Re: #infrastructure New working group and practice guidelines
#infrastructure
Matteo Lissandrini (AAU)
Hi Chris,
I can imagine that some of my tests may have deleted some data from the database. Sorry for that. To be honest, I was under the impression that the data in jken
I would expect the database to be wiped out regularly until we reach a stable status.
But this should not be an issue.
I would like to help in establishing the (automatic) workflow that collects the data (in NON RDF formats) and parses and merges it with the ontology and the contents of the /rdf repo so that we can easily wipe and redeploy the Jena instance at will.
I believe this will require a coordination between the arborist repo, the rdf repo, the importer and probably some other?
Probably in the triplestore repo?
Thanks,
Matteo
From: main@bonsai.groups.io [main@bonsai.groups.io] on behalf of Chris Mutel via Groups.Io [cmutel@...]
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2019 10:34 AM To: main@bonsai.groups.io Subject: [bonsai] #infrastructure New working group and practice guidelines Dear all-
As many of you have already realized, we need to organize and document our infrastructure a bit better. Specifically, I see a need for:
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Re: #infrastructure New working group and practice guidelines
#infrastructure
Yes, I'll coordinate this.
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#infrastructure New working group and practice guidelines
#infrastructure
Dear all-
As many of you have already realized, we need to organize and document our infrastructure a bit better. Specifically, I see a need for:
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Re: #ontology Can we come up with a better term than "Flow Object"?
#ontology
Bo Weidema
To re-iterate: Flow is a verb, and should remain as the central term for our observations. There seems to be a tendency towards preferring flow-item (instead of flow-object). If we cannot settle this now, then add it as an issue with the arguments given in this thread. Bo Den 2019-04-03 kl. 13.57 skrev Agneta:
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Re: #ontology Can we come up with a better term than "Flow Object"?
#ontology
My suggestions are similar to what is given in the ILCD
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Agneta Ghose, PhD Post doc, The Danish Centre for Environmental Assessment Aalborg University Rendsburggade 14 Aalborg 9000 Denmark ( +45 93 56 2051
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Re: #ontology Can we come up with a better term than "Flow Object"?
#ontology
Item is fine...
/Søren
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Re: #ontology Can we come up with a better term than "Flow Object"?
#ontology
Rutger Schurgers
Hi group,
Bo is right, I looked at the ecospold2 source files to refresh my memory and they indeed call their master data elementary exchanges and intermediate exchanges. So it is actually only in the ILCD format that they do make the distinction between the flow-objects that they call flows and the flows that they call exchanges. And ILCD is confusing as well, as their flows are from both the technosphere and nature (so some have compartments while others don’t). So steel is a flow, as well as Carbon dioxide. That’s not very obvious, and I would say that by themselves, as we would like to consider them, they are not ‘flowing’ anywhere.
At PRé we haven’t come up with anything so far that covers all possible flow-objects. In the platform, we have a two types: substances and products. But the fact that they are separate and that substances also include things like labour and land use indicate that they aren’t the best solution either.
That was a bit of thinking out loud, not sure it is very helpful but it indicates that it has been a struggle for quite a few people already.
Back to what Bo suggested, intuitively flow-item sounds a bit better to me. Given the breath of things we want to cover with the term, there’s probably not much that sounds less abstract. But if someone comes up with a term that sounds a bit more friendly, I’m interested.
Regards,
Rutger
From:
main@bonsai.groups.io [mailto:main@bonsai.groups.io] On Behalf Of Bo Weidema
The important issue is to distinguish between the observation of a specific flow (e.g. 22 kg input of steel) and the abstract flow-object ("steel"). This distinction was not made clear in e.g. ecospold schema where the exchange = flow and the abstract flow-object is simply called "intermediateExchangeId" or "elementaryExchangeId" referring to a taxonomy of "master data". I do not think it makes much difference if we call it flow-object or flow-item, so if there is a preference for the latter that would be OK with me. Exchange has the problem that it is easily confused with a market operation (e.g. currency exchange). So I think "flow" is still the best option, as this is either an input or an output. Bo
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Re: #ontology Can we come up with a better term than "Flow Object"?
#ontology
Massimo Pizzol
>>> The important issue is to distinguish between the observation of a specific flow (e.g. 22 kg input of steel) and the abstract flow-object ("steel"). >>> I do not think it makes much difference if we call it flow-object or flow-item.
IMO this is the clearest explanation so far, thanks Bo. I am fine with the word “item” instead of “object”.
Note there is an enhancements branch on BEP-0003 BONSAI Ontology and I guess these discussions should be reflected there….
BR
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Re: #ontology Can we come up with a better term than "Flow Object"?
#ontology
Andreas Ciroth
Thank you Chris; I agree and would add that ‘Flow-object’ is also not too perfect. No other element is called “object”. And exchange just says: see flow. Proposal from my side:
This without being aware of previous discussions, so please excuse if I am ignorant here.. All the best, Andreas
Von: main@bonsai.groups.io <main@bonsai.groups.io> Im Auftrag von Chris Mutel
Not trying to start a flame war or anything, but "flow object" is just... not great. It is inconsistent with all our other core terms, it rolls off the tongue like a porcupine, and I guarantee you that it will produce a confused look on 80% of the faces of people who see it for the first time.
"Entity" is probably too loose, as is "object". "Flux" is a bit too cute, and too similar to "flow." What about "item"? It encapsulates the idea that every thing we want to track would be an item instance. One definition is "an individual article or unit, especially one that is part of a list, collection, or set," which fits pretty well. Or maybe someone else has a creative idea? There are lots of online thesaurus sites out there :)
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Re: #ontology Can we come up with a better term than "Flow Object"?
#ontology
Bo Weidema
The important issue is to distinguish between the observation of
a specific flow (e.g. 22 kg input of steel) and the abstract
flow-object ("steel"). This distinction was not made clear in e.g.
ecospold schema where the exchange = flow and the abstract
flow-object is simply called "intermediateExchangeId" or
"elementaryExchangeId" referring to a taxonomy of "master
data". I do not think it makes much difference if we call it flow-object or flow-item, so if there is a preference for the latter that would be OK with me. Exchange has the problem that it is easily confused with a market operation (e.g. currency exchange). So I think "flow" is still the best option, as this is either an input or an output. Bo
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Re: #ontology Can we come up with a better term than "Flow Object"?
#ontology
Matteo Lissandrini (AAU)
Hi all,
like John Snow, I know nothing.
From an outsider perspective the current definition is extremely clear, as it related the Flow and the Object of the Flow (aka Flow Object).
While all other proposal are much more confusing (Flow and Exchange are two dynamic terms)
The only other words I can thing of would be Phenomenon for the Flow and Noumenon for the Flow Object, but I guess bothering Kant is not a great idea :)
I suggest somebody creates a BEP then :)
Cheers,
Matteo
From: main@bonsai.groups.io [main@bonsai.groups.io] on behalf of Rutger Schurgers via Groups.Io [schurgers@...]
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2019 11:57 AM To: main@bonsai.groups.io Subject: Re: [bonsai] #ontology Can we come up with a better term than "Flow Object"? Hi group,
Exchange is actually what’s being used in the ecospold2 and ILCD data formats as well. They have flows as well, though they include compartment too. In the SimaPro platform, we don’t include compartments so that matches what we have in Bonsai. To keep things consistent, I’d support using these terms. We don’t use the term exchange in the platform, but I’m considering adopting it as well. The different terms we’re using now cause a lot of confusion and time lost.
Regards,
Rutger
From: main@bonsai.groups.io [mailto:main@bonsai.groups.io]
On Behalf Of Agneta
So the issue is back! Well I did raise the point about terms like flow and 'flow object' being confusing and likely that someone new to the ontology might have some difficulty in understanding the differences or even use them interchangeably. I looked up the thesaurus and unfortunately I don't think there is anything that sufficiently translates 'object'/'thing'/'entity'. Some suggested words were- 'element', 'substance, 'item' , 'component'. In my humble opinion- I would like to go back to suggestions as defined in previously published LCA ontology (Kuczenski et al. 2016): Activity- is a “thing that happens” Flow- is a “thing in the world that exists because of some instance of an Activity." Exchange- " An exchange is an established relationship between an activity instance and a flow instance." This can be an input/output/ determining.
I think this terminology is coherent with the vocabulary used by most industrial ecologist. There is another term that I find slightly problematic is 'Balanceable properties' . As this class primarily consists of certain specific quantities, I was wondering if we could refer to it as 'quantity types' or 'quantity attributes' ? I will also put this discussion as an issue in out GitHub repo.
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Matteo Lissandrini (AAU)
Hi all,
the BEP seems fine to me. I have only 2 comments: - I would have preferred it to be called "BEP000" for vanity reasons :) - I think each future BEP should include a link to the rules in participating to a BEP discussion
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Re: #ontology Can we come up with a better term than "Flow Object"?
#ontology
Rutger Schurgers
Hi group,
Exchange is actually what’s being used in the ecospold2 and ILCD data formats as well. They have flows as well, though they include compartment too. In the SimaPro platform, we don’t include compartments so that matches what we have in Bonsai. To keep things consistent, I’d support using these terms. We don’t use the term exchange in the platform, but I’m considering adopting it as well. The different terms we’re using now cause a lot of confusion and time lost.
Regards,
Rutger
From:
main@bonsai.groups.io [mailto:main@bonsai.groups.io] On Behalf Of Agneta
So the issue is back! Well I did raise the point about terms like flow and 'flow object' being confusing and likely that someone new to the ontology might have some difficulty in understanding the differences or even use them interchangeably. I looked up the thesaurus and unfortunately I don't think there is anything that sufficiently translates 'object'/'thing'/'entity'. Some suggested words were- 'element', 'substance, 'item' , 'component'. In my humble opinion- I would like to go back to suggestions as defined in previously published LCA ontology (Kuczenski et al. 2016): Activity- is a “thing that happens” Flow- is a “thing in the world that exists because of some instance of an Activity." Exchange- " An exchange is an established relationship between an activity instance and a flow instance." This can be an input/output/ determining.
I think this terminology is coherent with the vocabulary used by most industrial ecologist. There is another term that I find slightly problematic is 'Balanceable properties' . As this class primarily consists of certain specific quantities, I was wondering if we could refer to it as 'quantity types' or 'quantity attributes' ? I will also put this discussion as an issue in out GitHub repo.
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Re: #ontology Can we come up with a better term than "Flow Object"?
#ontology
So the issue is back! Well I did raise the point about terms like flow and 'flow object' being confusing and likely that someone new to the ontology might have some difficulty in understanding the differences or even use them interchangeably. I looked up the thesaurus and unfortunately I don't think there is anything that sufficiently translates 'object'/'thing'/'entity'. Some suggested words were- 'element', 'substance, 'item' , 'component'. In my humble opinion- I would like to go back to suggestions as defined in previously published LCA ontology (Kuczenski et al. 2016): Activity- is a “thing that happens” Flow- is a “thing in the world that exists because of some instance of an Activity." Exchange- " An exchange is an established relationship between an activity instance and a flow instance." This can be an input/output/ determining.
I think this terminology is coherent with the vocabulary used by most industrial ecologist. There is another term that I find slightly problematic is 'Balanceable properties' . As this class primarily consists of certain specific quantities, I was wondering if we could refer to it as 'quantity types' or 'quantity attributes' ? I will also put this discussion as an issue in out GitHub repo.
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#ontology Can we come up with a better term than "Flow Object"?
#ontology
Not trying to start a flame war or anything, but "flow object" is just... not great. It is inconsistent with all our other core terms, it rolls off the tongue like a porcupine, and I guarantee you that it will produce a confused look on 80% of the faces of people who see it for the first time.
The problem is that "flow" is good, but has no natural counterpart (aside from "flow"...). One possibility would be to switch to "flow" and "exchange" - I am sure this was considered and rejected at some point, however. We define "flow object" as: Entity that is able to be exchanged between two activities, produced or consumed by activities, or stored by a (stock accumulation) activity. This is one of the identifying dimensions of a datapoint (and the database)."Entity" is probably too loose, as is "object". "Flux" is a bit too cute, and too similar to "flow." What about "item"? It encapsulates the idea that every thing we want to track would be an item instance. One definition is "an individual article or unit, especially one that is part of a list, collection, or set," which fits pretty well. Or maybe someone else has a creative idea? There are lots of online thesaurus sites out there :) If there is previous discussion on this, please post links - it is hard to get much from the wiki history.
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Dear all,
it is time to vote for the BEP-0001 (BONSAI Enhancement Proposal Template):
Ballot question: The vote will be open until 17th of April 6pm CET. Results will be announced as soon as a valid majority is reached, thus earlier than the 17th if possible. Michele
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Re: BEP-0004 BONSAI knowledge management and communication strategy | open for discussion / seeking editor
Thanks Tom. Just a few update that should be in the text of the BEP:
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Re: BEP-0004 BONSAI knowledge management and communication strategy | open for discussion / seeking editor
Thanks Tom, this is really exciting!
I would like to remind people of the process around BEPs. The BEP is a draft, meaning that it is still under development. It doesn't need an editor yet. The "working group" for this BEP is everyone, as we need your input to make sure that this plan seems reasonable. However, please do not edit the BEP directly (unless you are Tom) - instead, either respond to this email with suggestions and comments, or fork the repo, make some changes, and submit a pull request that Tom will merge. Some comments on the proposal itself:
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BEP-0004 BONSAI knowledge management and communication strategy | open for discussion / seeking editor
BEP-0004 is available here for input and discussion: https://github.com/BONSAMURAIS/enhancements/blob/bep4-communications/beps/0004-bonsai-communication-strategy.md Feel free to reply here. Kind regards, Tom
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Re: #BEP0001 - Community governance through enhancement proposals
#bep0001
FYI: An improved version of the text above has been merged to the original text (see here).
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