* John F Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> [2014-11-15 09:56-0500]
> On 11/14/2014 8:47 PM, Michael Gruninger wrote:
> > Although the discussion, as always, is fascinating, I'm not
> > sure about the relevance to the Ontology Summit theme anymore.
>
> I agree that the main task is to address the theme of the summit.
>
> But in order to understand where we want to go, it's important
> to recognize where we came from, what is the trajectory, and
> what we can or should do about it.
>
> I have very strong sympathies with Pat Hayes, who summarized his
> disillusionment with the way ontology is or is not progressing.
>
> My summary: This endless stream of ontology summits reminds me
> of the glorious five-year plans by the old Soviet Union. Or in
> Yogi B's famous words: "It's deja vu all over again."
>
> That's related to a talk that I'll present next week at the
> Mexican AI conference. I'm still making slides, but following
> is a short paper that accompanies the talk:
>
> http://www.jfsowa.com/pubs/micai.pdf
> Why has AI failed? And how can it succeed?
>
> Short answers: (1) Too much fragmentation. (2) We need a more
> systematic basis for relating and integrating all the tools. * (01)
I reply here in case it affects Ontology Summit directions. (02)
I interpret "fragmentation" sa failure to re-use existing work when
possible. I believe the Semantic Web makes it unfortunately easy to
invent rather than re-use and the consequence is that folks can't
justify learning other systems when it is apparently much more
cost-effective to roll their own. As with any post-normalization, the
costs of the resulting fragmentation don't show up until one attempts
some sort of secondary use of the data. (03)
I usually try to throw a "don't have fun (inventing)" message into
every talk I give, sometimes emphasizing it when I have some hope that
it will reach the ears of funders and architects. People need to
understand that the network effect we want out of RDF depends on
enough people using each others' schemas that some serendipitous
compatibility rewards the legions of users we wish we had. (04)
To some degree, this requires continuous remindiers, like "don't drink
and drive". There is however room for innovation in communicationg
schemas to other potential users and search tools which e.g. crawl
through NCBO to tell you how you can connect one type indirectly,
however indirectly. (05)
Applying this to the Web o' Things, clear and measurable incentives
for re-use can make a Web of Toys into a Web of Tools. In the absense
of significant motivations, we'll see a re-emergence of an SNMP-like
diffusion where abstractly compatible behaviors are reinvented in
hundreds (thousands? worse?) of proprietary schemas. Re-use is a pain
in the ass and we need to work to make it justifiable and rewarding. (06)
> In any case, I won't send any more notes until I return.
>
> John
>
> * PS: Syntax cannot solve a semantic problem.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> 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/OntologySummit2015/
> Community Wiki: http://ontolog-02.cim3.net/wiki/OntologySummit2015
> Community Portal: http://ontolog-02.cim3.net/wiki/
> (07)
--
-ericP (08)
office: +1.617.599.3509
mobile: +33.6.80.80.35.59 (09)
(eric@xxxxxx)
Feel free to forward this message to any list for any purpose other than
email address distribution. (010)
There are subtle nuances encoded in font variation and clever layout
which can only be seen by printing this message on high-clay paper. (011)
_________________________________________________________________
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/OntologySummit2015/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog-02.cim3.net/wiki/OntologySummit2015
Community Portal: http://ontolog-02.cim3.net/wiki/ (012)
|