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Re: [ontolog-forum] I ontologise, you ontologise, we all mess up... (was

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Christopher Menzel <cmenzel@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:31:47 -0600
Message-id: <9B9DE13D-1A72-4F91-9BC6-2F5A06B7E95F@xxxxxxxx>
On Jan 11, 2011, at 1:49 PM, Peter Brown wrote:
> ... 
> I remain baffled by the terms (and the presumed concepts behind them – which 
>are *not* clear at all) of ‘ontology engineer’ and ‘ontology engineering’. I 
>do not think that one can ‘engineer’ an ontology any more than one can 
>engineer a meeting: one can bring skills, methods and tools to the meeting (as 
>Chair of a meeting for example) and can make sometimes significant progress 
>even in ignorance of the subject of the meeting – if the purpose of the role 
>of Chair is to help the meeting to come to some conclusion. However, once a 
>Chair starts to pronounce on matters and get involved in the substance of a 
>meeting, those skills and methods become overshadowed by their ignorance or 
>partisanship.    (01)

Hello Peter,    (02)

I don't understand your analogy.  An ontology is a concrete artifact (unlike a 
meeting).  And, like the production of any quality artifact, the production of 
a good ontology requires training and  expertise.  On the face of it, anyway, 
"ontology engineer" seems a reasonable title for those with the appropriate 
training and expertise.  (Opinions vary, of course, regarding the nature and 
extent of such training and expertise.)    (03)

I have to say that I don't see how an ontology is in any way enough like a 
meeting to support your argument that, because it makes no sense to engineer a 
meeting, it makes no sense to engineer an ontology.    (04)

-chris    (05)


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