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Re: [ontolog-forum] What the difference re., Data Dictionary, Ontology,

To: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Ron Wheeler <rwheeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2014 13:43:00 -0500
Message-id: <52FE63B4.8010803@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
+1
Providing useful ontology theory and developing tools that can take 
rules, existing ISO standards and legacy code and convert them into 
ontologies that can be fed to Watson will be a very lucrative activity.    (01)

Ron    (02)

On 14/02/2014 10:50 AM, John F Sowa wrote:
> Frank, Segun, Matthew L, and David,
>
> FG
>> Broader artifacts are usually created or driven by those that have
>> a bigger picture perspective of things, like Systems Engineers,
>> Enterprise Architects, Application Architects/Designers, etc.
>> Remember, data is only a small piece of a broader system and
>> most Data Architects/Designers/Engineers/Database Admins/etc.
>> are not trained to deal with the broader/bigger picture.
> I agree.  But breadth of vision is independent of job title.
> Two of my favorite philosophers -- Peirce and Wittgenstein --
> were trained as and employed as engineers.  In spite of, or
> perhaps because of that experience, their vision was much
> broader than most "professional" philosophers.
>
> SA
>> I have worked with colleagues who had a variety of skills across  the
>> data and software divide...Different environments offer different
>> levels of opportunities to obtain a multiplicity of IT experience.
> Yes.  But the "big picture" group includes scientists, engineers,
> philosophers, linguists, lexicographers, psychologists, historians,
> economists, journalists, executives, lawyers, artists, architects,
> poets, statesmen (AKA dead politicians), and any intelligent people
> who have seriously thought about and written about their daily work.
>
> ML
>> There was talk on the onto-summit list of building a metaontology--or
>> ontology of ontologies. I think what is perhaps more potentially useful
>> would be an ontology of data, information, knowledge; artifacts, uses,
>> relations and attributes...
> I agree.  The most useful standards harmonize, tidy up, and generalize
> best practices and de facto standards.  The field of ontology has over
> two millennia of philosophical analysis.  But the application of
> ontology to computer system design is still in its *infancy*.
>
> As one example, Cyc is the largest formal ontology on planet earth.
> Cyc was founded in 1984 -- thirty years ago!  At one time or another,
> it has had some of the best computer scientists, logicians, linguists,
> and domain experts as employees, consultants, advisers, or users.
>
> Cyc has not grown as rapidly as the developers had hoped.  But any
> company that has stayed in business for 30 years has been doing
> something right.  In fact, Cyc is the *only* formal ontology that
> has grown out of infancy into at least early childhood.
>
> IBM's Watson is another major system that did something that few
> other AI systems achieved:  beat human experts in an area that
> involves ordinary language and reasoning.  In that realm, it is
> still in its infancy, but it is a big, important baby.
>
> DE
>> Totally aside from the fact that the central data dictionary simply
>> doesn't exist anymore in any commercial sense, organizations are
>> far too distributed today... "language control" (which includes
>> at least glossary, ontology, controlled language, naming standards,
>> etc.) should be an integral part of the [dictionary/repository].
> Yes.  Many old-time legacy systems (AKA *successful* systems) had
> more inclusive (and more readable) glossaries than the new-fangled
> ontologies.  The trillions of dollars of legacy systems will keep
> running for at least the next 40 years.  Any proposed standards
> that ignore them are doomed to niche applications.
>
> Summary:  Looking at the "big picture" is a great idea.  But don't
> ignore the biggest things in the realm of applied ontology:  Cyc,
> Watson, and the legacy systems that used informal methods.
>
> John
>   
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>    (03)


-- 
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: rwheeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102    (04)


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