EarthScienceOntolog: Panel Session-04 - Thu 2012-11-01    (3EQ3)

Mini-Series Theme: An Earth Science Ontology Dialog ("EarthScienceOntolog")    (3EQ4)

Session Topic: A Review of Ontologies for Earth Sciences    (3H7F)

Session Co-chairs: Dr. DaliaVaranka (USGS) and Dr. MarkSchildhauer (NCEAS, UC Santa Barbara) - intro slides    (3EQ5)

Panelists / Briefings:    (3H7H)

Archives:    (3H7N)

Abstract:    (3H99)

A Review of Ontologies for Earth Sciences - intro slides    (3H9A)

This is the 4th session of the Joint EarthCube-Ontolog Mini-series on "Ontology and Semantic Technology for the Earth Science Community" - a series of panel sessions dubbed: "EarthScienceOntolog" - an Earth Science Ontology Dialog.    (3H9B)

This mini-series of events are co-organized/supported by members of the EarthCube community, Ontolog community, SOCoP community, IAOA community.    (3H9C)

Challenges in the earth sciences to meet research and societal needs require creative ways of integrating data for complex analysis. This session is the 4th in a series of informative presentations to bring science and ontology communities together in an exchange of ideas and collaborative networks. This session will look into some of the current ontology efforts in the earth and environmental sciences, and showcase examples of earth science problems being tackled by the use of ontologies for synthesis and exploratory knowledge discovery.    (3H9D)

More details about this mini-series at: EarthScienceOntolog (home page for this mini-series)    (3H9F)

Briefings:    (3H9G)

Agenda:    (3H9R)

EarthScienceOntolog - Panel Session-04    (3H9S)

Proceedings:    (3H9Y)

Please refer to the [ above]    (3H9Z)

IM Chat Transcript captured during the session:    (3HA0)

 see raw transcript here.    (3HA1)
 (for better clarity, the version below is a re-organized and lightly edited chat-transcript.)
 Participants are welcome to make light edits to their own contributions as they see fit.    (3HA2)
 -- begin in-session chat-transcript --    (3HA3)
	[09:10] PeterYim: Welcome to the    (3HEO)
	 = EarthScienceOntolog: Panel Session-4 - Thu 2012-11-01 =    (3HEP)
	Mini-Series Theme: An Earth Science Ontology Dialog ("EarthScienceOntolog")    (3HEQ)
	Session Topic: A Review of Ontologies for Earth Sciences    (3HER)
	Session Co-chairs:    (3HES)
	* Dr. DaliaVaranka (USGS) and Dr. MarkSchildhauer (NCEAS, UCSB)    (3HET)
	Panelists:    (3HEU)
	* Dr. LuisBermudez (OGC) - "Use of Ontologies within the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)"    (3HEV)
	* Dr. BoyanBrodaric (Geological Survey of Canada) - "Toward an integrated surface and subsurface 
	water ontology"    (3HEW)
	* Dr. NormanMorrison (U of Manchester, UK) - "The Environment Ontology: What sort of a place was 
	it?"    (3HEX)
	* Dr. ThomasHuang (JPL/NASA) - "From Modeling the Earth to Terrain Simulation"    (3HEY)
	* Dr. MarkSchildhauer (UC Santa Barbara) - "Where do we go from here with Earth and Environmental 
	Science Ontologies?" (a joint work by MarkSchildhauer & BenAdams)    (3HEZ)
	Logistics:    (3HF0)
	* Refer to details on session page at: 
	http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2012_11_01    (3HF1)
	* (if you haven't already done so) please click on "settings" (top center) and morph from 
	anonymous to your RealName    (3HF2)
	* Mute control: *7 to un-mute ... *6 to mute    (3HF3)
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	 == Proceedings: ==    (3HF5)
	[09:14] anonymous morphed into BrunoEmond    (3HF6)
	[09:20] anonymous morphed into DeborahNichols    (3HF7)
	[09:21] anonymous morphed into BenAdams    (3HF8)
	[09:25] anonymous1 morphed into CeciliaZanniMerk    (3HF9)
	[09:28] anonymous1 morphed into TomTinsley    (3HFA)
	[09:30] anonymous1 morphed into JoelSachs    (3HFB)
	[09:30] anonymous2 morphed into GenhanChen    (3HFC)
	[09:32] Dan morphed into DanDong    (3HFD)
	[09:32] anonymous2 morphed into FranLightsom    (3HFE)
	[09:32] anonymous1 morphed into LuisBermudez    (3HFF)
	[09:32] NormanMorrison morphed into NormanMorrison    (3HFG)
	[09:32] anonymous4 morphed into DaliaVaranka    (3HFH)
	[09:32] anonymous5 morphed into BoyanBrodaric    (3HFI)
	[09:32] anonymous3 morphed into TorstenHahmann    (3HFJ)
	[09:32] DeborahNichols morphed into DeborahLNichols    (3HFK)
	[09:33] anonymous morphed into MarshallXMa    (3HFL)
	[09:34] anonymous1 morphed into HilmarLapp    (3HFM)
	[09:35] anonymous morphed into SemirSarajlic    (3HFN)
	[09:35] anonymous1 morphed into Uma    (3HFO)
	[09:36] anonymous2 morphed into JoelBender    (3HFP)
	[09:38] anonymous1 morphed into KrzysztofJanowicz    (3HFQ)
	[09:38] anonymous2 morphed into AlexSorokine    (3HFR)
	[09:38] SemirSarajlic morphed into SemirSarajlic    (3HFS)
	[09:40] anonymous morphed into DeborahMacPherson    (3HFT)
	[09:40] anonymous1 morphed into DeborahMcGuinness    (3HFU)
	[09:41] anonymous morphed into YanLiu    (3HFV)
	[09:43] anonymous morphed into Whitenack    (3HFW)
	[09:40] PeterYim: == DaliaVaranka opening the session with the intro slides ...    (3HFX)
	[09:41] List of members: AlexSorokine, AlexShkotin, Ben Adams, BobbinTeegarden, BobSmith, 
	BoyanBrodaric, BrunoEmond, CeciliaZanniMerk, ChuckWard, DaliaVaranka, DanDong, DavidValentine, 
	DeborahMcGuinness, DeborahLNichols, DeborahMacPherson, FrankOlken, FranLightsom, GaryBergCross, 
	GenhanChen, HilmarLapp, JoelSachs, JoelBender, KenBaclawski, KrzysztofJanowicz, LuisBermudez, 
	MarkSchildhauer, MarshallXMa, NormanMorrison, PeterYim, ScottHills, SemirSarajlic, TerryLongstreth, 
	ToddSchneider, TomTinsley, TorstenHahmann, YanLiu, Uma, vnc2,    (3HFY)
	[09:44] PeterYim: == LuisBermudez presenting ...    (3HFZ)
	[09:46] PeterYim: whoever posted into the box next to the "hand" button, please re-post into the 
	editing box on the left of the "send" button    (3HG0)
	[09:47] PeterYim: your question: "is there chat support ..." - the answer is, the in-session 
	chat-support is right here; after the session, the conversation can continue - see: 
	http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2012_11_01#nid3HA5    (3HG1)
	[09:47] anonymous morphed into CarlosRueda    (3HG2)
	[09:48] anonymous morphed into KrishnaSinha    (3HG3)
	[09:48] anonymous1 morphed into Cyber-ShARE    (3HG4)
	[09:51] NormanMorrison: Out of interest, is there a twitter hashtag in use for the session ... [ 
	PeterYim: not yet, Norman ]    (3HG5)
	[09:53] ToddSchneider: Luis, does OGC recommend use of, or alignment to, a foundational ontology to 
	facilitate interoperability or integration?    (3HG6)
	[10:15] LuisBermudez: Hi Todd. OGC doesn't currently recommended alignment to a foundational 
	ontology. The only related OGC standard (recommendation) is GeoSPARQL. My sense is that we cannot 
	call it a foundational ontology.    (3HG7)
	[10:17] ToddSchneider: Luis, is OGC considering such a recommendation? I'm sure it would help, 
	eventually:)    (3HG8)
	[10:20] LuisBermudez: Todd, I will take your recommendation back to OGC.    (3HG9)
	[10:04] PeterYim: @LuisBermudez - what open "use license" is used (by default) on OGC's open 
	Intellectual Properties (IP's)    (3HGA)
	[10:20] LuisBermudez: Peter, OGC IP document is here: 
	http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=32268    (3HGB)
	[10:08] PeterYim: == BoyanBrodaric presenting ...    (3HGC)
	[10:10] anonymous morphed into ThomasHuang    (3HGD)
	[10:14] anonymous morphed into DougFoxvog    (3HGE)
	[10:29] KrishnaSinha: KrishnaSinha :Boyan, is it possible to extend this to oceans? Are there any 
	obvious links?    (3HGF)
	[10:31] BoyanBrodaric: Krishna---we haven't looked at oceans, but my sense is that at least some of 
	it is directly applicable. Boyan    (3HGG)
	[10:28] PeterYim: == NormanMorrison presenting ...    (3HGH)
	[10:31] GaryBergCross: For people interested in working more on semantics of a container idea it is 
	a topic at the Nov 28-30 workshop at USGS in Reston VA see http://vocamp.org/wiki/GeoVoCampSOCoP2012    (3HGI)
	[10:38] TorstenHahmann: Krisha, I guess it depends on what exactly you want to model. For example 
	reefs or underwater ridges (as Norman is talking about) could be modeled similarly using certain 
	kinds of voids (hollows) based on containment.    (3HGJ)
	[10:47] NormanMorrison: Torsten, Boyan & Krishna, yes, it was encouraging to see that we have 
	independently adopted the same formalism of (voids) holes and containment.    (3HGK)
	[10:50] MarkSchildhauer: interesting to know, though, whether these formalisms are identical or 
	merely similar    (3HGL)
	[11:02] TorstenHahmann: Mark, I totally agree that this is a key question. Norman: in that regard, 
	to what extent is Envo formalized? Is it restricted to a IS-A taxonomy right now? That's what I 
	found on the website you mentioned (in the download section).    (3HGM)
	[11:00] BoyanBrodaric: Norman---the conceptual convergence is nice to see. Do you use BFO for the 
	hole/containment schema, or did you enhance BFO in that direction? My look at BFO in this respect is 
	that it has some hooks that need fleshing out.    (3HGN)
	[11:11] NormanMorrison: Torsten: Yes, EnvO does leverage it's concepts and relations from BFO. There 
	is an 'EnvO2' in the pipeline that will do so more rigourously.    (3HGO)
	[11:08] GaryBergCross: The connection to BFO suggests that EnvO leverages its concepts and 
	relations.    (3HGP)
	[10:44] GaryBergCross: @Norman does EnvO cover the idea of a site as in ecological site or other 
	types of sites?    (3HGQ)
	[10:55] NormanMorrison: @Gary yes we have sites represented in EnvO, but I would say this is an area 
	that is not that well covered. We also incorporate a number of Biome classification systems that are 
	non orthogonal. This is certainly an area that would benefit from further work.    (3HGR)
	[11:01] GaryBergCross: @Norman Thank you. Perhaps we can exchange ideas about this later. Site is a 
	topic at the Nov 28-30 workshop at USGS in Reston VA see http://vocamp.org/wiki/GeoVoCampSOCoP2012    (3HGS)
	[10:45] PeterYim: @Norman (& all) - your slides are now updated (in particular the garble on slide#6 
	is now gone)    (3HGT)
	[10:45] PeterYim: == ThomasHuang presenting ...    (3HGU)
	[11:07] PeterYim: == MarkSchildhauer presenting ...    (3HGV)
	[11:11] AlexShkotin: What about this authority http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/definition?    (3HGW)
	[11:11] PeterYim: @Mark, Ben & All - ref. your slides #3 & 4 - there is an ongoing effort under the 
	Open Ontology Repository (OOR) initiative, that makes an attempt to build a federated network of 
	those who are running ontology repositories, so that there can be a "logical" go-to place to access 
	them, and where other value-added services can be applied ... among the repositories, some of those 
	of interest to this group like MMISW-ORR, SOCoP-OOR, ORNL-DAAC, BioPortal, etc. are also on board 
	there - see: http://oor.net/    (3HGX)
	[11:16] PeterYim: the OOR effort welcomes participation of projects that are running ontology 
	repository ("open" ones, especially) ... join us!    (3HGY)
	[11:20] PeterYim: == Q&A and Open Discussion now ...    (3HGZ)
	[11:21] GaryBergCross: Note VoCamps in spirit do try to research existing vocabularies. Then build 
	on these refining and extending these as part of the effort.    (3HH0)
	[11:21] anonymous morphed into MyunghwaHwang    (3HH1)
	[11:22] anonymous1 morphed into AlexMirzaoff    (3HH2)
	[11:23] AlexSorokine: to Boyan: how do you treat granularity in relation to your concept of gaps and 
	voids?    (3HH3)
	[11:36] TorstenHahmann: as follow-up to Boyan answer to Alex's question [11:23]: I suppose you meant 
	granularity of voids? we currently only distinguish two levels of granularity: the object level 
	(physical objects) and the matter level. Those we formalized in the FOIS paper (2012). It is a 
	simplified version of the DOLCE concept of constituency.    (3HH4)
	[11:24] anonymous morphed into RamonaWalls    (3HH5)
	[11:23] TorstenHahmann: Btw, the ontologies Boyan and I developed will be available next week in the 
	COLORE ontology repository (one of the OOR Peter was referring to) available at 
	http://code.google.com/p/colore/    (3HH6)
	[11:24] GaryBergCross: @Torsten, so these are formalized in common logic?    (3HH7)
	[11:24] TorstenHahmann: @Gary: yes.    (3HH8)
	[11:24] MarkSchildhauer: thanks, Boyan...    (3HH9)
	[11:25] MichaelGruninger: It will be important to explicitly use the axioms of the ontologies so 
	that we can show that the commonalities are more than an intuitive similarity.    (3HHA)
	[11:26] MichaelGruninger: Identical concepts in two ontologies would mean that from the axioms alone 
	we can entail the axioms satisfied by one concept can be entailed by the axioms satisfied by the 
	other ontology, together with specifications of the mappings    (3HHB)
	[11:27] TorstenHahmann: @Gary: for clarification: the DOLCE ontology that Boyan presented is 
	generated from the Common Logic ontology, it obviously only captures only a subset of what we 
	formalized in Common Logic    (3HHC)
	[11:28] GaryBergCross: @MichaelGruninger So yours and Torsten's work on spatial ontologies is an 
	example where you have done this type of mapping and close look at axioms. Right?    (3HHD)
	[11:30] MichaelGruninger: @Gary: Exactly. The challenges posed by today's speakers is to identify 
	all of the different ontologies that people are working on, and to figure out what the possible 
	mappings could be    (3HHE)
	[11:28] MarkSchildhauer: http://obofoundry.org    (3HHF)
	[11:31] MarkSchildhauer: http://oor.net    (3HHG)
	[11:28] AlexShkotin: @Mark, it looks like we need to create a formal theory one for every particular 
	science?    (3HHH)
	[11:30] MarkSchildhauer: @alex-- I see more a need for common design principles in ontology 
	construction *across* disciplines, and shared concepts wherever possible    (3HHI)
	[11:33] BoyanBrodaric: @Alex---the degree of formality will be use-governed; for some purposes high 
	formality it might not be necessary. But, to leverage reasoning it would be desirable.    (3HHJ)
	[11:35] AlexShkotin: @Mark, it looks like common sense knowledge formalization. Like Ernst Davis.    (3HHK)
	[11:34] KrishnaSinha: MarkSchildhauer---I think developing a general ontology based solely on 
	vocabulary is difficult to accomplish. I dont see how non specialists with respect to a given 
	discipline could even begin to discover data.. We need something beyond just terms    (3HHL)
	[11:43] MarkSchildhauer: @Krishna-- agreed; but well-defined terms developed by experts, and 
	currently housed in thesauri like the AGI example you pointed out to us, can be borrowed and 
	embedded where appropriate in richer constructs? That's what I was intending, sorry it wasn't clear.    (3HHM)
	[11:33] CeciliaZanniMerk: Michael and Torsten, can I have a link or some biblio on your spatial 
	ontologies ?    (3HHN)
	[11:37] TorstenHahmann: @Cecilia: sure, what format would you like? They are buried in the really 
	long bibliography of my thesis.    (3HHO)
	[11:40] CeciliaZanniMerk: Torsten, if you could send me some articles, it would be great ... merk 
	[at] unistra.fr    (3HHP)
	[11:39] CeciliaZanniMerk: Torsten, OWL and PDF will be fine ... :-D) OWL to play with, PDF to 
	understand ... ... we have just begun to work on an urban ontology for remote sensing, and the 
	spatial relationships are one of the key aspects    (3HHQ)
	[11:43] TorstenHahmann: @cecilia: I can email you a pdf.    (3HHR)
	[11:43] CeciliaZanniMerk: @torsten : thanks ! it would be great !    (3HHS)
	[11:34] NormanMorrison: On this topic MIREOT (Minimum information to reference an external ontology 
	term): http://obi-ontology.org/page/MIREOT    (3HHT)
	[11:34] NormanMorrison: RamonaWalls (who's online now) knows more about this    (3HHU)
	[11:36] DougFoxvog: @Michael, I think we can distinguish theories from definitional ontologies. If 
	that is done, then different theories with different axioms could be defined, so that two terms from 
	different ontologies can be accepted as identical concepts, even though the axioms defined for one 
	(with one theory) are not necessarily entailed by the axioms of the other (defined with a different 
	theory).    (3HHV)
	[11:36] DougFoxvog: This entails reifying the different theories in different theory ontologies.    (3HHW)
	[11:38] TorstenHahmann: @Luis: is there any effort to formalize the semantics of the GeoSPARQL 
	concepts any further?    (3HHX)
	[11:44] LuisBermudez: @Torsten. The GeoSPARQL semantics are already formalized in OWL 
	http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql.    (3HHY)
	[11:46] TorstenHahmann: @Luis: I meant to formalize it beyond what is already there. In particular 
	whether to formalize the descriptions of each concepts that are currently in English, for example 
	statements like: <skos:definition xml:lang="en">Exists if the subject SpatialObject spatially 
	contains the object SpatialObject. DE-9IM: T*****FF*</skos:definition>    (3HHZ)
	[11:37] PeterYim: -- (conference call) session ended: 11:37am PDT --    (3HI0)
	[11:37] MarkSchildhauer: oops-- sorry Joel. Good point- we didn't have time to go into the usage of 
	these ontologies, in terms of semantic annotation and mediation!    (3HI1)
	[11:40] MarkSchildhauer: @joel-- for example, one typical application of an ontology term would be, 
	via annotation, asserting that some data value or column in a data set "IS" a (set of) instances of 
	that term.    (3HI2)
	[11:40] PeterYim: @Joel ... would you post your question here (we can leave the chat-room going for 
	a few more minutes) or put that out to the community for further discussion - see: 
	http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2012_11_01#nid3HA5    (3HI3)
	[11:40] NormanMorrison: Thanks again to the organisers. As a first timer to the Ontolog session I 
	found this to be an excellent forum and certainly hope to join future discussions. @Joel - next time 
	perhaps... :-)    (3HI4)
	[11:41] CeciliaZanniMerk: I agree with Norman ... it was my first time also, and i've really 
	appreciated the quality of the presentations and of the discussions ... thanks a lot !    (3HI5)
	[11:41] List of attendees: AlexMirzaoff, AlexShkotin, AlexSorokine, BenAdams, BobSmith, 
	BobbinTeegarden, BoyanBrodaric, BrunoEmond, BrunoEmond, CarlosRueda, CeciliaZanniMerk, ChuckWard, 
	Cyber-ShARE, DaliaVaranka, DanDong, DavidValentine, DeborahNichols, DeborahMcGuinness, 
	DeborahLNichols, DeborahMacPherson, DougFoxvog, FranLightsom, FrankOlken, GaryBergCross, GenhanChen, 
	JoelSachs, JoelBender, KenBaclawski, KrzysztofJanowicz, LuisBermudez, MarkSchildhauer, MarshallXMa, 
	MichaelGruninger, MyunghwaHwang, NancyWiegand, NormanMorrison, PeterYim, RamonaWalls, ScottHills, 
	SemirSarajlic, TerryLongstreth, ThomasHuang, ToddSchneider, TomTinsley, TorstenHahmann, Uma, 
	Whitenack, YanLiu, HilmarLapp, KrishnaSinha, vnc2    (3HI6)
	[12:00] PeterYim: closing chat-room now!    (3HI7)
 -- end of in-session chat-transcript --    (3HA4)

Additional Resources:    (3HAA)


For the record ...    (3HAL)

How To Join (while the session is in progress)    (3HAM)

Conference Call Details    (3H7W)

Attendees    (3H8T)