Re: [ontology-summit] [Ontology Application Framework] How to connect on

[Adrian Walker <adriandwalker@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi John, 

You wrote

For years, the IT staff had been developing the technology that
runs all the computer services at the clinic.  Then the Cyclers
gifted them with a totally foreign bunch of APIs and knowledge
sources that create a huge "disconnect" with everything they
had ever done.

I have only scanned the paper, but a first thought is that Cyc folks have brought in a possibly unnecessary amount of technical baggage (See the diagram on page 7).

For example, some of the data is in RDF, but if you treat RDF simply as relational triples (using CWA, though Pat Hayes would disapprove), then you can just regard all the data as SQL-accessible.

Similarly, if you write the ontology in Executable English [1], then you can run it directly to answer questions (automatically generating and running SQL under the covers), and you can get English explanations of the answers.  Moreover, non-technical or semi-technical folks can input EE to continually expand and refine the knowledge, and hence the range of questions that can be answered.

The above is possibly an over-simplification, based on a first reading of the paper.  But for such tasks it may be useful to start  with a simple approach, and only add technical complexity --  multiple APIs and programming languages etc -- when absolutely necessary.

To look at it another way, the real world task is already at the limits of conceptual complexity that a team of talented people can deal with.  Trying to do the task with complex technology cobbled together from different approaches makes it even more difficult.

</my 2 cents>                 -- Adrian


[1]  www.reengineeringllc.com/A_Wiki_for_Business_Rules_in_Open_Vocabulary_Executable_English.pdf

Internet Business Logic
A Wiki and SOA Endpoint for Executable Open Vocabulary English Q/A over SQL and RDF
Online at www.reengineeringllc.com    
Shared use is free, and there are no advertisements

Adrian Walker
Reengineering





What can we do to bridge that disconnect?

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 10:20 AM, John F. Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Adrian and Mike,

AW

> Congratulations on bringing a pivotal insight to the table.

Thanks, but it is only the beginning of what we need to understand.

MB

> I think in many ways ontology is more alien to IT than it is to
> business. The hardest thing we find is ensuring that the IT folks
> understand that it's not a data model, understand why it's not a
> data model and how it differs from a data model.

There's a lot of truth to that.  Ontologies can help clarify the
terminology that is used in the business.  But if they are going
to be connected to the data that the business uses, there must be
some way of connecting the ontology to those data models.

To see the problems involved, please look at the diagram that
shows how Cyc is connected to the application at the Cleveland
Clinic -- Figure 1 on Page 7 of the following paper.

http://www.cyc.com/technology/whitepapers_dir/Harnessing_Cyc_to_Answer_Clincal_Researchers_ad_hoc_Queries.pdf

Note the upper-left corner of the diagram:  it shows the experts
who are doing the "consensus k.b. building".  How do they do that?
With what tools?  And who trains them in how to do that?

Then look at the lower-left side with the SQL historical records
that were developed over the years by the IT staff.  Those records
contain critical data that must be used by Cyc.  But who relates
that data, its meaning, and its APIs to the ontology on the right
side of Figure 1 and to the "consensus k.b." by the experts?

At the bottom is the SDB (Semantic Data Base) represented as
triples that come from some web sources.  Who relates the
semantics of those triples to the "consensus k.b.", the SQL
database, and the ontology on the right side?

Finally, notice the lower-right corner with "texts, forms,
instruments", "web services", "data and knowledge management",
and "data entry, data query, process management".  Who relates
all those things to all the things above?

For years, the IT staff had been developing the technology that
runs all the computer services at the clinic.  Then the Cyclers
gifted them with a totally foreign bunch of APIs and knowledge
sources that create a huge "disconnect" with everything they
had ever done.

What can we do to bridge that disconnect?

John

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