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Re: [ontology-summit] [REQUIREMENTS] Fwd: Ontologist Aptitude Test?

To: Ontology Summit 2010 discussion <ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Joel Bender <jjb5@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2010 15:41:48 -0500
Message-id: <2DF11B64-0993-4647-854D-BB72DCB79BC0@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Amanda,    (01)


> I've edited the subject line for this post, adding the [REQUIREMENTS] tag.  
>I'm not sure whether that was the intended alignment when the topic was first 
>raised... Adding the tag to at least my post will let me easily find the 
>thread and harvest relevant bits from it later.    (02)

Anything that can help keep ideas and discussions organized is a good thing :-).    (03)

In the sister discussion on the ontolog-forum list, Jeffery Schiffel wrote:    (04)

> Rather than first developing the test, instead create an Ontologist Body of 
>Knowledge. From them, several items follow, including an aptitude test.    (05)

Wrapping the pieces of training and experience that are coming from a variety 
of the topics he then lists in this OBoK label is a good idea.    (06)

> The steps in order are these:
> 
> 1. Build an OBoK.
> 2. Build a training curriculum.
> 3. Build a certification test.
> 4. Build an aptitude test.    (07)

In my mind these are coincident.  You can't build an effective training 
curriculum without knowing what you are expecting the participants to learn at 
the end of the class, semester, or term.  If you are teaching some component, 
there has to be some kind of feedback that gives the instructor the confidence 
that the student is ready for more material.    (08)

I would also expect steps 3 and 4 to be swapped, certification to be a "seal of 
approval" that is bestowed upon someone after they have passed a series of 
aptitude tests, but that's a different discussion.    (09)

> To get started, here are just a few possible OBoK topics:
> 
> - Training and years of experience in use of logic, including FOL and modal 
>logics. Applied use, such as SQL or DL.
> 
> - Training and years of experience in conceptual structures, including 
>graphical tools and formal notations like XML, UML, many others.
> 
> - Use of ontology tools, ranging from general purpose tools (e.g., databases 
>and Protégé) to specialized ontology tools.    (010)

I can easily understand how and why these would be necessary.    (011)

> - Training or skill in general systems theory.    (012)

This seems to me to be a huge topic, like saying "training or skill in 
mathematics."  I will follow up with Mr Schiffel on the other discussion.    (013)

> - Training in algebraic methods such as trees and digraphs, lattices, and 
>similar group structures, and in graph theory.
> 
> - Knowledge of an "ontology life cycle," to include designing an maintaining 
>individual or coupled ontologies.
> 
> - Basic principles of syntax, semantics, semiotics.    (014)

I can understand these last elements as components of parsing (tokenization, 
prefix/infix/postfix notations, precedence, etc), but there may be some more 
that I'm missing.    (015)


Joel    (016)


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