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I filled out this article from the stub that was there. I admit that it could use more references to published works than the single reference to the SOA TC that it contains, but I believe that it meets the guidelines necessary to move it to B class. -- Nickmalik ( talk) 18:30, 20 October 2008 (UTC)
Shortly after authoring the page, one of the editors change the definition to an non-verifiable definition, and removed the only actual reference for the article. In keeping with the wikipedia pillars of WP:V and WP:NOR, I returned the definition of a reference model to a near-direct-quote from the OASIS SOA Technical Committee where the definiton of a reference model is provided. If anyone has another reliable source that you'd prefer to cite, please go ahead and add that definition as well. We could use multiple points of view as an improvement. Nickmalik ( talk) 19:51, 13 December 2011 (UTC)
Editor MDD and I had a short e-mail conversation about the opening text. He expressed concern about starting the article with a long quote from an authoritative source. He explained that the opening section should start with a "less exact, more global description" of the topic, with specific citations later in the article.
MDD proceeded to move the quote to the first part of section one, instead of the introduction. I'm fine with the movement of the citation to the first paragraph. Unfortunately the "less exact, more global description" that remains in the opening section is rather vague and not terribly well described. I've certainly seen hundreds of reference models (and created some of my own), and I'm not sure I could recognize those models when presented with that description. I will make an attempt to add a little bit of understanding to that opening section. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nickmalik ( talk • contribs) 20:18, 3 March 2012 (UTC)
Again I have removed (see here) the link to an article which seems hardly related here. See also the desciption here. -- Mdd ( talk) 11:48, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
Looking at the past few versions of this page, I can see that Reference Model has been defined as a model (not very helpful), as an abstract framework (well maybe) or as a diagram (misleading and inaccurate). As I see it, a diagram may provide a schematic view of a model, but it is not the model itself. A complex reference model like RM-ODP runs to hundreds of pages, and cannot possibly be captured in a single diagram. I'm not enthusiastic about the term "abstract framework" but it is probably more accurate than anything else. RichardVeryard ( talk) 16:51, 19 March 2012 (UTC)
The perfect definition of this (or any other) difficult notion needs to cover Aristotle's Four Causes in one sentence. For example, how about something like this: A reference model is an abstract framework or domain-specific ontology (FORMAL CAUSE) consisting of an interlinked set of clearly defined concepts (MATERIAL CAUSE) produced by an expert or body of experts (EFFICIENT CAUSE) in order to encourage clear communication within some domain (FINAL CAUSE). (See what I did there - I'm using Aristotle's Logic as a reference model for defining reference models. I hope it goes without saying that this is for you guys only - please don't put any of this into the article itself.) RichardVeryard ( talk) 13:48, 20 March 2012 (UTC)