 a collection of 'useful' mid-level 
ontologies first, and then an organized attempt to design a coherent 
upper level into which they could be fitted. 
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I AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY. I have said this before, but I'll repeat again
since it was brought up again. We verysuccessfully use this approch,
which we called middle-out in building the Enterprise Ontology.  If we
start with things that we all know we want in the ontology first, it may 
be easier to reach agreement than it will be to agree on upper level 