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Carl, Ron, I am now confused as to what you guys are talking about. We have a top-down model, it's the abstract specification. We just don't seem to use it, and when we do, we tend to abuse it. In the first 5 years, other than writing Simple Features, all we did was create an information model. There was a glitch when we went SOA, but that did not affect the information model. GML is built (well sort of) on that information model. Most of the issues we are having is because folks have reinterpreted that model, usually badly, or ignored it. In a way, what OGC should be using as a core is its abstract specification, especially the volumes that are paralleled in ISO TC 211. Our major problem is not the lack or a core model, but that we tend to reinvent or reinterpret our own core model for every document, whether it needs it or not. And that usually happens after the fact, which is why no one (Ron and Simon included) seems to understand that everything really is a feature. The diagram nightmares are the result of shoehorning something into the core model ex post facto, not a result of its extension. Regards, John John R. Herring Architect, Spatial Products Oracle Corporation One Oracle Drive Nashua, New Hampshire 03062 ph: 1 603 897 3216 fx: 1 603 897 3334
On Behalf Of Ron Lake Hi, I would go further and say that the derivation of such a conceptual architecture - taking a more top down perspective should be the real work - or at least a very major component of the OGC work, rather than working only bottom up. I think we also need to a position in which we make more use of "registration: to add new features to a specification, rather than by the conventional specification as document process. This was and remains one of the objectives of GML, and to a minor extent this achieved through the deployment of a CRS registry - the content of the registry being (hopefully being blessed by the authority) BEING A standard. I think this approach can be taken in other areas of our work as well. WRT a common information model, I think that is a core issue - but not one easily solved as we have been debating the elements of such a model for a number of years. R
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