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RE: Meta-somethingorother (was the semantic web mega-permathre

• To: <martind@n...>,"Dare Obasanjo" <dareo@m...>,"Michael Champion" <mc@x...>,"XML Developers List" <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: RE: Meta-somethingorother (was the semantic web mega-permathread thing)
• From: "Joshua Allen" <joshuaa@m...>
• Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 16:07:18 -0700
• Thread-index: AcROXBDobAp3w02jSzykDDfoeLNWtgAGMZAQ
• Thread-topic: Meta-somethingorother (was the semantic web mega-permathread thing)

> If I want to model a resource, there are several approaches I can use
to
> model it. A phenomenological approach is one of them, a platonic
approach
> another one, etc... Let say that the resource/phenomena reveals itself
> through a certain representation accessible to my senses or my
cognitive
> processes then a triple seen as a representation make sense. It
implies a
> certain philosophical approach.

Now this is veering into an area I find very interesting.  


You are right.  For example, if you want to model a color, to be used as
a property value for some data you are storing, you have some options.
Among your options:

a) use a symbol, like "red", "blue", etc.
b) use numeric values for the characteristics that you *perceive*.  For
example, numeric values for brightness, saturation, and "red", "green",
"blue" chromaticness.
c) use numeric values for the characteristics that some scientific
instrument measures.  For example, a number representing the wavelength
of the light, and a number representing intensity.

These options have various different tradeoffs.  Also, once you choose
one, it is not necessarily possible to map losslessly to the other.  You
can carve a career out of debating which one is best for a particular
scenario.

It's funny, now that you mention it, that this discipline of choosing a
technique to model perceived things is also called "representation" in
the literature.  Now I am liking foaf "depiction" even more.

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