ODM12 — ODM metamodel needs a Package concept for managing a structure for ontologies

ODM metamodel needs a Package concept for managing a structure for ontologies, akin to the use of UML Packages in the Profile.

In fact, the use of UML Packages in ontology models is outside the documented profile. There is nothing to say, for example, that the package structure should mirror the URI structure and/or whether it matters whether they differ.

Despite the fact that the RDF/OWL languages do not have Package, they do make use of folders/directories in wither filestore or on the web.

And ontologies like FIBO now have metadata at the package/folder level but neither the metamodel nor the profile provide any place to hang these.

Finally packages provide a much-needed scoping mechanism for applying various operations – which become increasingly impractical as the number of leaf-level ontologies has already exceeded 400 for FIBO