Debbie:
Absolutely agree with you: I’m not trying to invent
anything new (at least, I don’t think so, if this week’s
discussions are anything to go by) but just give a neologism to something we
seem to be struggling with: as for example, with the step already taken yesterday
in recognising the dimensions of ontologies and seeing the need to identify
ways to collaborate – that’s what I’d call Folksology –
both the inclusion of folksonomies in the broad family of ontologies, and the
approach that folksonomies take in enabling collaboration and interoperability in
a relatively unstructured manner with an easily accessible on-ramp.
To switch metaphor, the Celtic Tree is interesting because what
one person might think of as a branch out from their work, another may consider
as a root for their own work… such as we saw yesterday around the point
on “ontology as a designed artefact”: is it an output or in input?
It’s both. if we tried to visualise it, I guess it’d look more like
something from MC Escher ;-)
Peter
From: ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Deborah
MacPherson
Sent: 25 April 2007 13:52
To: Ontology Summit 2007 Forum
Subject: Re: [ontology-summit] Ontology Summit follow up -
"Folksology"?
Thanks for sending this Peter.
Really interesting image selections and objectives in the slides [3] http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SICoP/2007-04-25/MArditoKLynch04252007.ppt
If the disciplines working on defining and trying to solve this problem are as
intertwined as the tree and root metaphor - why force distinctions between
them? Rather, what purpose does it serve in the end to separate different
(sorry to use this term...) approaches?
If the purpose of identifying a new discipline is to be able to measure or
otherwise indicate the levels of translation or formalization needed to
evaluate, import/export, and integrate ontologies to accomplish what the
authors Lynch and Ardito describe as "Stalking the Semantic Sweet
Spot" - is the issue that a hybrid discipline needs its own name within
the tangled knot?
I think we will be forever merging and dividing the fields that tackle this
problem over the next hundreds of years. Would it be simpler in the long run to
cordon off and somehow signify basic levels of translation or formalization
that need to consistently recognized up and down the spectrum regardless of
user's special knowledge? Of course each area will eventually need a name but
it seems like the bigger picture still needs to be clearer first.
Debbie
*************************************************
Deborah L. MacPherson
Specifier, WDG Architecture PLLC
Projects Director, Accuracy&Aesthetics
**************************************************
On 4/25/07, Peter F Brown <peter@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Firstly, many thanks also to Peter Yim, our NIST hosts and
everyone on the organising committee for a very successful meeting.
My immediate "takeaway" was that we seem to have made a significant
breakthrough in finding a means of discourse between some very diverse disciplines
and broadened all of our appreciations of the range and depth of work on
ontologies.
Further, we need a different mindset to address the problem of capturing and
encapsulating so-called "tacit knowledge" that goes beyond the
limitations of the largely "transactional", process-driven approaches
that are used today [1], even in many so-called "Web 2.0"
applications.
For me, one of the most powerful ideas that came out was the need to have
ontology definition as a permanently evolving and refining process rather than
a single, static, designed artefact.
Switching domains this morning, to the Semantic Interoperability Community of
Practice meeting [2] I have been already struck by the similarity of the
discourse and the problems identified. One presentation already this morning
[3] has used an image of the "Celtic Tree of Life" - with the roots
nourishing the branches and vice-versa - to depict a major information
architecture problem and this image seems to be a powerful metaphor of the need
to work across all parts of the "spectrum" of ontologies from
folkonomies up to highly formal ontologies.
Put the two together and maybe you get: Folksology. Could this be the new
"discipline" that we all ought to master?
Regards,
Peter
[1] see, for example, "Interactive SOA - Towards content-centric
services", http://www.oasis-open.org/events/symposium/2007/slides/Andrew-Townley.odp
that I referred to at the Summit
[2] http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SICoPSpecialConference2_2007_04_25
[3] http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SICoP/2007-04-25/MArditoKLynch04252007.ppt
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