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Re: [ontology-summit] The tools are not the problem (yet)

To: Ontology Summit 2014 discussion <ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Ron Wheeler <rwheeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 11:31:39 -0500
Message-id: <52DFF26B.3040304@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
I am not sure I understand your comment.
I gather that "machine" is used in an abstract sense where others might 
substitute "applications" or "software".    (01)

I am not sure if you were characterizing ontologies as rule sets since 
we were talking about tools for representing and manipulating ontologies.    (02)

My own limit understanding of the field has me thinking that these are 
different things where rule sets operate on ontologies and data and 
other knowledge (abstracts and texts that have been converted to some 
magical form in Watson) to produce a result.
I do not know the supported format for ontologies fed to Watson and my 
comment was that anyone hoping to be involved as a practical ontologist 
(does this exist?) in large BIG DATA projects, should be fluent in the 
ontology representation language used by Watson and should be able to 
convert ontologies in other formats to the one that Watson eats.
I suspect that theoretical benefits and academic discussions will not 
affect Watson's tastes for ontology tools at this point.    (03)

My other point was that the "goodness" of the Watson approach is not yet 
proven but this will not matter in the short run since IBM and its 
partner network will consume all of the oxygen in the room until the 
outcome is clear.
If it turns out that Watson is the "right" way to use ontologies for BIG 
DATA problems, then it will become the only way it is done since IBM is 
able to deliver it relatively inexpensively.
If not, the surviving ontologists who struggled to find small BIG DATA 
problems that would accept a non-Watson solution will be heroes, if 
their projects succeeded and will be sought out to fix the large BIG 
DATA applications where Watson failed.    (04)

Ron    (05)

On 22/01/2014 11:03 AM, Jack Ring wrote:
> It is likely that those tools will prepare rulesets for processing on 
>machines that were designed to do arithmetic, not machines that can resolve NP 
>hard situations.
>   
> On Jan 22, 2014, at 7:43 AM, Ron Wheeler wrote:
>
>> The real test of tool usefulness will be the ability of the tool to work
>> with BIG DATA bound for Watson.
>> My feeling is that BM and its Partner base will actively seek out the
>> big data projects and propose solutions based on Watson.
>>
>> Whether these are all successful will be a moot point for the next
>> period since it will take a while for enough big data projects that have
>> any ontological input, to be completed.
>> In the meantime, marketing will beat theory.
>>
>> Ron
>>
>>
>> On 22/01/2014 2:16 AM, John F Sowa wrote:
>>> On 1/22/2014 12:01 AM, John McClure wrote:
>>>> How can FOL'ers not be implicitly derisive of the work RDF'ers are
>>>> diligently about, when the first reaction is to THROW IT AWAY?
>>> That's not the point I was trying to make.  I'm sorry that I used
>>> the phrase 'throw it away' because it was not clear what I was
>>> rejecting.
>>>
>>> First point:  FOL is a small subset of English and other NLs.
>>> Any language that has the words 'and', 'or', 'not', 'some',
>>> and 'every' can express full FOL.  We all speak FOL every day.
>>>
>>> Second point:  I wasn't rejecting what can be expressed in RDF.
>>> You can use RDF to describe anything that you see, hear, or feel.
>>> Every observation in science can be described in RDF.
>>>
>>> But RDF can't express negation.  You can't say 'not'.  And if you
>>> take RDF and add negation, you get -- guess what -- full FOL.
>>>
>>> Some things you can't say in RDF:
>>>
>>>    1. Options:  you can't say 'or' in RDF, because (p or q) is
>>>       defined as not(not p and not q) -- and RDF can't say 'not'.
>>>
>>>    2. Rules:  you can't express an if-then rule in RDF, because
>>>       (if p then q) is defined as not(p and not q).
>>>
>>>    3. Generalizations:  you can express 'all' or 'every' in RDF
>>>       because 'every cat is an animal' is defined as
>>>       'it's false that some cat is not an animal'.
>>>
>>> My major complaint about RDF is that it makes simple things difficult.
>>>
>>> John
>>>
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>>
>> -- 
>> Ron Wheeler
>> President
>> Artifact Software Inc
>> email: rwheeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> skype: ronaldmwheeler
>> phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102
>>
>>
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>    (06)


-- 
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: rwheeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102    (07)


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