Coming late to
this dialog, I am wondering if it has already been suggested that the group
take on the project of constructing a domain ontology of ontology to specify
formally what it believes constitutes and differentiates ontologies. As a
possible direction, I can imagine such an effort would help pin down, converge
and organize the diverse sentiments of the group and, at the same time,
encourage us to practice what we preach. For example, the group might
begin such an undertaking by choosing to restrict the ontology domain to
computational ontology as that breed of ontology that is expressly machine
readable and intended to be used in computing systems. Such a domain
restriction should serve not to exclude factors of philosophical ontology as much
as specifically include factors of computability like language expressivity,
language and vocabulary mapping, logic computing, data typing, algorithms for
interpretation, and instance storage and serialization features. Further,
the topical nature of the ontology in terms of its domain boundaries and level
of focus, its mission (or characteristic queries), and its relation to other
bounded domains provides a candidate third leg for this ontology of ontology
device.
Possible
beginnings of an ontology of ontology exist at http://www.charlestoncore.org/ont/2005/08/o3.html
thanks to Xiaoshu Wang, and at http://km.aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de/ws/eon2006/eon2006gangemietal.pdf
thanks to Aldo Gangemi et al, and I am sure elsewhere.
Now, the hard
part, of course, will be deciding the kind of ontology an ontology of ontology
should be. Whatever form it takes, however, I suspect it would represent
a tangible contribution to the ontology community.
Mike
==========================
Michael Denny,
Ph.D.
Principal
Ontologist
Concurrent
Technologies Corporation (CTC)
100 CTC Drive
Johnstown, PA 15904
Phone: (814) 248-7518
Mobile: (814) 322-8721
Email:
dennym@xxxxxxxxxx URL: www.ctc.com
==========================