Ontolog invited Speaker Presentation - Dr. Steven Newcomb - Thu 2004-06-10    (28M)

Conference Call Details    (28N)

Attendees    (290)

Agenda & Proceedings    (29O)

Dr. Steven Newcomb will be giving a presentaion entitled "Ontological Engineering and the Topic Maps Reference Model"    (29P)

SteveNewcomb will talk extensively about the Topic Map Reference model and describe how Topic Maps provide an important marketing opportunity for ontologists, in part because they provide an elegant way to both separate mission-specific ontologies and provide a straightforward path to integration.    (29Q)

Overview of June 10 Teleconference    (29R)

First of all, here's what the teleconference is *not* about:    (29S)

Instead, this teleconference is about Topic Maps. (Topic maps are probably not what you think they are.)    (29X)

Fundamentally, the Topic Maps paradigm is a philosophy, an attitude, and a terminology designed to enable a kind of transparency that powerfully enables very broad transparency.    (29Y)

(People who are primarily interested in knowledge integration, and who are infected with the Topic Maps attitude, eventually find it strange that some knowledge representations, such as RDF, do not require utterances to make commitments about which subjects are intended to be treated as reified, and which are not intended to be treated as reified. They can also have negative reactions to representations that cannot face up to the idea that a certain kind of subject must be able to be granted all the privileges of reification, including that all of its reifiers must be allowed to be viewed collectively, as if there were only one reifier for that subject.)    (2A1)

So, is the Topic Maps Paradigm really any different from any other approach to the problem of global knowledge integration? You'll have to reach your own conclusion on that question. Some people, anyway, think it represents progress, if only because its checklist of things that have to be disclosed is so short, so semantically wide-open, and so potent in its ability to modularize and integrate diversity.    (2A3)

Session Format:    (2A4)

About the Speaker:    (2A8)

http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/resource/presentation/StevenRNewcomb200307-05a.jpg    (2A9)

Steven R. Newcomb (srn@coolheads.com) is a consultant with Coolheads Consulting in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.    (2AA)

Dr. Newcomb edited and drafted ISO/IEC 13250:2000 and :2003, the Topic Maps International Standard, which is also known as "XTM" ("XML Topic Maps"). His standards work currently focuses on the Topic Maps Reference Model. Dr. Newcomb also edited the ISO Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language ("HyTime", ISO/IEC 10744:1992 and :1997), and the ISO Standard Music Description Language (ISO/IEC 10743:1996).    (2AB)

Dr. Newcomb was an Associate Professor at Florida State University from 1980-94. There, he co-founded and co-directed the FSU Center for Music Research, using "Centers of Excellence" funding from the Florida Legislature. The CMR's research umbrella included psychomusicology, music therapy, and the development of hardware and software systems for music instruction. Research partners included the University of Illinois's Computer-based Education Research Laboratory and Lucasfilm.    (2AC)

Dr. Newcomb served as CEO of TechnoTeacher, Inc. (Rochester, New York and Dallas, Texas) from 1994-2000. During that time, TechnoTeacher pioneered the implementation of the ISO HyTime standard, creating its HyMinder, HyBrowse, and GroveMinder software library products. GroveMinder's licensees include major aerospace, telecom, computer systems, and other businesses, and civilian and military agencies of national and state governments.    (2AD)

Dr. Newcomb founded and co-chairs the annual IDEAlliance conference series now known as "Extreme Markup Languages" now in its eleventh year. The next "Extreme" will be held August 2-6, 2004, in Montreal, Canada (www.extrememarkup.com).    (2AE)

Logistics & Proceeding    (2AF)

The draft Reference Model, which is about to undergo another transformation, can be found at http://www.isotopicmaps.org/TMRM/TMRM-latest-clean.html The current version dates from last December. It includes the "Assertion Model" for reifying relationships (we discussed this basic TMA briefly in the telecon). The next version will clarify its TMA-ness.    (2AL)

To see the topic maps that we made at Susan Turnbull's behest (and that Susan mentioned during the telecon), go to http://www.coolheads.com and press the button marked    (2AM)

      Integrated Conference Proceedings: 
      Egov OpenSource and SecurE-Biz    (2AN)

My contact information: srn@coolheads.com +1 540 951 9773    (2AO)