That is a great perspective, and I concur that there would be
value in fleshing this out. (01)
We use ontology modeling to express a business "conceptual model"
of the problem domain, that is a model that is both platform
independent and design independent - a model fo the problem not
the solution. This is not the only use of ontologies (and
therefore not the only case to be made for ontologies, there are
many which are essentially part of an application or the solution
to a problem). Also, our model (at the EDM Council) is an
industry consensus model, across the industry and across
organizational boundaries, which again is not the only case to be
made, but this resulted directly from industry demand for common,
consensus terms and definitions of the facts about securities,
derivatives, transactions and so on. (02)
Anything we can do to firm up the thinking you have outlined
here, and make the case for ontologies in the contexts expressed
by this framework, gets my vote (and my help). (03)
Mike (04)
On 14/12/2010 19:19, ali.hashemi@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Hi Steve,
>
> Quoting "Wartik, Steven P \"Steve\""<swartik@xxxxxxx>:
> ...
> <snip>
>> But back to the original point about the usefulness of ontologies.
>> Ontologies compete against database technology, which: 1) is mature
>> and stable;...
> I take issue with the framing of ontologies as "competing with
> database technologies." If we accept this frame, then right there, we
> have lost the battle to make the case for an ontology. While there
> might be certain scenarios that an ontology could replace a database
> system, I don't think this holds in general; and certainly not now,
> given the gaping gap in maturity.
>
> The 2 points you outlined below make most sense to me, not in a
> competitive frame, but in an ecological frame.
>
>> [SW] My conclusion, then, is that end users are likely to understand
>> the benefits of ontologies well before programmers.
>>
>>
>> What will be needed for programmers to see the light, in my opinion, is:
>> ...<snip>...
>> These are my priorities for convincing programmers. I'm sure you can
>> add your own.
>>
>> Steve Wartik
>>
>> swartik@xxxxxxx
>>
> The argument I've used (with limited, but notable success) with the
> programmers around me, is that an ontology can also serve as a
> contract between the software development team and each module. For
> our system we use multiple ontologies, geared for different purposes.
> And in the sense that it affects programmers, the analogy of such a
> contract is much the same way that Java enforces a contract in the
> implementation of a particular class (i.e. Comparable<T>).
>
> Given the above, it also seems useful to (simultaneously?) develop
> views of the role of ontologies in the socio-technological ecologies
> of industry. Some people might use ontologies just to analyze a
> domain, others to design database systems or software systems, others
> for...
>
> Fleshing out these different roles would be instrumental in helping
> focus and identifying the different types of supporting arguments.
>
> Best,
> Ali
>
>
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> (05)
--
Mike Bennett
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