[ontolog-forum] An Ontologist's Hippocratic Oath>

[Gary Berg-Cross <gbergcross@xxxxxxxxx>]

Following the mortgage meltdown that prompted the current crisis were those theoretical constructs known as financial models Emanuel Derman and Paul Wlmott had an article that appeared in Bloomberg Business week called “The Modelers' Hippocratic Oath”

In the article they listed the oath and I thought it might be of interest and amusing to the Ontolog community and adapted it slightly as:

An Ontologist's Hippocratic Oath

 

~ I will remember that I didn't make the world, and it doesn't exist to make my formal ontology and its taxonomies look good.

~ Though I will use models boldly to enhance data and information understanding, I will not be overly impressed by them.

~ I will never sacrifice reality for elegance without explaining why I have done so.

~ Nor will I give the people who use my ontological models false comfort about its accuracy. Instead, I will make explicit its assumptions and oversights.

~ I understand (and hope) that if done well my work may eventually have significant effects on information science, society and its economy, many of them beyond my comprehension.

--

Gary Berg-Cross, Ph.D.  

gbergcross@xxxxxxxxx     

http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?GaryBergCross

NSF INTEROP Project  

http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0955816

SOCoP Executive Secretary

Knowledge Strategies    

Potomac, MD

240-426-0770

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