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Charles,
I agree with you. A number of us through the years have
come up with similar ontology continuums or spectrums. I prefer my Ontology
Spectrum*, but that's natural, I guess. It was developed over time to act as an
educational aid. I found that many folks understood notions such as taxonomies,
database schemas, UML models, but they didn't know how these related to the new
kid on the block, ontologies. Was a thesaurus an ontology? No. Was a UML model:
no, not yet. And term vs. concept (placeholder for real world referent) is a
crucial distinction. The former is a word/phrase (string, utterance) that
indexes the latter, which is a representation of the meaning of that term (at
least approximately). The important point is that these
concepts/placeholders are meant to stand in for real world referents, since
ontology is about the things of the world. I also attach a newer slide
that tries to show those distinctions, along with their typical use cases:
OntologySpectrumApplication-Obrst06.jpg.
Thanks,
Leo
*If you look at the current Wikipedia article on
the subject, it's not completely accurate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_spectrum.
I independently developed the Ontology Spectrum in Fall, 1999, and it
really represents one dimension, though it is depicted diagonally (for increased
space) as though it were two dimensional: the one dimension is in terms of
expressivity of the model. Also the 4 way stations of taxonomy, thesaurus, conceptual model,
and logical theory are semantic models; that is why I don’t include glossaries,
term lists, etc., directly -- they are not models but are human
language lists and definitions. Mike Uschold, Mike Gruninger, and Chris Welty
and I have talked about this topic of the co-invention of the
semantic/ontology spectrum for quite some time. Personally, I prefer my Ontology
Spectrum because I overlay onto the specific models additional information,
such as the kind of parent-child relation, related database and modeling
languages, and logic information. But all of these ontology spectrum/semantic
continuums are sound: they represent the best distillations of solid
generalizations especially good for educational purposes.You are probably
referring to the presentations I gave at Ontolog last Jan 19/26 2006: "What is an ontology? - A Briefing on the Range
of Semantic Models", http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2006_01_12.
_____________________________________________
Dr. Leo Obrst The MITRE Corporation,
Information Semantics
lobrst@xxxxxxxxx Center for
Innovative Computing & Informatics
Voice: 703-983-6770 7515
Colshire Drive, M/S H305
Fax: 703-983-1379 McLean, VA
22102-7508, USA
One of the big schisms in types of ontology that I see is a difference in
an ontological representation (model) that is intended to organize knowledge
at the level of terms, and a model that is intended to organize knowledge at
the level of meaning. If you look at the Ontology Spectrum that was
presented to the Ontolog group last year by Dr. Leo Obrst, you see a
progression of ontology representation techniques, from controlled
vocabularies and simple data models, up through thesauri, taxonomy techniques,
up to axiomatized systems and logic based models (and beyond). One of
the big shifts I have seen is the difference in emphasis of lower level models
(thesauri and controlled vocabularies, for instance) on terms, and the attempt
of upper level models (axiom based systems, logic models) on
definitions. For different communities, differently focused
applications, both appear equally useful, but they are very
different. From all of this, possibly an axis of differentation for
ontologies can exist to show the focus of what the ontology is defining, and
the depth of it's intended use. Chuck
Charles Turnitsa Project Scientist Virginia Modeling, Analysis & Simulation Center Old Dominion University Research Foundation 7000 College Drive Suffolk, Virginia 23435 (757) 638-6315 (voice) (757) 686-6214 (fax) cturnits@xxxxxxx
-----ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
-----
To:
Ontology Summit 2007 Forum <ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From:
Patrick Durusau <patrick@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by:
ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: 19/01/2007
08:53AM
Subject: [ontology-summit] Defining "ontology"
Greetings,
I am concerned with the suggestions
that it is possible to create a
continuum along which to organize what
are known as "ontologies" in one
or more circles.
At least unless
we are willing to concede that the creation of such a
continuum is
itself an imposition of assumptions from an undisclosed
ontology.
I am sure there are those who would say that
folksonomies are "missing"
features that are present in "formal"
ontologies. Perhaps, but
folksonomies predate "formal" ontologies by
several millenia and have
proven robust enough for many purposes. If the
goal is to represent the
opinions of the many rather than the few,
perhaps it is "formal"
ontologies that "missing" features.
I am
not taking a position one way or the other. But, I do think it is
important to realize that any attempt to construct a continuum is with
an unstated choice of a winner before the the continuum is
populated.
Hope everyone is looking forward to a great
weekend!
Patrick
--
Patrick
Durusau
Patrick@xxxxxxxxxxx
Chair, V1 - Text Processing: Office and
Publishing Systems Interface
Co-Editor, ISO 13250, Topic Maps --
Reference Model
Member, Text Encoding Initiative Board of Directors,
2003-2005
Topic Maps: Human, not artificial, intelligence at work!
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