In my experience designing ontologies for different groups, one thing that I find keeps cropping up is that SMEs tend to create data structures that most closely approximate their understanding of a subject, not necessarily that provides the most optimal representation of that data model. Certainly SMEs should be involved at all stages of the ontology process, but I've also found that if left up to the SME alone, the models are often awkward to implement, tend to be overspecified, and as often as not contain sometimes bizarre assumptions that can significantly limit these models when translated into a computing environment.




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Kurt Cagle
Managing Editor, http://xml.com
O'Reilly
kurt@o...