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Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontology and methodology

To: "Peter F Brown" <peter@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 15:48:05 -0500
Message-id: <p0623090ec224a37b4bc3@[10.100.0.26]>
>-1, except for the word "comprehensibility" (as long as you include non
>philosophers, ontologists, etc in that target audience).    (01)

Yes, I do. Though ontologists' understanding is 
important but of a different kind than that of a 
lay user.    (02)

>Engineering-led projects without architects may perform great on their
>own, but they often suck when it comes to being understood by anyone
>other than the original designers or fitting in with anything else. An
>ontology development without any desire for, or perspective towards,
>interoperability - with anyone beyond their own territory - is likely to
>be abstract, academic, hot-air    (03)

I think you are confusing two issues. It might 
not be very interoperable, but that doesn't in 
itself make it abstract or academic or hot-airish 
(I just LOVE it when "academic" becomes a term of 
abuse in these discussions). I agree that 
interoperation is important: the Semantic Web 
effort is motivated exactly by this concern.    (04)

>: you may as well just hand everything
>back to the programmers of old and let them grok everything using
>variables in their preferred programming language...    (05)

What, you mean the way that 90% of the actual 
working code on the planet gets written? Not a 
bad idea. (I like the phrase "programmers of 
old". I was probably one of them once. I wonder 
how code gets written in this brave new age, if 
not by programmers?)    (06)

>I'm not convinced there is yet even a partial reply to my original post
>starting this thread:
>
>" My frustration with many of the threads on this list (and the Summit
>list - although I admit that I'm no longer sure what goes where...) is
>that there seems to be a lot of discussion over detail - of how to model
>this, or how to present that    (07)

Details, of course. Basic questions of the nature 
of reality, the metaphysical foundations of 
discourse and the expressivity of logics would I 
suppose count as 'detail' from some perspectives.    (08)

>  - and not enough to the bigger pictures:    (09)

>who should be involved in ontology development? What qualifies them and
>how can you judge? How do you start to develop an ontology? Should you?
>How do you introduce quality control? Who decides? Where's the process
>when you need one?    (010)

These are not "bigger", they are management 
questions. I have no idea what the answers are, 
nor do I care. I have lived my life carefully 
avoiding the horrors of management. Any ontology 
managers out there able to answer this? Any 
ontology managers out there at all? Anyone want 
to even take a guess about what "quality control" 
means when applied to ontologies? (Be careful not 
to get lost in any actual details.)    (011)

Pat Hayes    (012)

>"
>
>Any answers on *these* questions? ;-)
>
>Regards,
>
>Peter
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Pat Hayes
>Sent: 19 March 2007 21:04
>To: Cassidy, Patrick J.
>Cc: [ontolog-forum]
>Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontology and methodology
>
>>My advice is to boldly go and do what makes sense in your domain....
>>It is unlikely you will run into
>>logical contradictions, and in engineering the information
>>infrastructure, aesthetics should take a second place to
>>comprehensibility and efficiency.
>
>+1. Should be written in pokerwork and hung over the entry door of
>every Ontology Engineering Laboratory :-)
>
>Pat Hayes
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phayesAT-SIGNihmc.us       http://www.ihmc.us/users/phayes    (014)


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