See inline comments: (01)
-----Original Message-----
From: Cassidy, Patrick J. [mailto:pcassidy@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 12:35 PM
To: Upper Ontology Summit convention
Subject: [uos-convene] Common Upper Ontology - essential? (02)
Terminology:
"a common upper ontology" is an upper ontology that is used in
common by two or more ontology-using programs. (03)
MU: This definition may be literally accurate, but IMHO, is an very weak
[dare I say wimpy ;-) **] notion. There are already dozens or 100s of
CUOs by this definition. So the goal of having this kind of CUO is
already done. The reason for this summit is to have a much stronger
notion of CUO.
-- (04)
There may be more than one common upper ontology - but if two semantic
systems with different domain ontologies want to interoperate
accurately, they have to use one UO in common, which is **their** common
upper ontology. (05)
There doesn't have to be just one, but to gain the maximum benefits of a
common upper ontology there has to be at least one that has enough users
to encourage academic and commercial developers to create utilities that
make the ontology easier to use - or to integrate with other
applications; and to encourage users to develop open applications so
that all can learn how to use such ontologies effectively. (06)
MU: indeed, it has to be much more than the weak notion of CUO defined
above.
-- (07)
In practice there may be a dominant CUO and several less frequently used
ones. If there are several, with a mechanism for accurately translating
the knowledge among them, they may have the same effect as a single
dominant ontology. It seems risky to try to predict the exact
configuration of upper ontologies a few years from now. It may turn out
eventually that some specialized communities will develop their own,
simplified CUO that serves their specialized purposes better than a
general CUO. But my feeling is that that level of sophistication will
not be reached until we have a widely used CUO whose properties are well
explored enough to discover what subontologies may prove to be better
for particular purposes. (08)
The problem is that right now we don't have one ontology with enough
users to gain the networking benefits of a common UO. If the custodians
of the existing upper ontologies agree to work toward a method to
interrelate their ontologies, and sufficient funding becomes available
to support the project, we might fairly quickly get a CUO that can gain
widespread use and introduce a large audience to the potential of the
existing upper ontologies. (09)
I do not expect that the existing upper ontology builders will
significantly modify the paradigms within which they chose to work.
But finding relations among those different ontologies, such as a common
subset, may prove to benefit them all. I would also hope fervently that
research on better methods to represent knowledge will never cease, and
do not expect any CUO to foreclose exploration of alternative
possibilities. (010)
Mike's four suggested stages might well serve as an outline of the
process that will succeed. I would only add that the custodians of the
existing upper ontologies may conclude that small modifications of their
own ontologies in the interest of increasing the level of commonality
would create significant benefits with minimal cost. (011)
Pat (012)
Patrick Cassidy
MITRE Corporation
260 Industrial Way
Eatontown, NJ 07724
Mail Stop: MNJE
Phone: 732-578-6340
Cell: 908-565-4053
Fax: 732-578-6012
Email: pcassidy@xxxxxxxxx (013)
-----Original Message-----
From: uos-convene-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:uos-convene-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Uschold,
Michael F
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 2:12 PM
To: Upper Ontology Summit convention
Subject: RE: [uos-convene] Endorsements (014)
"A common upper ontology is essential for achieving affordable
and scalable semantic interoperability. Summit participants will
explore alternative approaches to developing or establishing this common
upper ontology." (015)
As it stands, I cannot endorse this statement for two reasons.
1. I don't know that it is 'essential'.
2. I don't believe is possible to have a single CUO. (016)
A lot of people, including me balked at using the term 'essential'
below. The revised statement is weaker than the original one, and it is
borderline acceptable, but still may be too strong. (017)
Also, I don't think you will ever get a 'common upper ontology' any more
than you will ever get a common enterprise ontology or a common ontology
on any subject among any sufficiently large and diverse group of
stakeholders. Will this CUO be 3d or 4d? It cannot be both. Or do you
mean by CUO, a broader lattice of UOs? (018)
I have long believed that the best solution for reaching agreement on
ontologies at any level is: (019)
* Agree on everything/anything that you can that is uncontentious [or
contentious only at a superficial level] in terms of the 'things of
interest'. (020)
* If you can also agree on the same terms for the things of interest,
then great. If not, then use different terms and map/record them as
synonyms. (021)
* Agree to disagree on other things, when there are good reasons for
different stakeholders that have different needs (e.g. 3d/4d) (022)
* where possible, map between the diff 'things of interest' so that a
user can to the maximal extent possible, enjoy the experience of a
virtual CEO, even though it is more messy under the bonnet/hood. If a
lattice of theories works for this, then great. (023)
What do others think? (024)
Mike (025)
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** - Sorry, I could not resist... all in good fun.
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