Re: Object Role Modelling (ORM) or UML or ?? for designing Schema s

[Jonathan Borden <jborden@mediaone.net>]

> If I order pizza, I expect pizza.

Of course if you order pizza in e.g. New Haven CT, it may not automatically
come with red sauce.

A major benefit of using a URI to refer to something is that you can
dereference it to get a definition.

For example we define: http://www.rddl.org/purposes#validation and this URI
represents the concept "DTD validation". This term can be used without
needing dereferencing but in the case of a dispute, dereferencing can
arbitrate, or at least provide evidence, as to the intended use of the term.

e.g. you may have:

http://terms.org/foods#pizza
http://terms.org/foods#red-sauce-pizza
http://terms.org/foolds#white-clam-pizza etc etc.

indeed if the dereferenced URL has both Italian and English prose, you might
even be able to have an intelligent resolution of your dispute when the
white clam pizza arrives -- on the other hand you'd be best off just paying
for it and eating it.

-Jonathan