* ANNOUNCEMENT * (01)
We are pleased to invite you to participate to a technical discussion
during our upcoming regular conference call session. (02)
Topic: Ontologies & Meta-ontologies: practical considerations
When: Thursday,, 2005
Start Time: 10:30am PST / 1:30pm EST
(World Time:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=2&day=24&year=2005&hour=10&min=30&sec=0&p1=224) (03)
Session Duration: ~ 2 Hours
Dial-in Number: 1-702-851-3330 (Las Vegas, Nevada)
Participant Access Code: "686564#"
Discussion coordinator: Nicolas Rouquette (04)
Abstract: (05)
Using the analogy associating an ontology as an analog to the concept of
a reusable software library with its API, then we can look towards
modern approaches of reusable software development practices as an
inspiration for modular ontology development. The naive approach for
modular, object-oriented software development relies heavily on
subclassing as the mechanism to decouple a reusable module (i.e., the
superclass) with a specific usage of that module in a given application
context (i.e., the subclass that derives from the module's superclass).
There is a growing body of evidence that this approach is inherently
brittle in software engineering. (for more on this topic, see see
Clemens Szyperski's Component Software book, chapters 5 & 6 --
http://research.microsoft.com/~cszypers/Books/component-software.htm
<http://research.microsoft.com/%7Ecszypers/Books/component-software.htm>)
The analogy holds for formal ontologies as well. Here, "formal ontology"
refers to an ontology that has rigorous formalization of some kind
suitable for a reasoning process to make inferences based on the
ontology's axioms, properties and rules. Well-known examples of formal
ontologies include: SUMO, PSL, DOLCE. The OntoClean
<http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?OntoClean> methodology is an
excellent case explaining the pitfalls and limitations of subsumption
for organizing extensible or modular ontologies. This has led to the
notion of "meta-ontology", initially used as an ontology where the
(meta) ontology provides a taxonomy of concepts and properties used for
capturing the meaning of things in the application-specific ontology
using annotations expressed in terms of the meta-ontology. This idea has
been documented in the semantic web best practices group
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/BestPractices/, e.g., with the
"classes-as-values" pattern http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-classes-as-values/
commonly used for annotation purposes.
Topics: (06)
The discussion topics are focused on the practical aspects of ontology
development, maintenance and evolution
within considerations of community-based collaborations that depend
heavily on standards of some kind (e.g., OWL, DIG),
published methodologies and peer-accessible tools (e.g., open source)
and ontologies without impractical intellectual property restrictions. (07)
Within this scope, the topics of the technical discussion will address
practical considerations
about the relationship of ontologies & meta-ontologies in the sense of
an "upper" ontology
used to make statements about a "lower" ontology in logic (e.g.,
OWL-Lite, OWL-DL or OWL-Full). (08)
These considerations include, but are not limited to: (09)
- Including annotations as part of ontological reasoning
- Separating an ontology from independent annotations of that ontology
- Using meta-ontologies for describing the refinement relationship of
one ontology as a specialization or a view of another ontology
- Guidelines for choosing and using different kinds of "meta-ontologies"
such as universals (e.g., OntoClean) vs. particulars (e.g., DOLCE)
- Using "formal" ontologies (e.g., OntoClean, DOLCE, SUMO) without a
degree in philosophy
- other topics suggested by the discussion participants (010)
You are encouraged to add your comments, suggestions, questions,
problems, solution and other relevant information on the discussion page:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?OntologDiscussion/MetaOntologies_And_Ontologies (011)
* About the coordinator: * (012)
Nicolas Rouquette, Jet Propulsion Laboratory / California Insitute of
Technology.
See: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?NicolasRouquette (013)
Please refer to details on the session wiki page at:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2005_02_24 (014)
Please point your browser to this wiki page during the session.
Shared-screen support (VNC session) will also be available and be
started 5 minutes before the call.
<http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/2005-02/msg00007.html#nid015> (015)
Looking forward to having you at the session. (016)
Regards, (017)
-- Nicolas.
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Config:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (018)
|