Jack, (01)
Here, here! Spoken like a true Systems Engineer ;-) However, I'm sure
that the philosophical linguists among us will argue. (02)
Tim (03)
On 12/14/2010 5:28 PM, Jack Ring wrote:
> Regarding Nicola's quite relevant concern (below) it may be useful to note
>that
> a) quality is binary, not a scalar (Crosby, Deming, Juran, etc.) Quality
>signifies conformance to requirements, Yes or No, therefore 'high quality' is
>meaningless.
> b) note carefully that from the usage viewpoint the requirements amount to
>'fit for purpose' (Checkland) or 'satisficing' (Simon).
> c) both proof of correctness and exhaustive test are futile, therefore not
>included.
> d) the goal becomes warranty that the ontology of interest is devoid of
>internal faults and external incompatibilities wherein warranty means zero
>false positives and false negatives.
> e) an appropriate theme may be "Making the case for adequate, accurate and
>timely ontologies" which embraces both the result and the development activity.
> f) whether any ontology is viable or not depends on both the ontology and the
>intended usage.
> g) this means that any cadre of ontology developers must include members who
>are dedicated to independent and objective assessment of the viability of any
>ontology or patch thereof or ordered set of patches.
> h) fortunately, technologies, tools and methods exist (or are imminent) for
>viability assessment of algorithms of all classes and types with respect to
>intended usage. This includes ontologies. Even the spaghetti code in most
>OWL-based examples can be assessed, even simplified, and potentially made more
>"lean" without inducing 'brittle.'
> i) this is one reason why I suggested to Steve Ray that one corner of the
>Summit allow open-mind dialogue regarding new technologies.
>
> Onward,
> Jack Ring
>
>
> On Dec 14, 2010, at 5:00 AM, Nicola Guarino wrote:
>
>> Dear colleagues,
>>
>> I also agree very much with John and Matthew concerning the importance
>of high quality ontologies, and on their observation that the quest for high
>quality data models in software engineering definitely reflects a sensitivity
>to important ontological aspects much higher than what we find in people just
>focusing on ontology languages.
>>
>> In the light of this, I suggest to specify a bit more the overall theme
>of our Summit, which in my opinion could be "Making the case for ontological
>analysis" instead of "Making the case for ontology". An alternative could be
>"Making the case for high-quality ontologies".
>>
>> The reason for this proposal should be self-evident, I believe.
>Deciding how much effort to put in developing a particular ontology is a
>crucial choice, and it is very important to distinguish the cases where a
>proper ontological analysis pays off, and is indeed a crucial aspect of
>success, from those where a "lightweight" approach is sufficient.
>>
>> Just brainstorming...
>>
>> Talk to you soon,
>>
>> Nicola
>>
>>
>>
>> On 9 Dec 2010, at 16:03, John F. Sowa wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Matthew and Peter,
>>>
>>> MW:
>>>> ... my forthcoming book “Developing High Quality Data Models”. Substitute
>>>> ontology for data model and the same argument applies. The benefits come
>>>> from improving and automating decision making through fit-for-purpose
>>>> information to support those decisions.
>>> I very strongly agree. Software engineers have been doing ontology
>>> (avant la lettre, as they say) for a very long time. And much of that
>>> work has been very good -- sometimes much better than what people are
>>> doing with so-called ontology languages.
>>>
>>
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> (04)
--
Timothy C. Wilson
Graduate Student in Knowledge Management
Kent State University
Expected Completion: August 2011 (05)
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