Re: [xml-dev] What techniques do you employ to ensure that your datais p

[Timothy Cook <timothywayne.cook@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 2:21 PM, Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com> wrote:
>
> On 24/09/2012 17:12, Costello, Roger L. wrote:
>>
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> How carefully do you specify your data? Is it free from ambiguity and
>> misinterpretation?
>>
>>
> Data is *never* free from ambiguity and misinterpretation, however careful
> you are: any more than English prose is ever unambiguous.
>

Exactly.  This is where links to ontologies and controlled
vocabularies are important.


) a medical concept.
> Just ask two TV people to agree
....
 The fact is that in everyday conversation we use
> fuzzy terms all the time.
>

Just to add another one; and in a field where the information is more
often than not, VERY important.  Ask two physicians what they mean by
a concept or what it takes to describe (fully) a concept.   The
answers are astonishingly all over the place.

In healthcare we consider all data important in the context of the
temporal, spatial and ontological context in which it was collected.
That context needs to be maintained as time, location and science
changes; for at least the life of the person.  So typical system
migration is a disaster to the context and it impedes
interoperability.  That is why the MLHIM project exists.

However, I am afraid that none of us answered your question directly.
But we have considered the need to exposing multi-level modelling to
other domains outside of healthcare.

Cheers,
Tim

============
Timothy Cook, MSc           +55 21 94711995
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