Commons Classifiers Ontology
type: Ontology
abstract: This ontology defines abstract concepts for representation of classification schemes that enable the classification of arbitrary concepts into hierarchies (or partial orders) for use in many other ontologies, derived in part from the patterns defined in ISO 1087-1 for terminology work and ISO 11179-3, Metadata Registries.
contributor: Elisa Kendall, Thematix Partners LLC
contributor: Pete Rivett, Federated Knowledge, LLC
license: Copyright (c) 2014-2024 EDM Council, Inc. Copyright (c) 2014-2024 Thematix Partners LLC Copyright (c) 2015-2024 Object Management Group, Inc. Copyright (c) 2024 Adaptive, Inc. Copyright (c) 2024 Federated Knowledge LLC Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. See https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT.
imports: AnnotationVocabulary
imports: Collections
imports: Designators
version IRI: Classifiers
change note: https://www.omg.org/spec/Commons/20220501/Classifiers.rdf version of this ontology was modified to eliminate a double space in a note on ClassificationScheme (COMMONS-6), loosen the constraints on the restriction on Classifier for property classifies (COMMONS-9), and add a boolean property allowing users to state that only one classifier from a particular scheme can be used to classify something (i.e., the classifiers in the scheme are mutually exclusive and only one can apply to the thing being classified).
change note: https://www.omg.org/spec/Commons/20221101/Classifiers.rdf version of this ontology was revised to clarify the definition of aspect (COMMONS12-7).
note: The classifiers ontology conforms with the OWL 2 DL semantics, and is outside of OWL 2 RL due to the inclusion of local some values and minimum cardinality constraints. These constraints could be removed as needed to support OWL RL rule-based applications that cannot be extended to support them.
note: This ontology was originally designed for use in the OMG Languages, Countries and Codes (LCC) specification as part of the broader CountryRepresentation ontology. The concepts have also been used in the Financial Industry Business Ontology (FIBO) for representing industry sectors, financial instrument classifiers (e.g., asset classes), lifecycle states, and so forth.
copyright: Copyright (c) 2014-2024 EDM Council, Inc.
copyright: Copyright (c) 2014-2024 Thematix Partners LLC
copyright: Copyright (c) 2022-2024 Object Management Group, Inc.
copyright: Copyright (c) 2024 Copyright (c) 2024 Adaptive, Inc.
copyright: Copyright (c) 2024 Federated Knowledge, LLC

aspect
type: Class
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: characterizes
  min cardinality: 0
definition: characteristic or feature that can be used to dimensionalize, filter, or subset a class, collection, or set of things
synonym: characteristic

classification scheme
type: Class
subclass of: Arrangement
source: ISO/IEC 11179-3 Information technology - Metadata registries (MDR) - Part 3: Registry metamodel and basic attributes, Third edition, 2013-02-15
definition: system for allocating classifiers to things
note: ISO 11179-3 defines a classification scheme as descriptive information for an arrangement or division of objects into groups based on criteria such as characteristics, which the objects have in common. A classification scheme may be a taxonomy, a network, an ontology, or any other terminological system. Such classification schemes are intended to permit the classification of arbitrary objects into hierarchies, or partial orders, as appropriate. The classification may also be just a list of controlled vocabulary of property words (or terms). The list might be taken from the 'leaf level' of a taxonomy.

classifier
type: Class
subclass of: aspect
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: isDefinedIn
  all values from: classification scheme
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: classifies
  min cardinality: 0
source: ISO/IEC 11179-3 Information technology - Metadata registries (MDR) - Part 3: Registry metamodel and basic attributes, Third edition, 2013-02-15
definition: standardized classification or delineation for something, per some scheme for such delineation, within a specified context
example: The classifier 'color' embraces characteristics being red, blue, green, etc. The classifier 'material' embraces characteristics made of wood, metal, etc.
note: In ISO 1087, classifiers form categories of characteristics that serve as the criterion of subdivision when establishing concept systems.

characterizes
type: ObjectProperty
sub property of: describes
definition: provides a discriminating feature or quality of

classifies
type: ObjectProperty
sub property of: characterizes
definition: arranges in categories according to one or more shared characteristics

is characterized by
type: ObjectProperty
sub property of: isDescribedBy
inverse of: characterizes
definition: indicates a quality or feature of something, distinguishing it from something else

is classified by
type: ObjectProperty
sub property of: is characterized by
inverse of: classifies
definition: is systematically grouped based on characteristics by

is exclusive
type: DatatypeProperty
domain: classification scheme
range: boolean
definition: indicates that the classifiers in the scheme are all disjoint and that only one classifier may be used to classify something
usage note: This does not exclude classification by other classifiers from other schemes. It is simply a hint to users that whatever is classified by a classifier in this scheme should be classified by at most one of the classifiers in the scheme.