ontolog-forum
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [ontolog-forum] Semantic Web shortcomings [was Re: ANN: GoodRelation

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Ron Wheeler <rwheeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:46:07 -0400
Message-id: <48AC3C3F.2050206@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
John F. Sowa wrote:
> Pat,
>
> That inference doesn't seem to be convincing:
>
> PC> One thing we learned from the Cyc project (and also from SUMO) is
>  > that an ontology developed by one group will have great difficulty
>  > gaining adoption by those who did not participate in its creation.
>  > Cyc had the additional disadvantage of being proprietary for its
>  > first 15 years (i.e. **not open**) and is still partly proprietary.
>
> For many years, Cyc was being supported by sponsors who received
> copies of all the code and who had the opportunity to send some
> of their personnel to Austin to take courses and work with the Cyc
> developers.  The companies who supported it received a license to
> use any or all of that material, royalty free, in any of their
> products.
>
> Lenat gave a talk to Bill Gates at one time and convinced him to
> sign up as a sponsor.  But after a couple of years, they dropped
> their license, even though they would have had the right to package
> any or all of Cyc in any or all MSFT products -- royalty free.
> Around that time I also spoke with somebody in MSFT research,
> and I asked him what people there thought about Cyc.  He said
> that the were not impressed with its potential.  (Of course,
> that might be a biased view by somebody who was working on
> a different approach.)
>
> I also spoke with the manager of the AI department at a large
> corporation that had been a sponsor of Cyc from the beginning.
> While I was visiting there, I also got a demo from a person
> who was using Cyc for his project.  After that demo, I asked
> the manager what they thought of their investment in Cyc.
> He replied "Every person who had ever spent any time working
> with Cyc has been fired, and I don't think it's a coincidence."
>
> A few weeks after that visit, I sent an email note to the
> person who showed me the demo, and the note bounced back
> with an "address unknown" response.
>
> The companies who signed up for Cyc paid a lot of money for it,
> and they had employees who learned how to use the system.  But
> apparently, they weren't able to build any useful applications
> that the companies considered profitable or even promising.
>
> That experience does not give me any confidence that another
> Cyc-like or SUMO-like project on a bigger scale will produce
> a high return on investment.  For years, I had been telling
> Lenat that he should devote more time to work with customers
> to develop useful applications.  But he kept saying that he
> didn't want to "dilute" his research by working on applications.
>
> I still believe that Cyc is a valuable resource, from which
> we have all learned a great deal.  But one thing we learned is
> that an unfocused research effort is not likely to discover a
> pot of magic applications at the end of the rainbow.
>
>   
I agree.    (01)

I hope that we can focus a bit on how to build a successful project 
rather than on how to induce support for unfocused research.
I have an intuitive sense that the numbers being thrown about might be 
correct but I am not sure how to take these vague assertions and turn 
them into a winning proposal for a client who has a KM problem and money 
to spend on it.    (02)

I have 2 situations (in 2 different industries) where the problem is 
expressed as KM but the only practical solution being considered is 
e-Learning. I am not adverse to providing an e-Learning solution  (that 
is our core business) but I think that there is a potential to introduce 
ontology and start the clients on the road to a more complete solution.    (03)

Ron
> John
>
>  
> _________________________________________________________________
> Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/  
> Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/  
> Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
> Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/ 
> To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>  
>
>       (04)


_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/  
Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/  
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/ 
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    (05)

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>