NIST-Ontolog-NCOR Mini-Series: Ontology Measurement and Evaluation (Session-3) - Thu 11-Jan-2007    (RXA)

Conference Call Details    (RXE)

Attendees    (RXX)

Background    (RY6)

This is the 3rd event of a mini-series of talks and discussions that revolve around the topic: "Ontology Measurement and Evaluation" during which this community will explore the landscape, issues and solutions relating to the measurement, evaluation, quality and testing of ontologies.    (RY7)

This is a Joint NIST-Ontolog-NCOR initiative. A planning meeting for this mini-series took place on 22-Aug-2006, during which the scope and plans for the program was discussed among members of the community. Dr. Steven Ray, who is the Chief of NIST's Manufacturing Systems Integration Division (MSID), a long time member of the Ontolog community, as well as the convener of NCOR's Ontology Evaluation Committee, was invited to champion the program. This series is expected to last about 6 months during which invited speaker and technical discussion events will be featured (at the rate of about one event per month).    (RY8)

See also: OntologyMeasurementEvaluation (the 'project' homepage for this mini-series)    (RY9)

Agenda & Proceedings: "Ontology Measurement and Evaluation" - Mini-series Session-3    (RYA)

Professor Werner Ceusters, from the State University of New York at Buffalo, presenting: "Realism-based Change Management for Quality Assurance in Ontologies and Data Repositories"    (RYB)

Topic: "Realism-based Change Management for Quality Assurance in Ontologies and Data Repositories" by Professor Werner Ceusters    (RYJ)

http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/work/OntologyMeasurementEvaluation/2007-01-11_ChangeManagement/WernerCeusters_20070111.png [a picture of Professor Werner Ceusters]    (RYK)

Under the view of an ONTOLOGY as a representational artifact, comprising a taxonomy as proper part, whose representational units are intended to designate some combination of universals, defined classes, and certain relations between them, and of a DATA REPOSITORY as a representational artifact built out of singular terms such as proper names or alphanumeric identifiers referring to particulars, there are at least four reasons why updates in ontologies and data repositories are carried out: (1) changes in reality, (2) changes in the understanding of reality by the authors of these artifacts, (3) changes in the purpose(s) for which the artifacts have been designed, and (4) correction of mistakes. Annotating any change in such an artifact with the reasons for that change, classified under these four headings, leads to a powerful mechanism for assessing the improvement of quality over time of these artifacts as well as the skills of their authors in maintaining them.    (RYM)

Werner Ceusters studied medicine, neuro-psychiatry, informatics and knowledge engineering in Belgium. Since 1993, he has been involved in numerous national and European research projects in the area of Electronic Health Records, Natural Language Understanding and Ontology. Prior to coming to Buffalo, he was Executive Director of the European Centre for Ontological Research at Saarland University, Germany. He is currently Health Sciences Professor connected to the Psychiatry Department of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, SUNY at Buffalo NY (UB), Director of the Ontology Research Group of the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, and coordinator of Bioinformatics for the Health Science Faculties at UB.    (RYP)

Questions, Answers & Discourse:    (RZ0)

Audio Recording of this Session    (RZ9)