[Person-ontology] first contributions - is the Higgins top-level useful?

[Paul Trevithick]

Philippe wrote:
> 
> 
> > Before we get going I would suggest that we start from a level playing
> > field so as to keep the group focused and initially in sync.
> > I would suggest that we take a look at http://www.eclipse.org/higgins/
> 
> I waited, as you suggested.
> I assume that the members of this list have now looked at the above site.
> 
> 
> > So which of the Higgins/Protege top-level model object do you think
> > are not really needed?
> 
> From which viewpoint? Indeed, I have no doubt that there are
> good reasons for the current Higgins and Protege top-level models
> to be as they currently are. However, I currently do not see the
> need of any element of the Higgins top-level model (the one at
> http://www.eclipse.org/higgins/ontologies/2006/higgins.owl or
> http://www.webkb.org/kb/nit/physEntity/animate/higgins_top_level.html)
> for representing information about a person in a way that eases
> knowledge sharing/re-use, even at a low level (e.g., via RDF+OWL).
> 
> For instance, I currently do not understand why 35 XSD classes
> have been "duplicated" into 35 higgins classes and 35 higgins
> properties; one example, higgins#float, which has for signature
> (in the FL notation):  higgins#float (higgins#Float, xsd#float).
> Why not directly using the 35 XSD classes?

The duplication driven by the need in identity management systems to be able
to not only make statements, but also to be able to make statements about
these statements. In Higgins call the former "Attributes" and the latter
"Metadata" in Higgins. For example we want to make this Attribute statement
about Digital Subject Adam: "Adam hasHairColor blonde", but we also want to
say that this value "blonde" was provided by the Dept. of Motor Vehicles and
has an expiration data of Jan 1, 2010.

If we just use a triple "Adam hasHairColor blonde" where blonde is a
literal, we've no ability to make statements about the value "blonde". So
what we do in Higgins is use two triples shown loosely here:
  
   Adam hasHairColor value1
   value1 value "blonde"
   value1 expires "Jan 1, 2010"
   value1 source "Dept of Motor Vehicles"

Where "value1" is a subclass of Value (probably StringValue, to be precise).


Finally, the reason for all of those XML Schema-inspired Value sub-classes
is to be able to express that the "hasHairColor" property has a range of
"StringSimpleValue" --that is to be precise about the type of the value
instead of only being able to say that "hasHairColor" has a range of
"Value".

<snip>


-Paul