Decentralised Ontologies

The Context of the term Ontologies for this project is about the use of RDF ontologies or moreover 'semantic web' parts. The Concept of Decentralised Ontologies is about structuring and consequentially providing ontologies via decentralised protocols.

A list of non-http based protocols is illustrated [[Non-HTTP(s)Protocols]] although, different technologies are better suited to different types of applications and in-turn have different requirements, features, flaws and functionality. Decentralised Ontologies is both part of the broader PermissiveCommonsTech frameworks and a fundamental part of the specification for it. Whilst the distinctions are somewhat nuanced; the use of ontologies is critical to structuring other forms of commons resources on decentralised protocols as ontologically referenceable information / informatics resources.

Background

There has been a historic and long-term problem with temporal resolution of 'web' (WWW) content. This problem has also impacted the availability of 'ontologies', which are the structured vocabularies (semantics) that support the development and use of applications that are dependant upon those ontologies. In-turn also, ontologies change overtime; whereas the HTTP URI may not.

Then there is also the problem that the use of public (hosted somewhere) ontological resources (particularly in relation to 'commons' information) is often accessed via an API during runtime. So, the implication becomes a form of API based survellience in relation to activities of humans.

So in summary; It is desirable to have,

1. ontologies stored locally (or at least within a 'private network' env)
2. An ability to manage 'versions' of an ontology that remain 'static'
3. An ability to assert access control (Read/Write/Append); in a manner that takes into account social factors (ie: stewards vs. consumers / dependents)

So the purpose of decentralised ontologies (which is part of the Permissive Commons ecosystems) is to create an information systems framework that supports the ability for different authoritative actors / agents (inc. groups) to produce different ontologies and manage the authorship of them; whilst also enabling users to download a copy of those ontologies for use locally (with a semantic / AI agent); and therefore also, any applications that depend upon those ontologies being available, no-longer rely upon whether they're still availalbe on the HTTP URI where they were originally published; but rather, on the DLT (decentralised ledger technology) still being available somewhere.