> [mailto:
ontolog-forum- <mailto:
ontolog-forum->
> >>
bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:
bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>] On
> Behalf Of Ron Wheeler
> >> Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2008 11:21 AM
> >> To: [ontolog-forum]
> >> Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Semantic Web shortcomings [was Re:
> ANN:
> >> GoodRelations - The Web Ontology for E-Commerce]
> >>
> >> Very clear and to the point response.
> >>
> >> I am not sure that structured English is absolutely required.
> >> A GUI that allows the SME to create a new instance of an object and
> >> link
> >> that to other instances of objects as well as specify the
> properties of
> >> the instance and links to external references is probably all
> the SME
> >> needs for a basic system.
> >>
> >> If this allows searching and navigating through the ontology to
> select
> >> the objects and instances, in a convenient way, that should
> meet most
> >> of
> >> the needs.
> >>
> >> In general, I think that the academic side should have only limited
> >> responsibility for the filling up of the ontologies. This is
> the role
> >> of
> >> the IBMs, Suns, General Motors, Pentagon, Artifact Softwares,
> etc. Once
> >> the research community decides on a good architecture to
> represent the
> >> reality of a situation or set of entities, it is up to those
> who have a
> >> business or economic reason care about this should pay to have the
> >> details added.
> >>
> >> What they decide to contribute back to the overall community
> will be
> >> based on their need to share the cost of maintenance and their
> >> understanding of the value of having their particular view of a
> part of
> >> the universe adopted as a "standard" weighed against the loss of a
> >> proprietary asset.
> >> This is the basis of the open source movement. Some academic
> and vanity
> >> products get created but the big open source packages have
> corporate
> >> support when the corporations best interest is served by sharing.
> >> Where it is not, the extensions to open source ontologies will be
> >> retained as proprietary to the creator and they will get any
> benefit
> >> and
> >> have to pay all the costs.
> >>
> >> In my case, if I come up with an ontology for the process
> industries, I
> >> will have to decide if it serves our best interests to release
> this and
> >> hope that the big companies adopt it (and pay us to extend it
> or apply
> >> it) or to keep it private and resell it to clients one at a
> time. Not a
> >> simple decision to make but not hard to understand.
> >>
> >>
> >> Knowledge engineering work is very much like instructional design
> >> work.
> >> Someone gives you a stack of manuals, drawing, equipment specs and
> >> manuals and provides you with access to the engineers, maintenance
> >> supervisors and operations supervisors. You take these and
> figure out
> >> how to teach someone all about the process and what they need
> to know
> >> to
> >> do their job safely and effectively.
> >> Coming up with a framework and basic principles that drive the
> ontology
> >> will require input from academic sources (here, books,
> articles, paid
> >> research, etc) as well the traditional resources listed above.
> >>
> >> I also do not expect to get all of it right the first time.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I have been a consultant long enough to appreciate the joke: "A
> >> consultant is someone who borrows you watch, tells you what
> time it is
> >> and keeps your watch."
> >>
> >> It is very infrequent that you get to tell a client something
> of great
> >> importance, that they did not already know.
> >> Often, your greatest value is in helping them see an issue in
> the right
> >> context.
> >> If you are good at consulting, you often just give them someone who
> >> cares about their problem(for $$$) and gives them someone at their
> >> level
> >> to discuss the issue until the choices and action items become
> clear.
> >>
> >> We certainly do not pretend to know anything about the chemistry or
> >> physics or engineering of process plants. We are very good at
> >> organizing
> >> information and presenting it back to the client in a way that
> they can
> >> judge whether we understand it or not. We also have some experience
> >> which helps put their priorities and operation issues in
> perspective.
> >>
> >> Ron
> >>
> >>
> >> Ed Barkmeyer wrote:
> >>
> >>> Ron Wheeler wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> I am not sure that ontology can be applied to high value projects
> >>>> without some elements of AI.
> >>>>
> >>> I always assumed that "axiomatic ontology" was one branch of AI.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> I am looking for intelligent agents (that are not humans -
> which I
> >>>> think, implies artificial) that can draw actionable
> conclusions in
> >>>> complex situations faster than humans.
> >>>>
> >>> I think that is the general idea in knowledge engineering. And it
> >>> also applies to the Semantic Web. The idea is to allow the
> engine to
> >>> discard the chaff in the Google results and present you with
> only the
> >>> grain.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> The other side of the equation is the tool sets that make it easy
> >>>>
> >> for
> >>
> >>>> a SME (Subject Matter Expert) to transfer his or her
> understanding
> >>>>
> >> of
> >>
> >>>> the universe into a model.
> >>>>
> >>> There is work going on in that area, but it is definitely not
> ready
> >>> for prime time. There are 5 or 6 "structured English"
> projects, but
> >>> they don't really help the domain expert become a modeler,
> which is a
> >>> skill. And there is the automated text analysis work, which keeps
> >>> getting better and better, but still isn't good. (Natural
> language
> >>>
> >> is
> >>
> >>> just too messy. It is amazing that we ever understand one
> another.)
> >>> The hybrid approach starts with a "sketch ontology" of the domain,
> >>>
> >> and
> >>
> >>> then uses either the expert or the text to refine it.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> I failed to realize that the gaining of PhDs was the only goal in
> >>>> life. (Too much time spent in the real world!)
> >>>>
> >>> That is really a Catch-22. Much of the government grant money
> goes
> >>>
> >> to
> >>
> >>> academic institutions. Most of the research, and almost all
> of the
> >>> product, of academic institutions is done with student labor.
> >>>
> >> Capable
> >>
> >>> students are willing to perform the labors of Hercules for a
> >>>
> >> pittance,
> >>
> >>> as long as it leads to a degree in a few years. Degrees are
> granted
> >>> for advancing the knowledge base of the science. If a reputable
> >>> institution takes the money to build an ontology, it can't find a
> >>> competent student to do the work, because it can't give a
> degree for
> >>> recording existing knowledge. So the ontology work has to be
> coupled
> >>> with some ostensible technological advance, and the latter becomes
> >>>
> >> the
> >>
> >>> dominant theme of the work (and usually vitiates any value
> there may
> >>> have been in the ontology). The only way the work actually
> gets done
> >>> is under some other umbrella: the student is given the task of
> >>> building the Augean stables ontology, "as a learning experience",
> >>> before he will be allowed to do the exciting work that will
> lead to
> >>> his advanced degree.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> The SME has the job of building the model of a fair amount of the
> >>>> universe.
> >>>> This SME might only have a high school education or junior
> college
> >>>> degree but he is the guy most knowledgeable about the
> relationship
> >>>> between valve 295 and the rest of the universe.
> >>>> His knowledge may save a petrochemical plant as much money in one
> >>>>
> >> day
> >>
> >>>> as a PhD makes in a lifetime and may save many more lives.
> >>>>
> >>> And all that is required is a skilled knowledge engineer (with or
> >>> without Ph.D.) who gets to talk to the SME, can find out that
> valve
> >>> 295 is significant, can determine from that conversation how it is
> >>> related to the rest of the plant universe, and can properly
> add that
> >>> knowledge to the ontology.
> >>>
> >>> I am reminded of the senior manager who asked why no one in his
> >>> organization had made the model we presented. Voice from the
> back of
> >>> the room: "Because it's nobody's <expletive> job to know how, and
> >>> nobody's <expletive> job to do it."
> >>>
> >>> There is always a reason why certain things don't happen (and
> another
> >>> well-known substance does).
> >>>
> >>> -Ed
> >>>
> >>>
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