Proposal:Key Concepts

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The key concepts are the concepts at the root of the ontology. They are a lot of methods to create this basic hierarchy : linguistic, scientific, cognitive, pragmatic,...

The Wiktionary need linguistic key concepts like WordNet, Wikipedia need more domain oriented key concepts like Cyc, some cognitive and few pragmatic ones. This knowledge variations indicate a requirement on the mediawiki system : offering the possibility of the creation of key concepts hierarchy.

Presently, this key concepts hierarchy exists in all Wiki systems. For example, in Wikimedia you have :

General reference
Culture and the arts
Geography and places
Health and fitness
History and events
Mathematics and logic
Natural and physical sciences
People and self
Philosophy and thinking
Religion and belief systems
Society and social sciences
Technology and applied sciences

But is not possible to associate automatically the appurtenance of a concept (an article) in a category with the appropriate knowledge template. A knowledge template can be simply a form with predetermined fields, for example, for People and self/Biography you have at minimum :

born_on : date
die_on : date
born_at : place
die_at : place

This kind of structured meta-data support validation constraints and integrity rules like:

born_on < die_on
exists born_at in Geography_and_places
etc.

This example is inspired by frames ontology editors like Promété and project a possible use of semantic forms of the semantic media wiki.

The rigidity problem

Key Concepts needs do be stable because a lot of computer programs use this rigidity as logical basis ; how this requirement can be compatible with the wiki philosophy ?

Annex

Key concepts in WordNet

Physical entity

An entity that has physical existence.

thing (a separate and self-contained entity)
object, physical object (a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow) "it was full of rackets, balls and other objects"
causal agent, cause, causal agency (any entity that produces an effect or is responsible for events or results)
matter (that which has mass and occupies space) "physicists study both the nature of matter and the forces which govern it"
process, physical process (a sustained phenomenon or one marked by gradual changes through a series of states) "events now in process"; "the process of calcification begins later for boys than for girls"
substance (material of a particular kind or constitution) "the immune response recognizes invading substances"

Abstraction, abstract entity

A general concept formed by extracting common features from specific examples.

psychological feature (a feature of the mental life of a living organism)
attribute (an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity)
group, grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)
relation (an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of two entities or parts together)
communication (something that is communicated by or to or between people or groups)
measure, quantity, amount (how much there is or how many there are of something that you can quantify)
otherworld (an abstract spiritual world beyond earthly reality)
set ((mathematics) an abstract collection of numbers or symbols) "the set of prime numbers is infinite"

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