Re: [ontolog-forum] Small steps plodding toward the big picture

[Bob Smith <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

		Ed, Peter, Owen:

The "main challenge" that Ed describes raises an Issue that formed the subtitle of our last two F2F sessions: Levels and Lacunae in those Levels of Stuff, or working organizations within an industry within a nation, etc. There are distinctions between layers that are not easily described, (by cultural anthropologists) as well as huge differences between, as Ed states, an Ontologist, a Business Analyst, and a Systems Architect/Data architect, etc.

>>What we've figured out on the Medical Banking Project work is that our main
>>challenge is that we are trying to describe a new hybrid domain to bankers
>>and healthcare folks which incorporates some familiar elements from their
>>separate domains but which "obviously implies" some others. Rex's
>>workgroup's name has been changed from "cyberwar" to "unified platform
>>initiative" to help along those lines. Hopefully, once folks can describe
>>the goal "similarly enough" we can begin our small steps plodding toward the
>>overarching goal of more efficient and effective healthcare delivery.

While Ed seems rather optimistic about the effectiveness of getting "a common goal" alone to achieve a more effective and effective delivery system, it appears that the pathway between that concensus Goal and the pathway scenarios to measurable results is worthy of appropriate study and analysis. 

What is the Ontolog Forum now doing relevant to these pathways? My impression is that Carl Mattock's ONION [ Ontologies in Ontology ] is quite attractive.

Peter and Own: Thanks for the discussion!!!!

Cheers,

Bob Smith, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, CSU
Tall Tree Labs

---

From: "Ed Dodds" <dodds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 10:33 AM
To: "'[ontolog-forum] '" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Small steps plodding toward the big picture

Owen and Peter:

>From my point of view it seems you are both approaching the same elephant
from different angles. Peter's concern seems to be that given billions of
people you have as many mental cultures/worldviews and attendant
assumptions/perceptions, etc. My experience says that they are rarely forced
to examine their own internal taxonomies ( to wit, I believe it was the
underappreciated ancient Greek philosopher Asinines who averred "The
unexamined life is par for the course" ). Owen's concern seems to be getting
real work done given real constraints ( time being the scarcest commodity ).
As a systems architect my experience has been the business analyst assumes
you can read his/her mind and that any deficiencies in requirement
documentation are because the programmer isn't "inferring hard enough." 

For me, though a newbie, "ontology" is a practical way to help mindviews map
to one another by first mapping to a standard. That these processes can
become more automated over time seems likely; more pervasive, I'm not so
certain. I think there are plenty of folks who have good reason to make
certain we can't quite seem to get those databases to talk to one another --
if you know what I mean ;-) Sorry, that's an xbrl rant. As a knowledge
delivery mechanism re: these areas, the Ontolog CoP has been as efficient a
model as I have run across.

What we've figured out on the Medical Banking Project work is that our main
challenge is that we are trying to describe a new hybrid domain to bankers
and healthcare folks which incorporates some familiar elements from their
separate domains but which "obviously implies" some others. Rex's
workgroup's name has been changed from "cyberwar" to "unified platform
initiative" to help along those lines. Hopefully, once folks can describe
the goal "similarly enough" we can begin our small steps plodding toward the
overarching goal of more efficient and effective healthcare delivery.

Owen, indeed enjoy your retirement and thanks for what you've accomplished
"transparentizing" fedgov thus far. And thanks to the folks who will carry
on your mission.

Ed Dodds
dodds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Strategist

facilitating convergence
http://www.conmergence.com



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