30 November 2006

"By Geographic Entity, we mean any geographic object (physical, cultural or conceptual) that can be identified and discussed by humans."

- Good definition. I think examples of what is meant by physical, cultural or conceptual would help. I assume, for example that physical = something like the Maeander River; Cultural = Apollonia - or some other such political entity / city; and conceptual = some sort of region or area like Pisidia or Lycia, with fluid boundaries. Correct?

"In an unproblematic modern context, a Geographic Entity can be named and can be located precisely. In historical contexts, we may be unable to determine location, or we may be able to do so only imperfectly. On the other hand, we may be able to locate accurately an entity of interest, but we may be unable to discover its historical name(s), or we may be able to associate an attested name with a located entity only tentatively. Temporally, names come in and out of use. For some entities, locations and geospatial extents can also change over time. Our ability to track these changes accurately varies."

- Very useful clarifications. Regarding the second to last sentence: "For some entities, locations and geospatial extents can also change over time" am I correct to understand that entities should = physical; locations = cultural; and geospatial extents = conceptual? Are these two lists supposed to be parallel? If not, why not?

"In terms of our computational context -- the Pleiades system itself -- we have created a Geographic Entity Content Type. These objects are the most general type of record in our data store. Therefore, they constitute a major organizing mechanism for our data, as well as a primary point of interface and interaction for our human users and for various automated applications. Some of our applications and user interfaces will treat entities as cartographic features. Others will treat them as collections of names or other attributes."

- Again, as with above, I think it would be helpful to list a couple of examples (even in brackets). Or perhaps: "These objects, such as ..... (whatever they are) ... are the most general type of record in our data store."

- The Key Aspects sections clarifies many of the questions I had above, but I wonder if including the examples in the above sections would not be more helpful. Maybe not.

- I do not know what a UML is and the diagram is a complete loss to me. I do not understand the diamond links etc.

- One last note: It seems to me that there are a lot of links on this page, that link lengthy pages. Generally I am a big fan of links (like footnotes in a book) but I wonder if there is not too many. All of this is necessary of course and I think will make a very useful manual of how to use our system but we are going to need to write a simple, one page or less explanation that explains the basics of how to input information and under what "entities" etc. or, I fear, we risk loosing the majority of people who have only a basic understanding of computers or even maps for that matter. I suspect that this is something to be done near the end of our project (also something that I would be willing to work on).