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Re: [ontolog-forum] UBL Process and Project Management

To: cassidy@xxxxxxxxx, "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Leo Obrst <lobrst@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2003 16:02:22 -0500
Message-id: <3E6908DE.DD2D541@xxxxxxxxx>
Good comments, Pat. Some comments in turn, indexed to yours:    (01)

1) That's fine with me. I tend to agree we need to keep it simple.
2) Agree in principle, don't yet know about the time commitment estimate: I
hope not!
3) Agree in general: KIF is the most expressive language out there and in
principle is equivalent to OKBC, which is what Protege is based on. There is
not yet a mapping between KIF/Common Logic and OWL (very shortly to be
released!), though there is a Protege plugin for DAML+OIL, which is very close
to OWL. OILed and OntoEdit are alternatives to Protege and can handle
DAML+OIL, RDF/S.  LOOM is an expressive description logic system (incomplete
vs. Classic, which is not as expressive but complete in formal sense) plus a
reasoner. But then Protege has some reasoning, i.e., PAL. And OILed has a
couple of description logic reasoners. OntoEdit has some description logic
reasoning.
4) Tools are aligned with languages: see (3).
5) I hope we can resolve these first two questions (Knowledge representation
language and tool/s) in much less time: perhaps 7-10 days? Agenda items for
the telecon next week to resolve? Then tackle and resolve the issues in the
rest of your (5) the following week? I know this is fast, but I like fast.    (02)

Thanks,
Leo    (03)

Patrick Cassidy wrote:    (04)

> Suggestions for process:
>
> (1) any decisions that cannot be reached by consensus
>      should be decided by majority vote.  This requires
>      a list of registered voting members.  (I Suggest
>      that any motion and two seconds can force a vote).
>      Don't mess with Robert's rules, they were designed
>      for live meetings.  We can make up our own
>      rules.
> (2) we may need an "executive committee" of members
>      who are willing to commit to some significant
>      allocation of time -- perhaps 5% of full-time
>      (13 full days out of the year)??
> (3) First order of business should be decision on a
>      format for representing the logical ontology.
>      I would suggest KIF (or SKIF), and perhaps also
>      OWL, since that seems to be where the Semantic Web
>      community is heading.  If OWL is not yet ready
>      for serious use (I have no experience at all with
>      description logics), perhaps LOOM?
>         This gets into issues of ease of use.  As best
>      I can tell, to use LOOM requires that one install
>      a LISP environment (are there executable versions?)
>      This would inhibit the wide use of the ontology.
>      KIF files can be written by word processor,
>      and they serve to record the intended meanings of
>      concepts adequately.
> (4) Second order of business would be adopting one or
>      more tools to make the development easier.  I like
>      Protege, though I only use its simplest features.
>      If JESS is recommended, I hope that any of us (like me)
>      who have no experience yet with JAVA can have time
>      to learn how to handle it.
> (5) I would suggest a maximum of one month to decide
>      these two questions.  Immediately thereafter,
>      I would hope we can begin discussion of
>      (a) the content of the ontology, starting with
>         the structure of the topmost levels, and resolution
>         of questions such as how to handle relations, roles,
>         abstract objects, and granularity (with special
>         reference to how they apply to the business domain);
>       (b) a decision on whether only one structure will be
>          allowed, or whether alternative representations
>          will be allowed, providing that they are logically
>          compatible and convertible to each other; and
>      (c) the applications(s) that would be used to help
>         keep decisions focused on usability rather than
>         theoretical issues.  I hope that at least one
>         natural-language application will be developed.
>         Does anyone work with a parser available for free?
>
>      As examples of existing ontologies, Open CYC and
> the SUMO developed as part of the IEEE-Standard Upper
> Ontology discussions provide different views.  Others
> such as SENSUS and Mikrokosmos exist, but are less
> easily available.  I have made a crude conversion of
> the Open CYC and SUMO into Protege format -- this
> provides only the class hierarchy and the attached
> slots, but does not display relations of order greater
> than 2 (including binary or higher functions), nor
> does it display the subsumption relations among
> the slots.  It does provide a good visual display
> of the general structure of the ontology.  The
> Protege files can be found in the directory:
>       ftp://micra.com/ontolog
> I am not certain that this conversion is permitted by
> the CYC permissions, but is seems to be, under the GNU
> GPL provisions, according to the license paragraph:
>  > The OpenCyc Knowledge Base
>  >   The OpenCyc Knowledge Base consists of code, written in the
>  > declarative language CycL, that represents or supports the
>  > representation of facts and rules pertaining to consensus reality.
>  > OpenCyc is licensed using the GNU Lesser General Public License,
>  > whose text can also be found here. The OpenCyc CycL code base is
>  > the "library" referred to in the LGPL license. The terms of this
>  > license equally apply to renamings and other logically equivalent
>  > reformulations of the Knowledge Base (or portions thereof) in any
>  > natural or formal language.
>
>      An alternative formulation of the upper levels is contained
> in the ontology I have been developing, available in Protege
> format at:  ftp://micra.com/process/  (files PUOCYC1.*), which
> include some structures from the Open Cyc ontology.  These three
> ontologies provide some examples of how the upper levels can
> be very different for different viewpoints.  Many other
> examples are available.  Even for the case where we are concerned
> with a particular domain, such as business, I think it is
> important that development of a consensus ontology begin
> with agreement on the main relations and the topmost levels
> of the ontology.
>
>    Pat
>
> =============================================
> Patrick Cassidy
>
> MICRA, Inc.                      || (908) 561-3416
> 735 Belvidere Ave.               || (908) 668-5252 (if no answer)
> Plainfield, NJ 07062-2054        || (908) 668-5904 (fax)
>
> internet:   cassidy@xxxxxxxxx
> =============================================
> =============================================
>
> Bob Smith wrote:
> > Kurt, Thanks for the excellent summary!!!
> >
> > The 1-2:30pm Weds slot works for me.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Bob Smith
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kurt Conrad
> > Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 11:54 PM
> > To: Ontolog Forum
> > Subject: [ontolog-forum] UBL Process and Project Management
> >
> >
> > All,
> >
> > Please respond to this thread with process and project management
> > options for the UBL Ontology Project.
> >
> > For reference purposes, a summary of the ideas which have already
> > been raised in some form can be found at:
> >
> > http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/2003-03/msg00045.html#nid025
> >
> > /s/ kwc 2003.03.06 23:53
> >
> > ___________________________________________________________________
> > Kurt Conrad
> > 2994 Salem Dr.                     408-247-0454
> > Santa Clara, CA 95051-5502         408-247-0457 (data/fax)
> > http://www.SagebrushGroup.com    mailto:conrad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
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>    (05)

--
_____________________________________________
Dr. Leo Obrst  The MITRE Corporation
mailto:lobrst@xxxxxxxxx Intelligent Information Management/Exploitation
Voice: 703-883-6770 7515 Colshire Drive, M/S H305
Fax: 703-883-1379       McLean, VA 22102-7508, USA    (06)



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