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Re: [ontology-summit] Ontology Summit 2015 Theme

To: "Donna M. Fritzsche" <donnamarie@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Ontology Summit 2015 discussion" <ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "Barkmeyer, Edward J" <edward.barkmeyer@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 16:49:41 +0000
Message-id: <f5ed481e80514e658a13be75ed611bf1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

I think we must be careful not to mistake use of the buzzword ‘ontology’ for understanding the concept.  Many people in the information exchange business have finally realized that getting everyone of interest to agree on a common XML schema is not going to happen.  Et voilà, we have discovered the need for information modeling, of a kind that supports the notion ‘synonym’ (or ‘close enough for our purpose’).  And even better we have not one, but two, W3C standards for this – RDF and OWL.  And there are tools that support them.  It is an ‘in’ technology in the land of information exchange, right up there with Linked Open Data.

 

IMO, this is a very good thing, because it is a giant step above capturing knowledge in Java and in XML Schema.  It gets us much closer to capturing what we know, in a way that might be useful for multiple purposes.

 

OTOH, most of the would-be users have no concept of what it takes to make a model suitable for inferencing, or even that they might want to draw inferences.  They get the general idea of classes and properties; most of them don’t understand axioms other than Subclass and EquivalentClasses.  They are given to understand that there are engines that can do magic with these models.  The fact is that if you really want to do the magic, the ontologies have to be purpose-built and carefully crafted:  OWL as the implementation language for DL reasoners.  It is a different concept, and people who are expecting magic from their E-R models captured in OWL and RDF triple stores will be disappointed.  That is the fate of silver bullets.

 

It falls on those of us who have the knowledge engineering skills to build good reference ontologies that modeling groups can incorporate, and to support the activities of modeling groups who, as a body, have only come to understand OWL and RDF at the Entities and Relationships (aka Classes and Properties) level.  What we produce will support a little inferencing magic, and provide examples for the domain modelers who really want to learn the knowledge engineering trade.

 

-Ed

 

 

--

Edward J. Barkmeyer                     Email: edbark@xxxxxxxx

National Institute of Standards & Technology

Systems Integration Division

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8260             Work:   +1 301-975-3528

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8260             Mobile: +1 240-672-5800

 

 

From: ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Donna M. Fritzsche
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2014 10:58 AM
To: Ontology Summit 2015 discussion; 'Ontology Summit 2015 discussion'
Subject: Re: [ontology-summit] Ontology Summit 2015 Theme

 

Hi,
Great conversation.
Another way to look at this is: Ontology facilitates functionality that is in demand. Last nite I went to a seminar on Interaction Design for Mobile Aps. Most of the applications mentioned and future desired functionality could be/are being powered by ontology or ontology-like/lite tools. As the world becomes more interconnected, ontology is required (or at least a useful tool) to fuel the demand for cross system functionality.

- Donna Fritzsche

-----Original Message-----
>From: Christopher Spottiswoode
>Sent: Nov 14, 2014 6:18 AM
>To: 'Ontology Summit 2015 discussion'
>Subject: Re: [ontology-summit] Ontology Summit 2015 Theme
>
>John,
>
>Thank you for asking:
>
>> What does ontology add?
>
>Here is a starting offer, hopefully not unduly compressed:
>
>Ontology the discipline helps discover real conceptual commonality with
>greater ubiquity and permanence, and further helps invent deliverable
>ontologies or sharable conceptual structures that information systems can
>manipulate to help people create, cultivate and exploit ever more such
>social capital.
>
>Yes, that is of course a biased version, implicitly culminating in the
>notion of "Ontology Chemistry" which I am busy building up to in a
>multi-part series of posts on "Ontology as the basis of The Mainstream of
>Software Engineering and Social Apps". (The second and still the latest
>published part, itself copying the first, is now archived at
>http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/2014-11/msg00018.html.)
>
>Whereas Part II was merely a provisional survey of the internal or technical
>aspects of the proposal, the coming parts of the series will expand on and
>link the 2 occurrences of the word "social" above, and elaborate the
>chemistry metaphor.
>
>You will see how that metaphor captures the spectacular outcomes envisioned.
>For example, not only will the notion of Social Apps be transformed into the
>constructive path to useable social capital, but search will be reshaped by
>the thereby-enabled market to render it more demand-oriented, while yet
>embodying the sort of privacy features that the IDESG, entrusted with the
>NSTIC strategy, rather forlornly dreams of.
>
>And thereby, in answer to John's question, ontology, with the vital help of
>the ontology community in future more in The Mainstream of Software
>Engineering, will add a whole lot more than it does now!
>
>(I hasten to point out that it is implicit in that last paragraph that there
>are significant areas in the full picture where the present skills of
>ontologists will most usefully complement the work of this plain Software
>Engineer in the unfolding evolution of Ontology Chemistry.)
>
>Christopher
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>[mailto:ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John F Sowa
>Sent: 14 November 2014 06:07
>To: ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: [ontology-summit] Ontology Summit 2015 Theme
>
>On 11/7/2014 11:31 PM, Jack Ring wrote:
>> It may be useful to note that the shift in focus is from what a system
>> IS to what a system DOES. Net-centric emphasized the happenings among
>> the things.
>
>I agree that some shift -- any shift -- away from "IS" would be useful.
>The word 'ontology', by itself, just means the study of existence.
>Formal ontology is just the use of formal notations and methods for doing
>that study. Unless you have some other goal, that doesn't give you much
>guidance.
>
>In addition to asking "What is it?", you can get somewhat more guidance if
>you then ask "What does it do?"
>
>But I'd also like to cite the full line from Michael G's note:
>> Internet of Everything: Toward Smart Networked Systems and Societies
>
>That subtitle helps to give a bit more guidance. But I'd also like to ask
>an embarrassing question: In the initial analysis stage, does formal
>ontology give us any more help or guidance than the old 20th-century methods
>of systems analysis?
>
>There was a huge amount of work on structured systems analysis.
>Some notations and methods used logic, and others were more informal.
>And some informal systems, such as UML, were later formalized.
>
>What does ontology add?
>
>John
>
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