Discussion: Three Ways of Achieving Subject Reifier Uniqueness
- Establish a common vocabulary -- a name for each subject.
(The Library of Congress Subject Headings is an example of this
approach.)
- We can tell when reifiers have the same subjects, because
they have the same names.
- Establish a common ontology that provides certain ways of
identifying the subjects of reifiers.
- Name properties -- properties whose values are names that
are unique in some context -- are just one kind of subject
identity property. Our common ontology can have many kinds of
subject identity properties, but only a finite number of
them.
- Establish disclosure requirements for the definitions of ontologies, such that all of them can be used in concert, regardless of the number and diversity of the subject identity properties they define. This is what the topic maps paradigm does.
