Inside the Information Entity Ontology
Of the eleven ontologies, the Information Entity Ontology is among the most widely reused, because almost every dataset carries information about something. Its central class is the Information Content Entity: the information itself, independent of whatever material bears it.
Three ways information relates to the world
The branch draws a clean three-way distinction. A descriptive entity says how things are, a directive says how they ought to be, and a designator points to a particular individual. A report describes, a specification prescribes, a serial number designates.
Measurements as a special case
A measurement is a kind of description. The Measurement Information Content Entity pairs a decimal value, held through has decimal value, with a unit, related through uses measurement unit. Distance and ratio measurements specialise it further for particular scales.
Explore the branch
The repository index groups these terms together. Start at the Information Content Entity page and follow the subtypes down to the exact kind of information your data records.
Keep reading
What are the Common Core Ontologies?
A short tour of the mid-level suite, why it exists and what a mid-level ontology actually does.
How CCO builds on Basic Formal Ontology
CCO does not invent its top categories. It specialises the domain-neutral distinctions of BFO. Here is how that works.