[I] Ontology: how should conceptual differences between existing ontologies be represented? [ossie]

["m-masataka (via GitHub)" <gi...@apache.org>]

m-masataka opened a new issue, #483:
URL: https://github.com/apache/ossie/issues/483

   ### Background
   
   The roadmap says Ossie already solves structural interoperability, but "does not yet solve conceptual interoperability, where different models may describe the same business concept using different names or structures." It lists cross-model conceptual alignment as a goal, and #22 names ontology-based systems such as Palantir and Goldman Sachs Legend as targets.
   
   ### What we see today
   
   If we understand correctly, two mechanisms are available today:
   
   - **Converters** (e.g. `palantir_to_ossie`), which translate an existing ontology into the Ossie format. If two ontologies are converted, the result is two separate Ossie ontologies.
   - **`iri`**, which lets two ontologies declare that a concept is *the same* as an externally defined one.
   
   In practice, concepts from different systems are often **related but not equivalent**. 
   For example, "Customer" in one system may include anyone with an account, while "Customer" in another may include only contracted parties. Across organizations the differences are larger still: "water level" might mean height above each gauge station's zero point in one organization and height above the national datum in another.
   
   With only `iri`, the options are to declare these concepts equivalent, which is wrong, or to leave them unlinked. The difference itself can only be carried in free-text `description`.
   
   ### Questions
   
   1. Is there a planned mechanism to represent or absorb such definitional differences between ontologies?
   2. Is the Ontology WG the right place to discuss this, or is it covered elsewhere (e.g. #108)?
   


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