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LC Responses/IH2
| I do not think this warrants an LC comment (it is clearly editorial), so
I put it here. If you think it is better to have at as an LC, I am happy to raise it there. The abstract of the Syntax document says: [[[ OWL 2 extends the W3C OWL Web Ontology Language with a small but useful set of features that have been requested by users, for which effective reasoning algorithms are now available, and that OWL tool developers are willing to support. The new features include extra syntactic sugar, additional property and qualified cardinality constructors, extended datatype support, simple metamodeling, and extended annotations. ]]] I wonder whether it is o.k., in the final document, to have an abstract that defines OWL 2 v.a.v. OWL 1 this way. After all, the syntax document stands by itself, without any reference to OWL 1, because it supersedes OWL 1. For a new reader, who does not know OWL 1, this abstract is therefore meaningless... This paragraph may be part of the status section, for example. The same paragraph is copy pasted to all other documents, by the way. |
PeterPatel-Schneider 16:38, 21 February 2009 (UTC)
Dear Ivan:
Thank you for your message <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-owl-wg/2009Jan/0018.html> on the OWL 2 Web Ontology Language last call drafts.
The common start of abstracts for the OWL 2 documents has been changed to the following:
The OWL 2 Web Ontology Language, informally OWL 2, is an ontology language for the Semantic Web with formally defined meaning. OWL 2 ontologies provide classes, properties, individuals, and data values and are stored as Semantic Web documents. OWL 2 ontologies can be used along with information written in RDF, and OWL 2 ontologies themselves are primarily exchanged as RDF documents. The OWL 2 Document Overview describes the overall state of OWL 2, and should be read before other OWL 2 documents.
Further minor changes may be made to this paragraph.
We hope that this change addresses your concerns.
Please acknowledge receipt of this email to <mailto:public-owl-wg@w3.org> (replying to this email should suffice). In your acknowledgment please let us know whether or not you are satisfied with the working group's response to your comment.
Regards, Peter F. Patel-Schneider on behalf of the W3C OWL Working Group
Contents
Rest of Abstract for Syntax
The meaningful constructs provided by OWL 2 are defined in terms of their structure. As well, a linear, functional-style syntax is defined for these constructs. If certain global restrictions on OWL 2 ontologies are followed, resulting in OWL 2 DL, then effective reasoning over ontologies can be performed using techniques well known in the literature.
OLD STUFF
Common Preamble for Abstracts
The OWL 2 Web Ontology Language, informally OWL 2, is an ontology language for the Semantic Web with formally defined meaning. OWL 2 ontologies provide the basic ontological categories of classes, properties, individuals, and data values and are stored as Semantic Web documents. OWL 2 ontologies can be used along with information written in RDF, and OWL 2 ontologies themselves can be written and exchanged as RDF documents. The OWL 2 Document Overview describes the overall state of OWL 2.
Extra stuff take out of preamble
OWL 2 ontologies can contain information about individuals and their relationships, via properties, to other individuals and data values. OWL 2 ontologies can also state characteristics of properties, including functionality, symmetricity, and transitivity. OWL 2 further provides methods for partial and complete definitions of classes in ontologies by means of common characteristics of the individuals that belong to them. OWL 2 also provides means of annotating the information in an ontology, for example to provide provenance of this information.
Rest of Abstract for Syntax
The meaningful constructs provided by OWL 2 are defined in terms of their structure. As well, a linear, functional-style syntax is defined for these constructs. If certain global restrictions on OWL 2 ontologies are followed, resulting in OWL 2 DL, then reasoning over ontologies can be performed using techniques well known in the literature.
Roadmap
The non-normative OWL 2 Primer, currently in need of revision, provides an approachable introduction to OWL 2, including orientation for those coming from other disciplines. The Primer includes a running example showing how OWL 2 can be used to represent first simple information and then more complex information including how OWL 2 manages ontologies. The Primer also describes the profiles of OWL 2.
The non-normative OWL 2 New Features and Rationale document, currently being completed, provides an overview of the main new features of OWL 2 with their rationale and of the designs made in OWL 2.
The non-normative OWL 2 Quick Reference Guide, currently being revised, provides a quick reference for the constructs of OWL 2, suitable for use by OWL 2 ontology developers.
OWL 2 is defined by the following core normative documents:
- Structural Specification and Functional-Style Syntax, which defines the meaningful constructs of OWL 2 in terms of both their structure and a functional-style syntax and defines OWL 2 DL in terms of global restrictions on OWL 2;
- Direct Semantics, which defines the meaning of OWL 2 constructs in terms of a model-theoretic semantics;
- Mapping to RDF Graphs, which defines a mapping of the OWL 2 constructs into RDF graphs, and thus defines the primary means of exchanging OWL 2 ontologies in the Semantic Web;
- RDF-Based Semantics, which defines an extension of the RDF Semantics that provides a meaning for RDF graphs, the OWL 2 Full meaning, that is compatible with the meaning in Direct Semantics;
- XML Serialization, which defines an XML syntax for exchanging OWL 2 ontologies; and
- Profiles, which defines three sub-languages of OWL 2, which have been found useful and which have useful implementation properties.
The Conformance and Test Cases document provides requirements for OWL 2 tools and a set of test cases to help determine conformance.
The Manchester Syntax document defines an easy-to-read, but less formal syntax for OWL 2 that is used in some OWL 2 user interface tools and is also used in the Primer.
Christine Golbreich (22 Feb 09)
Other suggestion for "Document Roadmap" in preamble to WG documents
Set of Documents
The OWL 2 language is described by the following set of documents:
- Structural Specification and Functional-Style Syntax defines the constructs of OWL 2 in terms of a normative abstract model of their structure and a functional-style syntax
- Direct Semantics defines the meaning of OWL 2 constructs in terms of a model-theoretic semantics;
- Mapping to RDF Graphs defines a mapping of OWL 2 constructs into RDF graphs;
- RDF-Based Semantics defines an extension of the RDF Semantics that provides a meaning of OWL 2 Full compatible with the Direct Semantics;
- XML Serialization defines an XML syntax for exchanging OWL 2 ontologies;
- Profiles defines three sub-languages of OWL 2, which have been found useful and which have useful implementation properties.
- OWL 2 New Features and Rationale provides an overview of the main new features of OWL 2 and designs with their rationale.
- OWL 2 Primer provides a guide including a running example showing how OWL 2 can be used to represent and reason with ontologies.
- OWL 2 Quick Reference Guide provides a quick reference for the constructs of OWL 2, suitable for use by ontology developers.
- Conformance and Test Cases provides requirements for OWL 2 tools and a set of test cases to help determine conformance.
- Manchester Syntax defines an easy-to-read syntax that is used in some OWL 2 tools
The reading order of the documents depends on the audience.
Advanced readers who are interested in technical aspects, may read the first six documents that form the technical core of OWL 2.
Readers familiar with OWL 1 who want an overview of the main new features that have been added to OWL 2 and of their rationale, may read document 7.
Readers who look for a guide introducing OWL 2 and explaining how to use it, may read document 8.
Ontology developers who need a quick reference for the constructs of OWL 2, may use document 9.
Developers interested in conformance test cases may refer to document 10, users interested in Manchester syntax, to document 11 .