[sc34wg3] Topics and Subjects clarification

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Bernard Vatant
|
| So we have to distinguish clearly those three levels
| 
| 1 : Real world, whatever that means - and we really should not care
| 2 : Subjects (of conversation)
| 3 : Topics that formally represent subjects

I agree with most of what you wrote (which is why I don't quote it),
but here I think you are wrong. I would rephrase this as:

 1: Subjects (of topic maps); whatever topics represent,

 2: Topics; "a symbol used within a topic map to represent some
 subject, about which the creator of the topic map wishes to make
 statements. Topics only exist in order to act as proxies for the
 subjects they represent, in order to allow statements to be made
 about the subjects through the assignment of characteristics to the
 topics that represent them."
 
| Topic Maps deal mainly with 3. They indicate also how the
| representation process is made, so they deal with the link between 2
| and 3. But they don't deal with the structure of 2 itself, and not
| at all with the link between 1 and 2, and even less with 1.

Agreed, which is why I would prefer to leave out 1 altogether.

-- 
Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopian         <URL: http://www.ontopia.net >
ISO SC34/WG3, OASIS GeoLang TC        <URL: http://www.garshol.priv.no >