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Re: [ontolog-forum] RDF and XML

To: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: John F Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 22:56:22 -0400
Message-id: <51C51256.6030904@xxxxxxxxxxx>
On 6/21/2013 1:22 PM, Kingsley Idehen wrote:
> I assume what you outlined above for the benefit of other thread
> readers, that might be unaware of this history?  You know that this
> isn't news to me    (01)

Yes, I realize that you know this story.  Unfortunately, the details
are not widely known.  In fact, I had only recently read the original
BAA for the DAML project.  See the URL and excerpts below.    (02)

Note that the Program Manager at DARPA was Jim Hendler, who took
a leave of absence from the U. of Maryland in 1999 and 2000.
The proposal by Tim B-L in 2000 and the paper in the Scientific
American in 2001 by Tim B-L, Jim Hendler, and Ora Lassila are
consistent with this BAA.  The final DAML results in 2005 are not.    (03)

I believe that the two references below to SHOE and On2broker would
have formed a very good basis for the DAML project.  SHOE is a simple,
readable ontology language that is sufficient to represent the content
of the great majority of published OWL ontologies.  And following is
the the opening sentence of the On2broker paper:    (04)

> On2broker provides brokering services to improve access to heterogeneous,
> distributed and semistructured information sources as they are presented
> in the World Wide Web.    (05)

That paper shows how On2broker was used to relate relational databases
that use SQL, object-oriented databases, and logic-programming with
Frame-logic (F-logic), which supports both inheritance and rules.    (06)

A system based on SHOE + On2broker + F-logic with bindings to SQL,
to object-oriented databases, and to object-oriented procedural
languages would have been an outstanding foundation for the
Semantic Web.  It would have been much more powerful, flexible,
and efficient than OWL.  And it would also be much more congenial
to webmasters who were using SQL or OODBs with Java.    (07)

If the DAML project had produced that combination in 2005, webmasters
around the world would take notice.  It would make a beautiful fit
with RDBs, OODBs, and OO programming systems.  All the methodologies
for OOPS could be integrated with it.  And today, we would have 8 years
of experience with integrating ontologies, logic programming, and
mainstream IT.    (08)

The world missed a huge opportunity by not taking that path.  But it's
not too late.  We can still go back to BAA 00-07 and Tim B-L's proposal.
But this time, we can do it right!    (09)

John
_______________________________________________________________________    (010)

http://xml.coverpages.org/daml-pipBAA0007.html
BAA 00-07 PROPOSER INFORMATION PAMPHLET:  Agent Based Computing    (011)

Excerpts:    (012)

The programs in the Agent-Based Computing (ABC) thrust are collectively 
focused on developing the technologies required to seed the next major 
evolution of the world-wide web – the ability for autonomously operating 
intelligent software programs (software agents) to perform distributed 
computing on the same worldwide scale that has been achieved in sharing 
information. DARPA is seeking to create an environment in which 
intelligent distributed computing can be made as easy and ubiquitous as 
data exchange has become...    (013)

DARPA is developing the technology foundation that allows software 
agents to interoperate with other software agents and with other 
entities in cyberspace such as servers, databases, and sensors, etc... 
DARPA is seeking to develop technologies that enable software agents to 
identify, communicate with, and understand other software agents 
dynamically (i.e., on the fly at run time, not built in at development 
time) and to be able to process the informational content of a wide 
range of information sources.  This goal will be pursued as the major 
thrust of the DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML) program...    (014)

A.1 DAML Technical Background    (015)

The modern information technology world is a dynamically changing 
environment with an exponentially increasing ability to create and 
publish data that rapidly swamps human abilities to process that data 
into information.  Agent-based computing can potentially help us to 
recognize complex patterns in this widely distributed, heterogeneous, 
uncertain information environment.  Unfortunately, this potential is 
hampered by the difficulty agents face in understanding and interacting 
with data that is either unprocessed or in natural languages.   The 
inability of agents to understand the conceptual concepts on a web page, 
their difficulty in handling the semantics inherent in the outputs of a 
program, and the complexity of fusing information concept from the 
outputs of sensors, to name but a few problems, truly keep the “agent 
revolution” from occurring...    (016)

DAML builds on a large number of current industrial, DARPA, and academic 
approaches. These include emerging web standards such as XML, SMIL 
and/or RDF..., current and former DARPA Information Systems Office 
programs (HPKB, I3, CoABS...), and university efforts in the development 
of ontological markups including SHOE..., OML..., and On2broker...    (017)

[Unfortunately, the links in that document are broken.  For SHOE,
see http://www.cs.umd.edu/projects/plus/SHOE/ .  For On2broker, see
http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-23/fensel-ijcai99-iii.pdf .  For F-logic,
see http://www.csee.umbc.edu/courses/771/papers/flogic.pdf ]    (018)

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