Ontologies and SOA or Isn’t Discovery a Wonderful Thing?

9 August 2006 Ken Laskey 1

Ontologies and SOAor

Isn’t Discovery a Wonderful Thing?

Ken Laskey

co-editor SOA Reference Model


Talk about SOA and you invariably talk about discovering things


For example,

Talk about SOA and you invariably talk about discovering things


But...

How did I know what properties were used to describe the thing I was searching for?

How did I know what typical values were applied to the properties?


According to SOA-RM, structure isn’t enough

Within a street address structure, the city name and the street name are typically given the same data type – some variant of the string type. However, city names and street names are not really the same type of thing at all. Distinguishing the correct interpretation of a city name string and a street name string is not possible using type-based techniques – it requires additional information that cannot be expressed purely in terms of the structure of data.


According to SOA-RM, structure isn’t enough

Within a street address structure, the city name and the street name are typically given the same data type – some variant of the string type. However, city names and street names are not really the same type of thing at all. Distinguishing the correct interpretation of a city name string and a street name string is not possible using type-based techniques – it requires additional information that cannot be expressed purely in terms of the structure of data.

The semantics of the property must be clear - is it street or city I am providing / you are searching on?


Again from SOA-RM,

There is often a huge potential for variability in representing street addresses. For example, an address in San Francisco, California may have variations in the way the city is represented: SF, San Francisco, San Fran, the City by the Bay are all alternate denotations of the same city.


Again from SOA-RM,

There is often a huge potential for variability in representing street addresses. For example, an address in San Francisco, California may have variations in the way the city is represented: SF, San Francisco, San Fran, the City by the Bay are all alternate denotations of the same city.

So not only am I looking for a property of city but I have to be able to consistently interpret the value given to that property.


Another example...

My color vocabulary just deals with basic colors: red, green, blue, yellow, orange, purple


Another example...


We agree on a vocabulary including the property of color.


Another example...



You search for a shirt in a nice mauve.


Another example...



You search for a shirt in a nice mauve.

You find nothing because my property value vocabulary doesn’t include the same values as yours.


So what is needed for the distributed world of SOA-RM?



• Clearly defined indication of the vocabulary from which properties originate




• Clearly defined indication of the vocabulary from which property values originate




• Clearly defined indication of the vocabulary from which property values originate

• Eventually, clearly defined mechanisms for mediating between clearly defined vocabularies


If not ontologies, then what?

Ontologies and SOA or Isn’t Discovery a Wonderful Thing?

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