I came across this in the Ontolog-Forum, and got permission from Mike Bennett, the author, to quote it.  Some great pragmatism here: on the one hand, we need to apply semantics and ontology building to systems development and integration, but at the same time, let’s not get too carried away trying to "model reality." 

"… I would also suggest that, while it may be interesting to have an ontology of concepts as humans see them, this is less important than having ontologies of concepts of relevance to business or other application domains that computers are involved with. I think we need to learn to walk before we can fly. As I see it, there is a glaring hole in many systems application developments, whereby we need a technology neutral, business-reviewable model of the terms that systems, data models and message models are developed against. In the messaging standards world, and in a distressing number of systems developments, the design is managed from the logical or even the physical design level, resulting in brittle applications and insufficient business oversight. For instance you will not find a good business model of a credit default swap, but you will find data models of these lurking in some technical design, which may or may not accurately reflect the business knowledge of what one is. We rely instead on some highly paid technical genius to understand and model these. This is very poor from a technical quality assurance point of view…."

Mike Bennett, Hypercube

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