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RE: SUO: Unanimous consent




Dear Pierre,

See comments below.


Matthew West
Principal Consultant
Shell Information Technology International Limited
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 20 7934 4490 Other Tel: +44 7796 336538
Email: matthew.west@shell.com
Internet: http://www.shell.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pierre Grenon [mailto:pierre.grenon@ifomis.uni-leipzig.de]
> Sent: 28 August 2003 13:10
> To: standard-upper-ontology@ieee.org
> Subject: Re: SUO: Unanimous consent 
> 
> 
> 
> Robert Spillers wrote:
> >
> > SUO
> > I move that Matthew West's motion be accepted by unanimous consent.
> > 
> 
> I object. What's going on in this group? We just had two 
> years of long and
> exhausting battles for voting on a couple of proposals which 
> were granted
> examination under very stringent conditions. 

MW: Yes, part of my uncertainty is about what process we are now
operating, given that there seemed to be some disatisfaction with
the previous process.

We could now be operating:

1. Propose it and it becomes part of the corpus to be worked with.

2. Follow the process that SUMO and IFF went through.

I don't mind particularly.
> 
> With all due respect, it is not clear whether Matthew's 
> motion fit requirements
> previously imposed and I see no reason why we should weaken 
> the process
> _prior_to_ examination of the material. From what I have 
> seen, the porposal
> concerns a very small ontology which mostly stands as a 
> strcutured vocabulary
> with some taxonomic constraints. It's actually a browsable glossary.

MW: To be precise it is a data model.

> I remember some very harsh words from different parties 
> concerning the need of
> axioms for an ontology. This porposal does not fit the bill. 

MW: Taxonomic constraints are still axioms. But I am not suggesting
that the material is a finished article, just some starting material.
What I am seeking is that working this into something that is part of
what the SUO delivers is recognised as a stream of work in this group.
The current deliverable is already being standardised through ISO (as
a data model) so it hardly needs endorsement here as it stands.

> Moreover, although it is interesting to have a 4d ontology, 
> it is yet unclear
> to me how this particular porposal does justice to this paradigm. 

MW: What evidence are you looking for?
> 
> I request due time for examination (and two weeks is not 
> long!) and that
> procedural issues be put aside during that time. We examine 
> the work, we
> discuss and we cast motivated votes. This process may seem 
> heavy but it may be
> the only feature of this group which comes close to the 
> activity of a working
> group. 

MW: I have no problem with that.
> 
> Pierre
>