 'data model' and 'data processing' are just as vague or worse. Their only advantage is that they're so old that nobody today would use them as buzz words to hype their products.

John

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