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Re: [ontolog-forum] Some Grand Challenge proposal ironies

To: <pcmurray2000@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "Christopher Spottiswoode" <cms@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 17:50:54 +0200
Message-id: <484107EFD3364A5C9B2DD7C52577E712@klaptop>
Thanks Phil.    (01)

> I look forward to developments on the Ontology Chemistry wiki.    (02)

It'll soon be resuming.    (03)

>> Interestingly, this is how Tim Berners-Lee once put it rather neatly
>> (in a now dated though still comparable context):
>>
>>> The job of classifying all human output is a never-ending one, and
>>> merges with the job of creating it.
>
> That's a great catch and a great reminder. Of course, we have to
> define "classify" and "human output" very thoughtfully.    (04)

Berners-Lee had a very far-sighted vision from very early on, so though
he had been prompted by the idea of adding keywords to documents, I
suspect he had in mind very general senses, such as "organize" and
"everything we do that others need to know", from which his second
clause follows so directly it might almost be left unsaid.    (05)

> For example, in the interview from 1996 with Tim B-L that you cited,
> we have the exchange:
>
>> TR: What will using the Web be like in a few years, assuming these
>> developments occur?
>>
>> BERNERS-LEE: You won't see a browser, you will see a document.
>
> [snip]
>
> I hope we will see much more than "documents." I hope we will also see
> forms of knowledge representation that directly support
> understanding, memory, and creation of value.    (06)

Again, I would like to think that in the evolution of the browser he
foresaw something like the OntChem AOS!    (07)

The basic idea (apart from the OntChem aspect) is after all an old and
plain concept.  I first met it in Datapoint Corporation's time-shared
desktop minicomputer software in 1973, and I was told they took the idea
from Burroughs.    (08)

(So there's yet another rather "mainstream" feature I'm riding on.)    (09)

Regards,
Christopher    (010)





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