The observational roots of reference of the semantic web
This addresses the challenge of enabling consistent referents for users contributing to the semantic web, such as for geographic data, but it is incremental as it builds on existing semantic web technology.
The paper tackles the problem of establishing shared reference in the semantic web by proposing a human-centric, operational approach based on perceptual, cognitive, and technical competences, with the result being a framework for new observation-based reference systems that can constrain and integrate the semantic web bottom-up.
Shared reference is an essential aspect of meaning. It is also indispensable for the semantic web, since it enables to weave the global graph, i.e., it allows different users to contribute to an identical referent. For example, an essential kind of referent is a geographic place, to which users may contribute observations. We argue for a human-centric, operational approach towards reference, based on respective human competences. These competences encompass perceptual, cognitive as well as technical ones, and together they allow humans to inter-subjectively refer to a phenomenon in their environment. The technology stack of the semantic web should be extended by such operations. This would allow establishing new kinds of observation-based reference systems that help constrain and integrate the semantic web bottom-up.