On 26/04/2011 12:43 AM, John F. Sowa wrote:
> Deborah,
>
> That is a very important question:
>
>> I am seeking a brief explanation for how ontologies can help bridge the
>> gap from legacy software to web services. For example - the role of
>> ontologies versus APIs, middleware, and relational databases - a process
>> model or short narrative of all the parts that would need to work together.
> There's a simple reason why nobody answers it: 92% of all ontologists
> are academics. They are totally clueless about any kind of practical
> application. For example, they think that there is a use case for
> decidability. But they ignore the multi-trillions of dollars of
> legacy software because it's written in languages they don't like,
> such as COBOL and SQL.
>
>> However to pitch this better, a concise explanation is needed for
>> exactly where an ontology should live in relation to projects at
>> firms behind firewalls versus accessible across an enterprise/industry.
>> And what the effect is on legacy software and databases i.e. not
>> losing or recreating data, instead bringing them up to speed for
>> more precise information sharing and requirements tracking.
> The absence of any such explanation -- or even any mention of such
> issues -- is the reason why mainstream IT ignores the Semantic Web.
It may explain the lack of enthusiasm on the part of some in this forum
about the inclusion of Ontology in the Watson project.
I am not sure whether it is based on some deep understanding of Watson
that makes them believe that the role of ontologies in the Watson
reasoning process is really non-essential and could be removed without
impacting the effectiveness of the overall system or is it because
ontology is not the user-facing technology. (01)
The applications of the technology used in Watson will likely create the
biggest demand for ontologists who can assist developers to build the
key ontologies in the particular domain.
Until some IT oriented tools arrive that meet the implied needs of the
person who started this thread, it may be one of the few places that
ontology is actually applied in a commercial venue. (02)
Ron (03)
> I can be as academic as they come, but I worked at IBM for 30 years,
> where I had to do something with some semblance of usefulness for
> IBM's bottom line. And from time to time, I actually talked with
> living, breathing customers.
>
> John
>
>
>
>
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