I think the distinction is between designing and discovering. (01)
I've caused raised eyebrows in the past by saying "The art of
ontology is the art of not designing something", but perhaps I
should qualify that to say that's the art of ontology as business
conceptual model - one of the use cases for semantic technology
but clearly not the only one. (02)
I'm sure there is some good literature on model theory which
would apply here, i.e. being able to formally state what is the
relationship between the model and the thing modeled. In the case
of the business conceptual model (I say "business" conceptual
model because there are also some technical interpretations of
this word "conceptual" which differ), what is modeled is the set
of things and facts about those things in the business domain.
These are things like bonds, buildings, fires, people, risk,
counterparties and so on. (03)
It's particularly important to make this model relationship
explicit in areas where much of the "real" is also situated on
computer systems, such as financial instruments, money, legal
instruments and so on. There is a need to discover (and not
"design") what is the reality of a financial instrument, grounded
in legal and accounting concepts that already exist in the real
world and require no design by any ontologist, they just need
discovering and documenting. Semantic technology provides the
best means yet of documenting those realities in formal ways
which can then be used as the basis of design for computer
systems, for instance for trading, risk analysis and so on. (04)
Mike (05)
On 04/03/2011 12:09, David Price wrote:
> I'm not quite sure why this group has such an aversion to adjectives.
> This entire discussion is because 'design' is too broad a term - same
> for the term 'model'. In Mfg, the term for creating a model of something
> to build is typically called 'detailed design' where mechanical
> engineers, for example, would build '3D CAD models'. However, 'fashion
> design' is a completely different context where 'model' means a human
> clothes rack and walking around with clothes is called 'modeling'.
>
> So, in some industries/contexts 'designing' and 'modeling' are synonyms
> but in others they are not - one might ask 'Why is that confusing?' and
> the answer is obviously misunderstood context. So, unless you understand
> the full context of the sentence 'conceptual modeling is a kind of
> designing' you cannot really disagree (or even agree) ... and yet here
> we are. If you simply look at a dictionary
> (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/design) you'll find that both
> Jack's view and Azamat's view are acceptable uses of the term 'design' -
> people are just talking past each other.
>
> Cheers,
> David
>
> On 3/4/2011 7:51 AM, Matthew West wrote:
>> Dear Jack,
>>
>> You said:
>>
>>> When you precis that, you get models. if models come from designing then
>> how
>>> does modeling differ from design?
>> MW: Models can also be used for analysis, to try to understand how things
>> are, rather than how you intend things to be. I would not call that design.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Matthew West
>> Information Junction
>> Tel: +44 560 302 3685
>> Mobile: +44 750 3385279
>> Skype: dr.matthew.west
>> 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.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> Msg Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontology-summit/
>> Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontology-summit/
>> Unsubscribe: mailto:ontology-summit-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Community Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/work/OntologySummit2011/
>> Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?OntologySummit2011
>> Community Portal: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
>>
> (06)
--
Mike Bennett
Director
Hypercube Ltd.
89 Worship Street
London EC2A 2BF
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7917 9522
Mob: +44 (0) 7721 420 730
www.hypercube.co.uk
Registered in England and Wales No. 2461068 (07)
_________________________________________________________________
Msg Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontology-summit/
Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontology-summit/
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontology-summit-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Community Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/work/OntologySummit2011/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?OntologySummit2011
Community Portal: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/ (08)
|