Re: [ontology-summit] [Norton AntiSpam] Re: Invitation to a brainstormin

["Brian K Lucas" <lucasb@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bob,

 

I'd be happy to expand.  To answer your question first - yes.  We believe that every socio-economic ecosystem, at the micro and macro level, exists in a value network of exchanges (organizations who exchange value with each other in a network-style web of connections).  We are determined to organize and grow the value network of organizations that are enthusiastic about the ontology of organizations (in this context, I use the word 'ontology' to mean "the study of being", rather than a web ontology).  We believe that the time has come to gather together the world's knowledge on this subject and produce a coherent, holistic description of the constructs inherent in every organization.  This is more than value chains - which typically concentrate on a single dimension (e.g., the work required to produce the offering for a customer, while ignoring the value exchanges with the employees).

 

For ages, I've been searching for a holistic ontology of organizations.  It wasn't until 10 years ago that I realized that was what I was searching for.  :=)  A colleague of mine had been working on a body of knowledge that he calls "Organization Ontologics" (O2, for short).  He introduced me to it when I hired him as a consultant - and the application of that BoK caused incredible things to happen in a software project/organization that I was asked to transform.  Afterwards, I worked with him to understand more of his BoK - and came to the conclusion that many other people are also searching for a holistic framework for organizations.  I had been an ASQ Certified Quality Manager, and a student of transformation thinkers, and had always found them to be "bits and pieces" of profound knowledge - but without a holistic framework.  I now believe that such a framework would be invaluable in helping organizations understand and manage complexity, especially if we can engage technology tools to manage it.

 

So this has led my colleague and I to assemble a small team of interested parties to launch a non-profit dedicated to the discovery, modeling (in technology, natural languages and perhaps mathematics), and continuous improvement of a holistic organization ontology (or ontologies) that can be applied in all contexts.  I am acting as project manager.  Our idea is to form an interdisciplinary community to create and publish (in the public domain) a complete description of organizations and their constructs as possible.  Over time, we hope to apply the rigor of mathematic disciplines to clarify the models.  We intend to create a framework where interested parties can contribute ontologies/models/ideas and the non-profit will act as the steward of the published version.  We have also talked about ontology comparisons, to find similarities and differences in proffered organization ontologies.  I intend to use my colleague's work as the basis for the first complete model, publish v1.0, and then open up the non-profit to the organization ontology value network.

 

I've spent over 30 years in the technology sector, and have found myself capable of breaking almost any solution (skill/character trait/flaw?) - and this is the first BoK that I find to be useful in all contexts.  I am very excited about the possibilities!

 

Oh, and did I mention that I'm doing all of this in my "spare" time?  Part of the non-profit launch work will be to secure funding sources so that some of us can participate on a full-time basis.

 

And yes, I've had these delusions of grandeur for most of my adult life.  ;=)

 

Brian

 

Sorry for the length.  It's quite a complex subject, and I often find my composition skills lagging behind my brain...it's a MUCH easier conversation to have verbally, and even easier face-to-face.  But * sigh * those opportunities come far fewer than I'd like.  :=(

---

From: ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Smith
Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2011 2:23 PM
To: Ontology Summit 2011 discussion
Subject: [Norton AntiSpam] Re: [ontology-summit] Invitation to a brainstorming call for the 2011 Ontology Summit

Hello Brian,

 

Can you expand more on your project mentioned in E)? Especially how the Ontology of Organizations and Human Value Exchange.

 

Are you taking an Interorganizational approach (multiple cooperating and competing business and regulatory organizations...as in a "Value Chain" or "Supply Chain" framework?

 

Regards,  Bob

 

Bob Smith,

Professor Emeritus, CSU

building SMART Alliance

 

 

On Sat, Jan 22, 2011 at 6:18 AM, Brian K Lucas <lucasb@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Greetings all,

I like this discussion, and have a few thoughts of my own (as you come to
know me more, you'll discover that to be the norm  ;=)

A) @Jack : I agree that "adequate, accurate and timely" is a worthy goal.
I'd like to hear more about your definition of "adequate" and "accurate".

B) @Jack : Regarding quality:  In my experience, "fitness for purpose" is
trinary, when taken from a single consumer's point of view: not fit, fit,
overly fit.  In the real world, however, very few offerings are consumed by
a single entity.  Therefore, I believe that, when taken in the context of
the offering, and including all consumers, fitness for purpose/quality is
indeed scalar, if the measurement is being taken from the perspective of the
producer.  If you complete a histogram/pie chart of these three values for
all consumers, you get three counts of valuable metrics, which should not be
combined: % fit for purpose, % not fit for purpose, and %overly fit for
purpose.  The requirements not met for the "not fit" group represent
offering "defects"; the requirements met for the "overly fit" group
represent waste of effort for that consumer group.  If requirements have
been implemented that NOBODY in the "fit" group needs, then that is wasted
producer effort - unless, of course, they serve a future consumer.  My
conclusion?  There is value in measuring "quality" across the existing and
intended user base, and improving the offering to move more consumers into
the "fit for purpose" count, without removing anyone who is already there.
And, because consumer requirements usually change over time, continuous
improvement of "quality" is desirable.  Then, add in that even for a single
consumer, they may present KANO-like ranking of requirements (must have,
should have, could have, etc.), and binary gets even a little more fuzzy for
me.

C) Producer cost is also key here.  If the value exchange received by the
consumer does not support the cost to meet their requirements, then a "not
fit" offering may still be of value to the consumer, as they may augment it
with other offerings.  An example of this is Microsoft Word.  It does NOT
meet all of my requirements - and yet I find it "fit for purpose" because I
can work around the "defects".

D) @Nicola : I agree with the case for varying levels of "quality"; however,
I also think that case studies are notoriously hard to quantify.  In my
experience, it is usually an opinion that one work method over another
produced "better" results, because most people don't try it both ways and
actually measure fitness for purpose afterwards.

E) I have been working on an ontology of organizations and human value
exchange.  I have tried traditional ERD-style modeling, object-oriented
class modeling, and now OWL ontology modeling.  Each has strengths as a
modeling method; each has "defects", or "fitness of purpose" for my work.
It may be an understanding defect on my part, but one of the primary issues
that I have been facing is polymorphism of modeled objects.  As soon as you
"declare" something to be of a "type" of some modeling class/entity/etc, you
constrain it from taking on characteristics of other classes that it may
also play a role in.  An example is a human - most people would model
"human" as a class; but in my domain, a "human" is also the offering of an
educational process (with an improved knowledge metric).  My solution so far
has been to only use inferred classes to discover a thing's class by its
relationships.  So, from my perspective, I am finding ontologies "not fit
for purpose" in their current description language and implementation.  I am
interested in thoughts that the other summit participants may have to help
me remove this obstacle - even if it is more training for me on building
ontologies.  :=)

Brian K. Lucas
Sponsor, Worldwide Institute for Organization Ontologics
Lucasb-at-wio2-dot-org

-----Original Message-----
From: ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tim Wilson
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2011 8:11 AM
To: ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ontology-summit] Invitation to a brainstorming call for the
2011 Ontology Summit

Gentlemen,

If I may jump in here.  This discussion makes me think of the 85/15 rule
where finding and fixing 85% of all software bugs is relatively easy, the
last 15% is much more difficult in terms of time and effort.  There comes a
point where developers have to say that the ontology is 'good enough'.  Jack
is arguing that this does not constitute 'high quality'
and therefore the comment on quality being binary.  Some person or persons
must make a decision that the product is good enough (until the next serious
bug is uncovered).  You may think that there are no more blue balls in the
bin, but yet one is found.  Quality instantly goes from "1" to "0" until the
issue is analyzed and a choice is made to either ignore it or fix it.

Tim Wilson

On 12/15/2010 3:22 AM, Matthew West wrote:
> Dear Jack,
>
>> MW,
>> Standing on the shoulders of Deming, Crosby, Juran, etc. I would
>> first ask
> the
>> owner a) Is the fifth one guaranteed irrelevant
> MW: I am assuming it is relevant.
>
>> and b) what is your level of
>> confidence there are not 6 errors?
>> Jack
> MW: Indeed, but then by the same token how can you be certain anything
> is defect free, even if no defects are apparent?
>
> MW: I think it is more useful to think of quality as the degree to
> which requirements are met. Then when you fix some bugs you have
> improved the quality, though you may not have met all the requirements.
>
> Regards
>
> Matthew West
> Information  Junction
> Tel: +44 560 302 3685
> Mobile: +44 750 3385279
> matthew.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.informationjunction.co.uk/
> http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/
>
> This email originates from Information Junction Ltd. Registered in
> England and Wales No. 6632177.
> Registered office: 2 Brookside, Meadow Way, Letchworth Garden City,
> Hertfordshire, SG6 3JE.
>
>
>
>
>> On Dec 14, 2010, at 3:45 PM, Matthew West wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Jack,
>>>
>>>> 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.
>>> MW: So presumably you would argue that if an ontology has 5 defects,
>>> and
> 4
>>> of them are fixed, there is not improvement in quality as a result....
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> Matthew West
>>> Information  Junction
>>> Tel: +44 560 302 3685
>>> Mobile: +44 750 3385279
>>> matthew.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> http://www.informationjunction.co.uk/
>>> http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/
>>>
>>> This email originates from Information Junction Ltd. Registered in
> England
>>> and Wales No. 6632177.
>>> Registered office: 2 Brookside, Meadow Way, Letchworth Garden City,
>>> Hertfordshire, SG6 3JE.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> 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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--
Timothy C. Wilson
Graduate Student in Knowledge Management Kent State University Expected
Completion: August 2011


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