Observation

• CURIE: gmeow:Observation
• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/Observation
• Category: class
• Defined by: gmeow:slices/observations
• Box roles: TBox role (What is this?)

A reified act of observing, measuring, or asserting a feature of interest — the universal claim construct unifying spatial measurement, temporal dating, sensory reading, standpoint claims, identity claims, naming claims, rights claims, and kinship claims. Mediates between an observer (vantage), a feature (observedFeature), and a result (observationResult). Every observation carries at least a vantage and an observedFeature (EL open-world); closed-world cardinality is SHACL's concern.

Structure

Subclass of: gufo:Relator

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:Observation as a specialized kind of gufo:Relator. Add statement metadata or a standpoint when the assertion needs provenance, confidence, or vantage.

Example Snippets

These snippets are generated from canonical slice examples and trimmed to the Turtle blocks where this term appears.

Lucid Dream

• Source: slices/extensions/dreaming/examples/lucid-dream.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-extensions-dreaming-examples-lucid-dream

@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/dreaming/lucid-dream/> .
@prefix rdfs:  <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix skos:  <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
@prefix xsd:   <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .



# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example — a lucid dream with online metacognition.
#
# The dream is a gmeow:Experience typed gmeow:processDreaming and tagged with
# gmeow:modeLucidDreaming. The lucidity seam is documented by a
# gmeow:Observation made from within the dream: the dreamer observes that the
# current experience is itself a dream. A dream element and a morning report are
# included for completeness.

# --- In-dream metacognitive observation: the dreamer notices the dream state.
ex:lucaDreamStateObservation a gmeow:Observation ;
    rdfs:label "Luca's in-dream state observation"@en ;
    rdfs:comment "A metacognitive observation made from within the dream."@en ;
    gmeow:vantage ex:dreamerLuca ;
    gmeow:observedFeature ex:lucaLucidDream ;
    gmeow:observationResult ex:lucaAwarenessResult .

Dataset Completeness

• Source: slices/core/quality/examples/dataset-completeness.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-quality-examples-dataset-completeness

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: data quality IS a measurement. A gmeow:QualityAssessment
# is a gmeow:Observation subclass, so a completeness assessment carries the SAME
# bundle as any other measurement: gmeow:assessedEntity (the feature, a sub-
# property of observedFeature), a gmeow:qualityDimension naming WHICH quality, a
# gmeow:observationMethod, a gmeow:vantage (who assessed), and an entity-valued
# gmeow:ScalarQuantity result (98.5% with its unit) rather than a bare number.
# Quality is not a special boolean flag — it is an observation like temperature.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/quality/> .
@prefix xsd:   <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .

Projects To

External Equivalences

Equivalent or closely aligned targets: crm, crmarc, oboe, prov, sosa

Linkages

Generated from the canonical mapping DSL. SSSOM files are the generated public interchange form for term equivalences.

Term Equivalences

Projection Coverage

Usage Advice

Use when

• Use as the universal claim spine whenever a value is HELD by some vantage rather than asserted as a global fact — a measurement, a sensory reading, a standpoint, an identity/name/rights/kinship claim — so the claim carries its observer, feature, and result explicitly (Principle 9: every value is perspectival, none privileged).

Avoid when

• Avoid when the relationship is genuinely frame-free and uncontested (assert the flat triple and reify on demand); for a domain-specific claim prefer the matching Observation subclass (Measurement, SensoryObservation, StandpointClaim, NameUsage, IdentityFacet) so the bridged role properties carry their local typing.

How to use

• Mint one Observation per held claim, bind gmeow:vantage and gmeow:observedFeature (the EL minimum), add gmeow:observationResult, gmeow:observationMethod, gmeow:observationType, evidence, and statement metadata as needed; specialized subclasses inherit these roles through rdfs:subPropertyOf bridges so generic consumers query 'all observations about X' uniformly.

Examples

• ex:reading a gmeow:Observation; gmeow:vantage ex:sensor; gmeow:observedFeature ex:room; gmeow:observationResult ex:temp22.