Normalizing ideas

The relational database model rests on the basic principle of normalization of data.

Semantic technology approaches need to apply this principle, too. Not just at the level of concepts but also — and perhaps just as importantly — at the level of ideas. By ideas I mean complex expressions or assertions about reality, like “Our opportunity in the marketplace is to apply IBM’s UIMA to unstructured information in the enterprise.”

The “truth” of that assertion is obviously critical to the success of a company in that business. However, even if such assertions can be specified in a theory of meaning (like an ontology language), it’s not clear that it can be asserted to be true by any means other than the consensus of experts.