Ontolog Mini-Series on "Database And Ontology" (Session-5) - Thu 08-Mar-2007    (UMV)

Conference Call Details    (UMZ)

Attendees    (UNQ)

Background    (UNY)

This is the 5th event of the "Database and Ontology min-series" of talks and discussions, during which this community will be exploring the landscape, issues and interactions between databases and ontologies.    (UNZ)

This is a community-driven set of activities, and is probably long overdue. On 15-Aug-2006, TatianaMalyuta (who just joined the community after participating at our 23-Jul-2006 face-to-face workshop at Stanford, brought up her request for the Ontolog Forum to delve into the subject of "Database and Ontologiy." An almost unprecedented flurry of online responses were received from the community. It was decided that we could systematically pursue the subject by mounting a min-series on the matter at hand.    (UO0)

A planning meeting for this mini-series took place on 31-Aug-2006. MatthewWest was invited to champion the effort, and a "Program & Technical Advisory Team" was formed, comprising MatthewWest (Lead), AdrianWalker, AtillaElci, ChrisPartridge, LeoObrst, PeterYim, SusieStephens & TatianaMalyuta.    (UO1)

See also: DatabaseAndOntology (the 'project' homepage for this mini-series)    (UO2)

The community is requested to contribute their thoughts by posting to [ontolog-forum] or to the DatabaseAndOntology wiki page (and/or its subpages). We hope to accumulate and synthesize the knowledge gathered and compile it into a written deliverable (a paper or even a handbook) that we could publish this collaboratively authored work to other relevant media and channels (like relevant conferences or the wikipedia.)    (UO3)

Agenda & Proceedings: "Database And Ontology" - Mini-series Session-5    (UO4)

Dr. Adrian Walker, CTO of Reengineering LLC., presents: "Usability, Databases and Ontologies"    (UO5)

Topic: "Usability, Databases and Ontologies" by Dr. Adrian Walker    (UOD)

http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/work/DatabaseAndOntology/2007-03-08_AdrianWalker/AdrianWalker_Mar-2007.jpg [Dr. Adrian Walker]    (UOE)

Tim Berners-Lee’s vision is that "If HTML and the Web made all the online documents look like one huge book, the Semantic Web will make all the data in the world look like one huge database".    (UOF)

On the other hand, another Tim —Tim O’Reilly — envisions a "Web 2.0" that harnesses users’ collective intelligence via lightweight user interfaces, development models, and business models.    (UOG)

The Semantic Web is a long-term project to create an infrastructure for programmers to use. Web 2.0, on the other hand, is mainly about high-level user experience and immediate benefits.    (UOH)

This talk outlines some current work on semantics in RDF and OWL. Then, I’ll argue that a wider technical view of ontological semantics will improve usability and speed up progress. The argument is illustrated with an online system called Internet Business Logic. The system combines three kinds of semantics with a lightweight author- and user-interface. It works as a kind of Wiki that people with spreadsheet-level skills can use to write and run knowledge as business rules in executable, open vocabulary, open syntax English. From the rules, the system can automatically generate and run SQL that would be too complicated to write reliably by hand. However, the system can also give explanations of the results, in English, at the business level. I’ll show examples of how the system can be used for knowledge based data mining and supply chain planning. As befits a Wiki, shared use of the system is free.    (UOI)

Dr. Adrian Walker is the author of over 20 papers, and co-author of an Addison-Wesley book, on logic-based systems and databases. His experience includes: Assistant Professor at Rutgers University; Manager of Principles and Applications of Logic Programming, IBM Yorktown Research Laboratory; Manager, Internet Development at Eventra (a manufacturing supply chain company). He is currently the Chief Technology Officer of Reengineering LLC.    (UOJ)

Questions, Answers & Discourse:    (UOO)

Audio Recording of this Session    (UOY)