On 01/04/2011 9:10 AM, John F. Sowa wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I realize that it is rather late in the day to suggest new ideas,
> but there is one that has bothered me for a long time. Perhaps it
> might suggest some thoughts to anyone who is writing this weekend.
>
> The idea came from a member of the audience who came up to me
> during the coffee break in a tutorial I presented at the 2010
> Semantic Technology conference in San Francisco.
>
> He was a member of the IT staff at the Cleveland Clinic, where
> consultants from Cyc had installed Cyc and were working with the
> IT staff. Following is an article written by the Cyclers:
>
>
>http://www.cyc.com/technology/whitepapers_dir/Harnessing_Cyc_to_Answer_Clincal_Researchers_ad_hoc_Queries.pdf
>
> But the man who was talking with me said that there was
> "a basic disconnect" between the Cyclers and the IT staff.
> The Cyc software, the way it works, and they way that the
> Cyclers described it was foreign to what the IT staff does.
>
> The Cyclers got it installed and working, but the IT staff
> didn't know how to maintain it, modify it, extend it, or use
> it in any way other than what was set up for them.
>
> That "basic disconnect" is the fundamental barrier that is
> blocking the adoption of ontology: the IT people have no clue
> about what to do with it. And I am not blaming the IT personnel
> -- I blame the ontologists who develop software without having
> any idea of how it could, would, or should be used by IT staff.
>
> If we want to sell ontology, we have to make that connection.
> If anybody has any good ideas about how to do that, it would
> be helpful to mention them.
This is is typical of any complex project that is purchased without IT
involvement.
It can also be the case that IT does not see the application as
critical business processes and just steps out of the way figuring that
the cost of IT of it failing is zero and why start a fight with a user
who had already decided what to do. (01)
It can also be that senior management regards this a an R&D project that
will do no harm.
If it shows promise and is worth deploying, then a deployment strategy
will be developed based on the experience learned in the R&D phase. (02)
This often means that the project leadership has not done an initial
project study that lays out the goals, identifies the infrastructure
requirements, identifies the governance issues and resource requirements
surrounding the adoption of the new technology.
Not doing this makes it easy to get started without engaging the other
stakeholder in the organization early in the process and ensuring that
they will do their part to make the project a success. (03)
We see this is in the implementation of Learning Management Systems as
well.
It is also a problem in the implementation of chemical and petrochemical
simulators and I am sure in many other places. (04)
With the increased availability of SaaS solutions, it gets worse since
the user department can get started without any IT involvement.
It is easy to get started with on-demand systems like Salesforce but a
lot of companies don't get the benefits they should, since they have not
thought through the changes required in the way people work and
collaborate and feed the beast.
On the good side, the initial investment and long-term commitment is low. (05)
The solution is to do a proper project study at the start and involve
all of the stakeholders.
and to deal with organizations that have a track record of successful
implementations as opposed to companies that just have a great product
or service. (06)
Ron (07)
> John Sowa
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> 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)
_________________________________________________________________
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/ (09)
|