Ref:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2006_09_14 (01)
*ANNOUNCEMENT* (02)
We are pleased to announce that *Professor Alan Rector* from the
University of Manchester (United Kingdom) will be presenting to
the community his talk entitled: "Terminologies and Ontologies:
What are they for? What would it mean to QA an ontology?" (03)
We take pleasure in inviting you to join us at this virtual event. (04)
*Conference call-in details*: (05)
Date: Thursday, 14-September-2006
Start Time: 17:30 UTC / 6:30pm BST / 1:30pm EDT / 10:30am PDT
(World Time:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=9&day=14&year=2006&hour=10&min=30&sec=0&p1=224)
Session Duration: ~2 Hours
Dial-in Number: +1-641-696-6600 (Iowa)
Participant Access Code: "686564#"
Shared-screen support will be available (06)
Topic: *Terminologies and Ontologies: What are they for*?
*What would it mean to QA an ontology*? (07)
*Abstract*: (by Alan Rector) (08)
Terminologies and 'Ontologies' serve several disparate purposes: (09)
o Providing a controlled vocabulary and/or standard set of
identifiers
o Providing a means of browsing and finding appropriate
vocabulary or identifiers
o Providing the linguistic terms - synonyms, translations,
etc.. - to go with the controlled vocabulary
o Cross mapping and translation between different systems
o Providing logical criteria which can be used for inference
and query expansion
o Providing additional 'universal' or intrinsic information
about the entities involved
o Serving as an index for other background knowledge and
resources (010)
Most current biomedical ontologies serve primarily the first
three functions, with varying efforts towards formal logical
criteria. However, there are aspirations, and sometimes claims,
for more rigorous functions, and many standardisation efforts
pre-suppose more and more formal structure. (011)
Each of these functions implies criteria for quality assurance.
For example, for managing controlled vocabularies, process issues
such as version control and coverage are most critical. Browsing
raises issues of human computer interaction, and language raises
its own issues. The last three all require a degree of logical
coherence and rigour. (012)
In addition to many biomedical ontologies, scaling is critical.
Biomedical ontologies are large and potentially combinatorially
explosive. For some applications, small enumerated terminologies
are sufficient. For others, indefinitely large compositional
ontologies that cannot, in principle, be pre-enumerated are required. (013)
Finally almost all ontologies are based on many poorly
articulated assumptions. Any quality assurance methodology must
take account both of what can be understood independent of
consultation with the originators and what conclusions can be
reached after consultation with the originators. (014)
Overall we propose an approach to quality along two dimensions -
process and content - and a two stage process - the first
independent of consultation with the originating authority, the
second in consultation with the originating authority. (015)
*About the Speaker*: (016)
*Professor Alan Rector* is Professor of Medical Informatics in
the School of Computer Science at University of Manchester. He
currently leads the MRC funded E-Science Projects
CLEF/CLEF-Services and the JISC/EPSRC jointly funded
CO-ODE/HyOntUse projects on ontology development tools. His
research interests are in knowledge representation and
management, user interface design, and practical support of
clinical patient care. He has led the MRC/DoH funded PEN&PAD
programme on user centred design of intelligent clinical
interfaces, the EC funded GALEN programme a large reference
ontology for clinical medicine. He is a member of the W3C
Semantic Web Best Practices Working Group and on HL7, CEN and ISO
working groups on healthcare terminology. In 2003 he was awarded
the first BCS Award for Lifetime Achievement in Health
Informatics. Address: School of Computer Science, University of
Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL. email: rector-at-cs.man.ac.uk (017)
*Refer to details on the session wiki page at*:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2006_09_14 (018)
This will be a virtual session over an augmented conference call.
The session is expected to start with a 45 min. ~ 1 Hour
presentation followed by an extended discussion between the
participants and the speaker. The entire session will be recorded
and made available as open content under the prevailing Ontolog
IPR policy (see:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid32). (019)
As usual, this Ontolog event is open to all. I look forward to
having you at this session. Please pass the announcement along to
those who might be interested to join us too. (020)
*RSVP* by by emailing me at <peter.yim@xxxxxxxx> offline. (021)
Regards. =ppy (022)
Peter P. Yim
Co-convener, Ontolog
-- (023)
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