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Re: [ontolog-forum] Semantic Enterprise Architecture

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Doug McDavid <dougmcdavid@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2010 09:13:55 -0800
Message-id: <AANLkTinJQfXsX9rLYmYHbeTo-FhmBvPE06YmhdgNegGr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
@Jack -- I agree that all this ontological tech should be infrastructural.  That's why I don't expect prison wardens to be forced to speak in any version of FOL.  But if the IT systems that wardens, guards, dispatchers, transporters, inmate intake personnel, etc. do not support the ways they think, operate, and interoperate, then they can be worse than useless -- actually become impediments that the folks on the ground have to work around to get their jobs done.  I have hopes that some ontologists in the trenches (guard towers, loading docks) can help improve this situation.  They have to be willing to get elbows deep in actual domain language, but there are lot's worse ways to navigate the downturn, sez I.

@Matt -- It goes without saying between us that I agree with your points of view, most especially the view that enterprise *is a* system.  With Korzybski's caveat, of course, that "whatever you SAY a thing is, it is NOT."  Let's just say an enterprise can (most) productively be viewed through systemic concepts, and a big part of that is the system of natural language that can be found by an alert observer.

You can stay in your bunker, we'll meet again!

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 8:45 AM, Matthew K. Hettinger <mkhettinger@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Jack and all

I lied, I'm back -

1) Yes - enterprise semantic / ontology and language systems should be part of the infrastructure. That is where I put it in my EA artifacts and that is where they are realized in the enterprise.

2). I agree with your aspects but add more e.g. *semiotics, ontology and language*, and law, your economics I name Economics Finance and Accounting (not sure if it is equivalent), your human social dynamics I include in "the enterprise *is a* system - in the (general) systems-theoretic sense (which by definition includes social systems, ecology, and complexity, adaptation, learning).
[This is where I part company with 99.9% of the EA community who don't / won't consider enterprises in this way - my ontological commitment is different]

Now I will go back and stay in my hole - maybe.

Matt

On 8/22/2010 10:54 AM, Jack Ring wrote:
IDEF to represent some enterprise learning the IDEF crowd never provided for modeling systems that learn (adjust (gradients), arrange (pattern of relationships) and co-learn (acquisition, allocation and scheduling of resources)). Maybe they have and I am simply out of date. Prof. Dan Shunk, ASU, invented the Double Diagonal IDEF.

Regardless, I applaud your idea. A good therapy for modern ontologists would be to have them correlate to IDEF5. 

FWIW, our work has shown us that the intelligent enterprise architecture must provide for at least seven aspects, notably, thermodynamics, informatics, biometrics, teleonomics, human social dynamics, economics and ecologics. 

When implementing an architecture we often sift some functions and features into a facet of the system usually called the infrastructure. I think the enterprise ontology (including its many "nyms" bridges) should be part of the infrastructure, certainly not part of the aesthetic decor.

Make sense? 

OBTW, an enterprise ontology must change (or be changed) as usage occurs and time passes (context changes). Accordingly, an enterprise model must have 'ontology' as one of its nodes with provisions for morphing that node. Yes, the bibliography must include a citation for the bibliography. 

Jack

On Aug 22, 2010, at 7:46 AM, Doug McDavid wrote:

@Jack!  Cool to see you out here, at this convergence of erudition -- the OntoEAs!  Your statement is nicely put.  

You know, I wonder if it's time to dust off IDEF5 -- the ontology aspect of the IDEF universe.  There is some wisdom out there that the old boys thought of, back in the day.

Doug

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 6:00 AM, Jack Ring <jring@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Doug,
Makes sense to me. I see an enterprise as a system of human beings who have a reasonably common Purpose along with an enabling set of Principles and Practices and an empowering set  of facilities and machinery. I see enterprise architecture as the arrangement of function and feature that maximizes the objective function of that system. A reasonably common language is a fundamental feature of such an enterprise just as a reasonably common schema is a fundamental feature of their information system machinery. Some enterprises may find that taxonomies are sufficient but an intelligent, living enterprise must have a shared ontology.
Jack Ring

On Aug 22, 2010, at 4:51 AM, Doug McDavid wrote:

@Pavritha (and all) --

Let me present a fairly simple, but real, example of what I am talking about (hoping to find similar interest among this august confluence of ontology and enterprisology thinkers).

My current project is enterprise architecture for the California state prison system.  In that system there is a word commonly used, across different departments, and that word is "bed".  It is almost immediately obvious that in this (set of) domain(s), that word does not have the common, everyday connotation of a piece of furniture primarily used for sleeping.  I would say that I just expressed an ontological positioning of the word bed as used in contexts that everyone is familiar with.

However, in the prison (corrections and rehabilitation) context, "bed" means much more.  What it means is the cell location for a particular inmate.  It is their entire living quarters though maybe not eating, maybe not recreational, depending on the institution.  Because of the variance among institutions the word "bed" may bring social considerations, such as, should this inmate have a cell-mate, are there any gang-related issues to restrict the "bed" to a certain cell-block, what level of security must be maintained for this inmate (maximum security, etc.).  Is this inmate a celebrity prisoner, of which we have our share in California, from Charles Manson to Scott Peterson.  

I am not hoping to transform wardens and prison housing administrators into ontologists, such that their work register becomes a precise, logicalized patois.  I am saying that it is incumbent on enterprise architects to understand the institutional architecture within they are working, and reflect that back to designers and decision-makers.  I am also saying that such reflection would benefit from the rigorous understanding of meaning that I keep hoping is the mission of those who have taken up the banner of ontology.

Why am I concerned (in this example)?  Partly because I see daily e-mails about beds becoming available in various institutions (whose names you might recognize -- Pelican Bay, etc.).  Now, as a lowly sub-contractor working through a smallish consultancy that is in turn contracted with CDCR in conjunction with an IT system where HP is the prime, it seems strange to me that institutional confinement space allocation goes out as a broadcast e-mail, such that I get it.  And this concern arises directly from an interest in classifying and unpacking what the enterprise is saying to itself, in its own natural, but parochial, language.

Does any of this make sense to anyone here?  I think it is both entertaining and useful, but then no one ever said I was normal!

Cheers,

Doug

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 12:18 AM, Ian Bailey <ian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi,

 

The defence departments of Australia, Canada, Sweden, UK and US have been working on a formal ontology to support their enterprise architecture efforts – www.ideasgroup.org

 

All we’ve released so far is the foundation - http://www.ideasgroup.org/foundation/ - but quite a bit more has been done on building patterns for processes, agents, information, systems, capabilities, etc. The foundation has been used to underpin the DoDAF 2.0 meta-model (DM2) – though the resulting meta-model isn’t what most people would recognise as an ontology. The Swedish Armed Forces are investigating how the MODAF Meta-Model (currently a UML Profile) could be re-engineered into a formal ontology based on IDEAS.

 

John Zachman was over in the UK in March for the Integrated-EA conference and had some discussions with UK MOD on ontology and enterprise architecture. From the brief conversations I had with him, he seemed very enthusiastic about ontology in general.

 

At the same conference, Jonathan Carter and Jason Powell presented on an open-source approach to EA development using Protege – see http://www.integrated-ea.com/Previous-Years

 

Back in 2007, I presented on ontology and EA at the Open Group and EA Europe conferences – slides are here: http://www.modelfutures.com/Publications/

 

That, and the paper from Top Quadrant (which has already been mentioned in this thread) are the only efforts I’m aware of for “semantic EA”.

 

Hope this helps

--

Ian Bailey

Model Futures



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Second Life: Doug McDavid
Web: enterprisology.com

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Second Life: Doug McDavid
Web: enterprisology.com

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