I support Bill Andersen's position. (01)
John Sowa
_______________________________________________ (02)
An open letter to the UOS organizers and all key participants. Please
read the whole thing. (03)
.bill (04)
On Mar 9, 2006, at 19:24 , Adam Pease wrote: (05)
> Peter,
> That's good to hear. My suggestion, with all respect to Mills,
would be to have Doug, Nicola and myself each present our views for 1/2
hour each from 9am to 10:30am. That's still quite limited, but might
give the group at least some of the groundwork needed to make progress
on an upper ontology summit. (06)
Let me amplify Adam's comments: (07)
For this proceeding to be taken seriously, there needs to be a clear
focus, clear goals, and ample time given to discuss some very difficult
topics. All three are lacking from the proposed agenda. I completely
agree with Adam on his earlier points about lack of proper focus. Now,
let me move on to another topic. Upon reading Adam's post I decided to
look at the agenda myself: (08)
http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?UpperOntologySummit/UosApplicationDialogMeeting_2006_03_15 (09)
I discovered that Wednesday morning's agenda is a platform for
commercial vendors of "ontology" tools to talk about and demonstrate
their products and/or positions. This is a completely inappropriate
activity to be mixed in with a scientific discussion of upper ontology
and an attempt at reconciliation of UOs as engineering efforts. I had
absolutely no idea such an activity was planned. Had I known I would
have protested. Who is the audience for this? Why where these
particular parties selected? Who selected them? Is the press invited?
What statements have been prepared to give to the press regarding
these commercial interests? (010)
We all deserve answers to these questions. (011)
I have given freely of my valuable time to help shape the wording and
agenda for the summit. I work very hard to keep my life as an academic
researcher in this area separate from my interest in my company. Now I
find out that my efforts and name and reputation and even that of my
company are being used in part to foster the commercial interests of
those in competition with us? This is an absolutely unheard of outrage!!!!! (012)
I can't speak for Adam or for Doug Lenat, but If you're going to have
demos, then why not include demos of Ontology Works IODE, Cyc, and Sigma
– the most mature products in existence that have REAL upper ontologies
in them. Either open it up to anyone with an actual ULO-based product,
or kill the commercial content altogether. I suggest killing the
commercial content so we can stick to the science and engineering. So... (013)
Can any of you explain any of this??? (014)
If not, then I will formally (and *very* publicly) withdraw my personal
support and that of my company for the UOS effort. Moreover, I will in
the strongest possible terms urge my commercial, academic, and
government colleagues to do the same. (015)
.bill (016)
Bill Andersen (andersen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Chief Scientist
Ontology Works, Inc. (www.ontologyworks.com)
3600 O'Donnell Street, Suite 600
Baltimore, MD 21224
Office: 410-675-1201
Cell: 443-858-6444 (017)
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