[crm-sig] Proposal for Issue 72. Scope note of Modification

[Tony Gill]

Background
The scope note of E11 Modification Event refers only to intentional 
modifications. That seems to be too narrow. 
(http://cidoc.ics.forth.gr/crm_issues.html#is72)

E11 Modification Event

Belongs to:     Period Type
Subclass of:    Activity
Superclass of:  Production

>>Current Scope Note:
This entity comprises all activities which intentionally alter physical 
objects, regardless of the degree of intervention: creation of some item 
from raw material, restorations, use of ancient objects in jewelry, etc.. 
Since many cases the distinction between modification and creation is not 
clear, and the actions implied are basically the same, modification is 
regarded as the more general (and less ambiguous) concept. This implies 
that some items may be consumed or destroyed in a modification process, 
and others emerge from it. Typically, objects involved in the process, 
such as tools, materials, etc., which are foreseen by the applied 
technique are modeled as attributes of the Design or Procedure, for 
reasons of efficient data representation. Nevertheless, unusual and 
remarkable items used for a specific instance of a process should be 
referred to here. 

This entity is thought to be collective, e.g. the printing of a thousand 
books should be one event. Conservation actions can be modeled as a type 
of modification. 

>>Proposed New Scope Note
This entity comprises all activities that alter or change physical 
man-made objects. Examples of modification events include the creation of 
an item from raw materials, the restoration or conservation of an object, 
or the re-use of an ancient object in the creation of a new object. This 
entity can be collective; the printing of a thousand books, for example, 
would normally be considered as a single event.

Since the distinction between modification and creation is not always 
clear, modification is regarded as the more generally applicable concept. 
This implies that some items may be consumed or destroyed in a 
modification event, and that others may be created as a result of it. 
Typically, objects routinely involved in the modification event, such as 
tools or materials, are modeled as attributes of the Design or Procedure 
for efficient data representation. However, unusual and remarkable items 
or materials used for a specific instance of a modification event should 
be associated with the modification event.

--
Notes: I removed the notion of intentionality from the scope notes, as per 
the issue statement, since not all modifications in our domain of 
discourse are intentional. I also added the stipulation that Modifications 
are applied to man-made objects, since the range of property P31: has 
modified is E24: Physical Man-Made Stuff, and this distinction helps to 
clarify the difference between Modification Events and Transformations, 
multiple inheritance of Production Events etc. However, we may need to 
look into this in more detail if we wish to model the modification of 
conceptual objects.

I also made some editorial changes to (hopefully) improve clarity.

Appended proposal: Having now written several entity scope notes, some 
property scope notes, and contributed the E78 Collection entity to the 
CRM, I propose that my name be added to the list of Editors of the CRM for 
the next edition (Martin, I warned you that I wasn't too bashful to 
propose this!)

Cheers,

T.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tony Gill <tony.gill at notes.rlg.org>, RLG <http://www.rlg.org/>
1200 Villa Street, Mountain View, CA 94041 USA
Voice: +1 (650) 691-2304 <> Fax: +1 (650) 964-1461