Re: what exactly is the conceptual model?

On 2 jul, 23:08, Senges <csengst..._at_gmail.com> wrote:
> hi list,
>
> i know about the basic distiction of data modelling as i heard it in
> my db couse:
>
> * semantic model --> ERM
> * logical model --> relational schema / XML schema
> * physical model --> hash tables / how to handle stuff on the
> harddisk
>
> and i heard about the conceptual modell / conceptual schema /
> conceptual modelling. however:
>
> * sometimes the semantic modell is explaint to be a conceptual modell,
> or .. conceptualization leeds to a semantic modell.
> * sometimes the logical modell is explaint to be a coceptual one (this
> way we learned it in our course).
>
> Now i'm writing about ontologies defined as, "a specification of an
> explicit conceptualization".
> Would you think this "conceptualization" refers to the semantic oder
> the logical model?

In my personal experience different research communities will use this terminology in subtly different ways (even within the database research community but also between the data modeling and database communities) and depending on who you speak to they will emphatically claim that it is clearly one or the other. :-) So the best advice I think is to make sure that before you give this definition you first either define yourself exactly the terminology that you use in the definition or make clear that you are using these words as defined by <some authority whose definition matches your intuition best>. The latter is of course probably safer (such definitions can easily go wrong) and ensures that you are more in line with most people's expectations

• Jan Hidders