Dear, Matthew, John , Peter
On Jan 28, 2011, at 3:29 PM, Matthew West wrote: I imagine there are different audiences we need to reach, so unless you are
just addressing a general audience, please state the audience you are
addressing.
AWT ; yes, this the reason why I asked the question. It it all to easy try to give the right message to the wrong people. Personally I wonder if id rather smile and talk weather when i meet C-level execs in the elevator.
On Jan 28, 2011, at 3:55 PM, John F. Sowa wrote: The IBM sales force had one fundamental guideline:
Before you can sell the solution, you must sell the problem.
Before anybody at any level is going to want an ontology, they
must be convinced of two things: (1) they have a serious problem,
and (2) a good ontology can solve that problem.
Before we can sell the idea of ontology to anybody, we have to ask
ourselves some very serious questions:
1. What problem(s) can an ontology solve?
2. How are those problems being solved (or bypassed) today?
3. Could an ontology solve or help solve those problems
better than tools that don't use an explicit ontology?
4. How?
Vague slogans and talking points are useless. These questions
must be answered with hard facts, case studies, and results.
AWT: I think you nailed some very important points, especially 3 and 5.
On Jan 28, 2011, at 4:25 PM, Peter Yim wrote:
I agree with everything you John said. One caveat, though ... [JFS] Vague slogans and talking points are useless.
[ppy] to people like scientists, engineers, and of course, ontologists, this is probably a fair statement. However, these are a minority within the general population. I would even say that "sound bites" DO SELL! (vague or clear ... substantiated, or not.)
AWT: agree with both Peter and John, but there is the point of Over Selling a piece of technology, approach, method, etc. We have seen this with technologies such as XML, SOA paradigm, EA methods etc. Rightsizing the Ontology message is key.
cheers /anders
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