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Re: [ontolog-forum] Fw: Context in a sentence

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, aurona gerber <agerber@xxxxxxxxxx>
From: Duane Nickull <dnickull@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:45:49 -0800
Message-id: <C78761AD.AA93%dnickull@xxxxxxxxx>
>From the OASIS SOA Reference Model (pertaining to services at time of
execution)    (01)

"720 The execution context of a service interaction is the set of
infrastructure elements, process
721 entities, policy assertions and agreements that are identified as part
of an instantiated service
722 interaction, and thus forms a path between those with needs and those
with capabilities."    (02)

This could perhaps be paraphrased as ³the set of [circumstances] surrounding
and having a modifying effect towards a concept or thing (or an instance
thereof??)²    (03)

A lot more has been written on the subject of context in the reference model
and we strove to define this concept in the context of services.    (04)

"723 As discussed in previous sections of this document, the service
description (and a corresponding
724 description associated with the service consumer and its needs) contains
information that can
725 include preferred protocols, semantics, policies and other conditions
and assumptions that"    (05)

D    (06)


On 1/28/10 11:43 AM, "AzamatAbdoullaev" <abdoul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:    (07)

> Aurona Gerber: "The idea of a review _journal_ of where we are, who we are and
> what we've done is certainly interesting, thank you. I will discuss with my
> co-editors."
> Dear Aurona,
> This idea belongs to the young brilliant mind of Ali Hashimi, who expressed
> his commitment to its realization. I believe, it will make a good content for
> your stimulating journal. Also, the best possible contributors and reviewers,
> you can find among the members of the Ontolog Forum.
> Regards,
> Azamat
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>
>> From:  aurona gerber <mailto:agerber@xxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> To: AzamatAbdoullaev <mailto:abdoul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> Cc: [ontolog-forum] <mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:39  PM
>>
>> Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Fw: Context  in a sentence
>>
>>
>> Dear Azamat
>>
>> The idea of a review _journal_ of  where we are, who we are and what we've
>> done is certainly  interesting, thank you. I will discuss with my co-editors.
>>
>> regards
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 9:54 AM, AzamatAbdoullaev <abdoul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  Ali wrote: "...I would love to see an issue of an ontology  journal, say
>>> Applied Ontology, devoted to cataloging who is doing what, what  the major
>>> perspectives in ontology are, and what the major contributions  from various
>>> research groups across the world are. Instead of a review  paper, a review
>>> _journal_ of where we are, who we are and  what we've done. I think such an
>>> effort would go much further in  fostering the requisite cohesion than
>>> trying to derive consensus  first."
>>>
>>> Good idea, Ali. To realize, it is easier to organize a new journal,  say,
>>> the Journal of Ontology, Semantics and Computation.
>>>
>>> Something what Aurona Gerber from South Africa has done: The  Journal of
>>> Information Systems Knowledge and Ontologies (JISKO), covering an
>>> interesting range of topics:
>>>
>>> * Knowledge in the Information Society
>>> * Knowledge and Ontologies in  Information Systems
>>> * Ontologies and Ontology
>>> * Information Systems  Knowledge Management and Engineering
>>> * Enterprise Knowledge Management  and Engineering
>>> * All aspects in Ontology Construction, Engineering,  Modelling,
>>> Learning, Population and Evaluation
>>> * All aspects Ontology  Evolution and Maintenance
>>> * All aspects in Ontology Adoption, Evaluation  and Management
>>> * Ontology Languages
>>> * Ontology Use in Information  Systems
>>> * Ontology Coupling, Integration and Matching
>>> * Semantic Web  Applications
>>> http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/JISKO/jisko.html
>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----  Original Message -----
>>>>
>>>> From:  Ali  Hashemi <mailto:ali.hashemi+ontolog@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>>
>>>> To:  [ontolog-forum] <mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>>
>>>> Sent:  Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:11 AM
>>>>
>>>> Subject:  Re: [ontolog-forum] Fw: Context in a sentence
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Dear Patrick,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for this email.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> A couple of points here, comments below.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 4:28 PM, Patrick Cassidy  <pat@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> [PC] I  never said that, and I donıt believe it either.  But regardless of
>>>>> how one chooses to talk about the world, any two communicating agents
>>>>> must talk about it **in the same language**, or else fail to communicate
>>>>> accurately
>>>>>
>>>>>  ....
>>>>>
>>>>> [PC] Not  necessarily, though see the next paragraph.  I am sure that
>>>>> different people do have different fundamental assumptions and different
>>>>> beliefs, and use words in different ways, and all of that creates a  great
>>>>> risk of faulty communication, as one can observe in many  situations such
>>>>> as this forum.  In fact, it is probably impossible  to people to have
>>>>> **exactly** the same internal states, though with  effort we can get close
>>>>> enough to each other for communication accurate  enough for most practical
>>>>> purposes (a least when they are not trying to  score debating points).
>>>>> But computers **can** have identical  sets of theories (the computer
>>>>> version of beliefs), since the computer  owners are in complete control
>>>>> and only have to choose to use the same  set of theories in order to
>>>>> communicate accurately.  My point was  that since we do have control over
>>>>> our computersı theories, we can get  them to communicate accurately by
>>>>> using the same sets of theories.   That doesnıt mean that there is only
>>>>> **one** true set of theories, it  does mean that any group that agrees
>>>>> that **some** particular set of  theories is adequate to express what they
>>>>> want their computers to  communicate can use that set to enable accurate
>>>>> computer  communication.  If there are some who feel that the theories are
>>>>> not adequate for their purposes, they can choose not to communicate
>>>>> accurately with the community that does use the common language ­ or  make
>>>>> some adjustments to get an approximate interpretation ­ or better  yet,
>>>>> try  to collaborate with the others to find some set of  theories that
>>>>> includes their needs as well.   But once there  is **some** community that
>>>>> uses a common foundation ontology as the  basis for accurate computer
>>>>> communication among useful programs, it is  likely that one such
>>>>> foundation ontology will be the most commonly used,  and therefore will
>>>>> provide the greatest audience.  If a different  foundation ontology is
>>>>> used in some specialized community, it can become  the preferred basis for
>>>>> communication there, but that community will  then not communicate
>>>>> accurately with the other, larger audience.  I  expect that one common
>>>>> foundation ontology will eventually dominate the  computer communication
>>>>> media for the same reason that English dominates  in international
>>>>> scientific conferences ­ it gives the greatest value  per unit effort
>>>>> expended.  That situation may not last forever ­  English may be replaced
>>>>> by, say Chinese . . .  that depends on  unpredictable factors.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'm very glad you acknowledge that it is probably impossible for  people to
>>>> have exactly the same internal states, let alone descriptions of  what is.
>>>> As you note in the first comment above, all that is really  required for
>>>> two agents to communicate is to agree on what they're  communicating about.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> However, I'm not sure I accept your analogy that English == Common  Theory.
>>>> For me the analogy is more along the lines of English == Common  Logic or
>>>> RDF or OWL2 and the descriptions _using_ English are  the actual ontologies
>>>> we're speaking of - i.e. the words used in English,  say the vocabulary V
>>>> == ontology O. To me this is a more apt analogy.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The solution your post above seems to suggest is actually very  similar to
>>>> the interlingua ontology idea developed in the late 90's,  though perhaps
>>>> that idea was too soon given the state of ontology  development. It has
>>>> since been significantly updated, altered and revived  in the form of the
>>>> OOR or COLORE projects.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> As you have noted, the way for two agents to communicate effectively  is
>>>> via determining where they agree and disagree on their theory (the
>>>> application of English to describe a particular domain / system etc.)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Moreover, as you note below, the number of primitives seems to taper  much
>>>> like y = log (x). However, this doesn't mean that those set of  primitives
>>>> are consistent with one another. And there's the rub.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> As it stands we have many people who are working to develop this
>>>> interlingua; we are in effect, defacto developing exactly the set of
>>>> primitives you speak of, except in a not very coordinated manner and
>>>> without an overarching framework. While this lack of cohesion introduces
>>>> some problems, it also means work can progress without waiting for
>>>> consensus.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Coincidentally, tools are developed, released and implemented to  address
>>>> exactly those problems that arise from said lack of cohesion -  notably
>>>> efforts in semantic mappings.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thus, while we might not have all agreed on the common set of  primitives,
>>>> we're slowly understanding where my primitives agree with  yours and where
>>>> they disagree and in what ways. Unsurprisingly, this is  also enabling my
>>>> ontology to be able to communicate effectively with your  ontology in much
>>>> the way you described above.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Alas, this is slow going, and it can sometimes be frustrating that  there
>>>> is no overarching cohesion, but then we have wonderful communities  like
>>>> ontolog who are linking people together and providing a platform such  as
>>>> the OOR to collate, collect and hopefully, ultimately connect all these
>>>> different primitives.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The above said, to me, a better allocation of resources, instead of a
>>>> trying to achieve broad consensus from the get go, would be to analyze
>>>> what currently exist, figure out what the primitives being used might be,
>>>> and figure out the links, kinks and winks between them - i.e. it might be
>>>> more useful to try to derive cohesion from these disparate efforts by
>>>> digging in and fleshing things out. An idea i'd floated before to Nicola
>>>> Guarino and Michael Gruninger, but I unfortunately haven't pursued with
>>>> the requisite vigor - is that I would love to see an issue of an ontology
>>>> journal, say Applied Ontology, devoted to cataloging who is doing what,
>>>> what the major perspectives in ontology are, and what the major
>>>> contributions from various research groups across the world are. Instead
>>>> of a review paper, a review _journal_ of where we are, who we  are and what
>>>> we've done. I think such an effort would go much  further in fostering the
>>>> requisite cohesion than trying to derive  consensus first.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> So, while I believe your proposal is valuable, I'm not sure it'll be  able
>>>> to attract the requisite momentum; not to mention, there seems to be  a lot
>>>> of work being currently done which already parallels what you  envision.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> All the best,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Ali
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of  sean barker
>>>> Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 3:12  PM
>>>> To: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> Cc: "Patrick  Cassidy [pat@xxxxxxxxx]"@mccarthy.cim3.com
>>>> <http://mccarthy.cim3.com>
>>>> Subject: [ontolog-forum] Fw:  Context in a sentence
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Patrick,
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>     I suspect that the claim "we need a  common foundational ontology" is
>>>>> exactly equivalent to David's quotation  "(1) the entire meaning of a
>>>>> message  is self-contained in said message", since if we have a common
>>>>> foundational ontology we should be able to make statements in the
>>>>> ontology that are true irrespective of context.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I would  interpret C.S.Peirce's definition as saying that communication
>>>>> happens  when an agent sends symbol A and it invokes a knowledge based
>>>>> procedure  leading to symbol B in a second agent, and both A and B refer
>>>>> to the  same (concept) C.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Caveat - I  do not claim that this is Peirce's interpretation, or even
>>>>> that he would  agree with it, but its my B to his A.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> The point  being is that context (what ever that is) defines the inference
>>>>> task in  which A is used to invoke B. Even on the Semantic Web, the
>>>>> context that  it is the semantic web defines particular processing
>>>>> protocols which  invoke a system that understands OWL or RDF rather than
>>>>> one that only  understands HTML or even EDIFACT.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> However,  more broadly, I would reject the idea that there is only one way
>>>>> to talk  about the world. In this context, I would say there are in fact
>>>>> two  distinct types of ontolology, those that talk about the world, and
>>>>> those  that model the world, and that these two views of ontology are
>>>>> incompatible. (A foundation ontology is a model of the world). Perhaps,
>>>>> following Protégé, we could distinguish them by having as TOP "word" and
>>>>> "thing".
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> This is  not to say that I don't think common ontologies are a bad idea -
>>>>> they  are essential for engineered applications - or rather, applications
>>>>> engineered to match a particular human or business context. However,  they
>>>>> are not a universal panacea simply because different contexts will  be
>>>>> understood through different ontologies.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> One might  propose that, because we are all the same type of creature
>>>>> (human) that  we must therefore all use the same mechanisms for thought,
>>>>> and this must  lead to the same foundational concepts. This would imply
>>>>> firstly, that  the variation in humans is too small to allow for different
>>>>> mechanisms  for thought, and secondly, that the mechanisms of thought are
>>>>> entirely  conditioned by our genetic inheritance and are not affected by
>>>>> environment. Both questions should be scientifically verifiable, and
>>>>> indeed may already have been determined, however, this is not my area of
>>>>> expertise, although I would strongly suspect both hypotheses to be  false.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> So, no  context free language, no common foundational ontologies.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Sean Barker
>>>>> Bristol
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> From:  ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>> [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf  Of Patrick
>>>>> Cassidy
>>>>> Sent: 26 January 2010  05:52
>>>>> To: '[ontolog-forum] '
>>>>> Subject: Re:  [ontolog-forum] Context in a sentence
>>>>>                     *** WARNING ***
>>>>>
>>>>>   This message has originated outside your organisation,
>>>>>   either from an external partner or the Global Internet.
>>>>>       Keep this in mind if you answer this message.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> David,
>>>>>
>>>>>>> I want  something--MT?  Ontology support?--that can read Fortran,
>>>>>>> Jovial,  COBOL. Java, PHP, Ruby, C, etc. (oops... that's a computer
>>>>>>> language)  documents & make (more) sense out of said documents.  These
>>>>>>> are  textual artifacts (therefore "documents"?) which may or may not be
>>>>>>> written by humans, they're decidedly NOT edited for readability, and
>>>>>>> they are really not intended for human consumption.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I believe that current  ontology technology, or  extensions of it (to
>>>>> include procedural  attachments) has the technical capability to do such
>>>>> things.  But  non-trivial applications will be quite labor-intensive to
>>>>> implement.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> As I see it, ontology  technology is still in its infancy ­ or perhaps
>>>>> still  embryonic.   I have had great difficulty finding any publicly
>>>>> inspectable (open source) applications that go much beyond an advanced
>>>>> version of database information retrieval ­ adding in a little logical
>>>>> inference, but not using that inference to do anything conspicuously  more
>>>>> impressive than RDBıs themselves.  CYC suggests it has built  applications
>>>>> that do that, but we do not have them available for public  testing ­ and
>>>>> much of CYC is still proprietary, a big turn-off for those  who need a
>>>>> language that can be used freely.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> John Sowa has told us  that he uses a combination of techniques to solve
>>>>> knotty problems  efficiently.   I believe that is what will be very
>>>>> effective  in general, but for that to work outside the confines of a
>>>>> single group  ­ i.e. to enable multiple separately developed agents to
>>>>> cooperate in  solving a problem- they will also need a common language to
>>>>> accurately  communicate information.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> The problem, as I  perceive it is that, although up to now there has been
>>>>> great progress in  understanding the science (mathematical properties) of
>>>>> inference ­ for  which we can be grateful to the mathematicians and
>>>>> logicians -   understanding inference only provides a **grammar**  and a
>>>>> minimal basic **semantics** for a language that computers can  understand.
>>>>> What we have very little agreement on is the  **vocabulary**, without
>>>>> which there is no useful language.  For  computers to properly interpret
>>>>> each otherıs data, it is necessary to  have a common vocabulary ­ or
>>>>> vocabularies that can be **accurately**  translated.   Such a translation
>>>>> mechanism is possible if a  common foundation ontology were adopted, which
>>>>> would have  representations of all the fundamental concepts necessary to
>>>>> logically  describe the domain concepts of the ontologies in programs
>>>>> that  need to communicate data.  It is a measure of the pre-scientific
>>>>> nature of the field that there is actually even disagreement about the
>>>>> need for a common foundation ontology.  To me it is blindingly  obvious ­
>>>>> one cannot communicate without a common language (including  vocabulary);
>>>>> there are no exceptions.  But most efforts at  interoperability among
>>>>> separately developed ontologies currently focus  on developing mappings in
>>>>> some automated manner ­ which any inspection  immediately reveals cannot
>>>>> be done with enough accuracy to allow  machines to make mission-critical
>>>>> decisions based on such inaccurate  mappings.  Accurate mappings are
>>>>> possible via a common foundation  ontology.  But for reasons that I
>>>>> believe are not based on relevant  technical considerations, there is
>>>>> little enthusiasm for developing such  an ontology at present.  Past
>>>>> efforts have failed, because they  depended on voluntary commitment of a
>>>>> great deal of time from  participants in order to find common ground among
>>>>> a large enough user  community.  What will work is if a large developing
>>>>> community is  **paid** to build and test a common foundation ontology and
>>>>> demonstrate  its capability for broad general semantic interoperability.
>>>>> I am  certain it will happen sometime that such an ontology will be
>>>>> developed,  because the need for it and benefits of it are so compelling.
>>>>> The  only question for me is how much time and money will be wasted before
>>>>> such a widely used foundation ontology is developed and tested in
>>>>> multiple applications ­ and who will pay for it.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> So, I believe that  current ontology technology provides the basis to
>>>>> tackle the problems  you cite, but I donıt know of any off-the-shelf
>>>>> programs that can do  that now.  Perhaps someone has developed one?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Pat
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Patrick Cassidy
>>>>>
>>>>> MICRA, Inc.
>>>>>
>>>>> 908-561-3416
>>>>>
>>>>> cell:  908-565-4053
>>>>>
>>>>> cassidy@xxxxxxxxx
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _________________________________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>    (08)

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