Given definition is:
An Act of Communication in which some Artifact is used to transfer an Information Bearing Entity from sender(s) to receiver(s).
As it reads, one expects there to be one information bearing entity (a material entity) which moves from sender to receiver. An example that fits would be sending a book by mail.
However, if we look at the subclasses, none of them are of this nature other than mailing. In a facsimile transmission, a copy of information entity (another concretization) is created with a different material information bearer. In Email Messaging there are a whole slew of intermediary information bearers, including, transiently, your monitor screen while you are reading the message, if the message is only to you. When you have multiple recipients it's clear there's a problem. You can't send a book to multiple people all at once.
There's more to say about the hierarchy below Act of Communication - in particular the multiple inheritance that would be generated when you invite someone to something in an email. The BFO pattern would be to have the commissive communications being defined classes in which one or both of the participants gain or realize certain roles.
What I mean by multiple inheritance: If I wanted to define "emailing an invitation" I would have to have that term have two asserted superclasses: Act of Inviting and Act of Communication by Media. It's fine to have a class have inferred multiple superclasses. What we aim for is a single asserted superclass. Single inheritance but polyhierarchy.
Given definition is:
As it reads, one expects there to be one information bearing entity (a material entity) which moves from sender to receiver. An example that fits would be sending a book by mail.
However, if we look at the subclasses, none of them are of this nature other than mailing. In a facsimile transmission, a copy of information entity (another concretization) is created with a different material information bearer. In Email Messaging there are a whole slew of intermediary information bearers, including, transiently, your monitor screen while you are reading the message, if the message is only to you. When you have multiple recipients it's clear there's a problem. You can't send a book to multiple people all at once.
There's more to say about the hierarchy below Act of Communication - in particular the multiple inheritance that would be generated when you invite someone to something in an email. The BFO pattern would be to have the commissive communications being defined classes in which one or both of the participants gain or realize certain roles.
What I mean by multiple inheritance: If I wanted to define "emailing an invitation" I would have to have that term have two asserted superclasses: Act of Inviting and Act of Communication by Media. It's fine to have a class have inferred multiple superclasses. What we aim for is a single asserted superclass. Single inheritance but polyhierarchy.