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<TITLE>RE: [Sgxml] Re: [mmi-tech] Units and NERC DataGrid</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Hi everyone,</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Here are a few random thoughts that cover the past collection of email. </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>* I also like the benevolent dictator approach. But it does sometime weigh heavy on the dictator.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>* I think an implemented service for the units would be much better than the executable code technique. However, we will have to recognize the need to in some way manage the service. Will it need a backup service provider when the primary goes down? How will we deal with suggested modifications? Is this also the role of the dictator? (All rhetorical questions)</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>* In principle I agree with "rough consensus and running code"... but I would not agree to the code and the written specification become to disconnected. I am a firm believer in documentation and I think it is important not to have the code run to far ahead of the specification. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>* As I understand the discussion around dimensionality and scale, the difference here is the specification of "reasonable" units for a particular parameter. For example, you could express the distance from here to the sun in picometres, but this is hardly reasonable. I would suggest that this type of check between the parameter and a list of "reasonable" units is a second service. It should not be incorporated into the unit conversion simply because it is a completely different function. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Two more thoughts on this topic. First, I am wondering aloud (and thus perhaps showing my lack of understanding) that the issue of reasonable units may be related to significant digits. Second, is the unit somehow related to the memory of the number? For example, I could quote the distance from my house to my neighbour as some number in metres. The number would likely be in the 1-100 range. Similarly, the distance I remember to the next city is also in the 1-100 range, but now the units have changed to km. So does one's ability to remember the number relate to the "reasonable" units? (Again, rhetorical).</FONT></P>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2><Anthony></FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Anthony W. Isenor </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Defence R&D Canada - Atlantic </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>PO Box 1012, 9 Grove Street </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Dartmouth, Nova Scotia </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Canada B2Y 3Z7 </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>e-mail: anthony.isenor@drdc-rddc.gc.ca </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Ph: (902) 426-3100 ext. 106 </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Fax: (902) 426-9654 </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>-----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>From: Deepsea Dawn [<A HREF="mailto:dawn@dusk.geo.orst.edu">mailto:dawn@dusk.geo.orst.edu</A>]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 3:27 PM</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>To: rkl@bodc.ac.uk</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Cc: sgxml@biwebs.nerc-liv.ac.uk; rkl@bodc.ac.uk; RobertM@dessci.com;</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>rlake@galdosinc.com; lbartolo@kent.edu; mmi-tech@mbari.org;</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>chris.little@metoffice.gov.uk; NERC-datagrid@ncas.ac.uk;</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>GO-Essp@ucar.edu; caron@unidata.ucar.edu</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Subject: [Sgxml] Re: [mmi-tech] Units and NERC DataGrid</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>On Monday, December 6, 2004, at 02:40 AM, Roy Lowry wrote:</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> I also feel that what we need is more along the lines of a semantic web</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> resource rather than a downloadable executable approach: in other words</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> a units ontology that provides a units vocabulary plus the knowledge</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> about which units may be interconverted and how. Such an ontology </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> could</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> be interlinked with parameter vocabularies indicating the subset of</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> units that may sensibly be associated with particular parameters.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Before embarking on building such an ontology for NERC DataGrid, I am</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> circulating this e-mail far and wide (apologies for multiple postings)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> to obtain answers to two simple questions.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> What do you think of this approach?</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> More importantly:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Does anybody know of anybody who is building/has built such an ontology</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> and can save me a job?</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Hello Roy - Nice to "meet" you on today's MMI telecon. I like the </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>approach indeed, and my Oregon Coastal Atlas </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>(<A HREF="http://www.coastalatlas.net" TARGET="_blank">http://www.coastalatlas.net</A> ) colleagues and I are trying to work up a </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>proposal to build such an ontology but it won't be submitted until </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Spring 2005, and it will be very limited to coastal mapping, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>geological, GIScience, resource management vocabularies. However, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>your's will probably be built before our proposal is even written so we </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>will keep in touch!</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Cheers,</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Dawn</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>------</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Dawn Wright | Professor | Department of Geosciences</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Oregon State University | Corvallis, OR 97331-5506</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="http://dusk.geo.orst.edu" TARGET="_blank">http://dusk.geo.orst.edu</A> | 541-737-1229 phone | 541-737-1200 fax</FONT>
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