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ONTOLOG BoardOfTrustees Meeting (n.08) - Thu 2015.04.30

Conference Call Details

Date and Time:

  • Date: Thursday, 2014-04-30
  • Start Time: 9:30am PST / 12:30pm EST / 6:30pm CET / 1730 GMT/UTC
  • Expected Call Duration: ~1.5 hours

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Attendees

Agenda

Chair: MichaelGruniger

Scribe: MikeBennett

1. Minutes of previous meeting

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

2. Matters arising not dealt with elsewhere

3. Infrastructure status report

3.1 Ontolog/IAOA event calendar (MichaelGruninger)

Progress on setting up the page.

3.2 Uploading previous sessions recordings

Ken Baclawski to report

3.3 Progress on establishing infrastructure

  • Do we know where we are going (is it documented)?
  • Where are we?
  • What is the plan for getting there?

4. Future sessions planning

4.1 Cognitive computing


4.2 Ideas for future sessions


5. BoT Membership

5.1 Proposals for additional members

We need some more members of the BoT to get the work done.


6. Other business

6.1 A concern of the previous chair

Our current organizational structure almost guarantees failure.

7. Next Meeting

Chat Log

Chat transcript from room: ontolog-bot_20150430 2015-04-30 GMT-08:00 [PDT]


[9:38] Peter P. Yim: . 

= ONTOLOG Board Of Trustees Meeting (n.08) - Thu 2015.04.30 =

session page: http://ontolog-02.cim3.net/wiki/BoT_Conference_2015_04_30

. 

== Proceedings ==

.

[9:39] Peter P. Yim: Michael Grüninger: meeting starts ...

[9:40] Mike Bennett: Scribe: Mike Bennett

[9:41] Michael Grüninger: Last meeting: ontolog-02.cim3.net/wiki/BoT_Conference_2015_01_14

[9:42] Amanda Vizedom: Last meeting wiki page: http://ontolog-02.cim3.net/wiki/BoT_Conference_2014_12_04

[9:43] Mike Bennett: Informal chat: noting that the alphabetical order we were following has become moot. In addition Matthew West has proposals for Chairs to remain in operation for more than one session period (though all agreed this would not apply to the current Chair). To be discussed.

[9:43] Mike Bennett: Minute of Previous Meeting:

[9:43] Michael Grüninger: Any action items assigned to me at the last BoT meeting have not been done

[9:44] Mike Bennett: Any issues arising from the minutes from the previous meeting?

[9:44] Mike Bennett: None noted.

[9:44] Mike Bennett: Other isues besides what's on Agenda?

[9:44] Michael Grüninger: Additional Agenda Item: Meeting time/schedule and the issue of finding a Chair

[9:44] Mike Bennett: Infrastructure Status

[9:45] Mike Bennett: Remains open.

[9:45] Mike Bennett: 3.2 Uploading previous sessions' recordings (Ken):

[9:45] Mike Bennett: Ken has been uploading recordings regularly. Let him know of any that are missing.

[9:46] Michael Grüninger: Additional Agenda Item: Ontology Summit 2015 summary

[9:46] Amanda Vizedom: I have self-muted

[9:46] Mike Bennett: 3.3 progress on establishing infrastructure:

[9:46] Mike Bennett: Still no documented plan for this.

[9:47] Mike Bennett: no single place where the plan has been done...

[9:47] Mike Bennett: Peter disagrees - there is documentation in the email , and after the meeting Peter posted this somewhere. ... [see: http://ontolog-02.cim3.net/w/index.php?title=BoT_Conference_2014_08_07&oldid=15665#hid6B2 & http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-trustee/2014-08/msg00010.html 

and http://ontolog-02.cim3.net/wiki/CurrentOntologInfrastructure ]

[9:47] Mike Bennett: See mailing list.

[9:48] Mike Bennett: Should all be done by next week. Ken will be point of contact for any ongoing actions after 10 days from now.

[9:48] Mike Bennett: Ken confirms everything should be in place within a week.

[9:48] Amanda Vizedom: I recall that Peter created a current infrastructure page along the lines of the future one ( http://ontolog-02.cim3.net/wiki/FutureOntologInfrastructure )

[9:48] Mike Bennett: The new stuff should also be faster.

[9:48] Mike Bennett: By "everything" what do we mean?

[9:49] Peter P. Yim: try: http://ontologforum.org/wiki

[9:49] Peter P. Yim: ^hosted by Ken at NEU

[9:49] Mike Bennett: The Wiki and the archives, but not the mailing list.

[9:49] Mike Bennett: Peter will continue to look after the mailing list, but there is something Amanda is working on that will also render this moot.

[9:49] Amanda Vizedom: [regarding Peter's remarks that the mailing lists should be replaced by something more modern and should be retired soon] "soon" might be an exaggeration...

[9:50] Amanda Vizedom: I am looking for the summary Peter created, will post link.

[9:50] Mike Bennett: at a certain point, the URI will change to ontologforum.org for the wiki stuff.

[9:51] Mike Bennett: Spam and crawler traffic will remain an issue for things in the new place. Ken has some ideas to reduce the impact of this. The issue is crawler traffic which almost mimics DoS attacks, which gives performance issues.

[9:52] Mike Bennett: Also under infrastructure: others who use the wiki ecosystem e.g. OOR.

[9:52] Mike Bennett: These are on the same wiki.

[9:52] Mike Bennett: All the content you used to see on even the old wiki will be on the new wiki hosted by North Eastern, including things which remain nebulous such as SoCOP.

[9:53] Mike Bennett: each of the old content pages on the new wiki will have a pointer back to the original wiki. This is to take care of things that were not properly transferred, e.g. purple numbers.

[9:53] Mike Bennett: Peter leaves on the 10th May.

[9:54] Mike Bennett: Gruninger: Google Code is shutting down, so all COLORE code will need to be moved to GitHub.

[9:54] Mike Bennett: Send the stuff about that to Peter and he will need 2 days or so to work on that.

[9:54] Mike Bennett: Summary: Infrastructure everything is in place.

[9:55] Mike Bennett: 4. Future Sessions Planning

[9:55] Michael Grüninger: We need to set a date for the Ontology Summit postmortem

[9:55] Mike Bennett: For example Ontolog Forum. Also need to set a date for the Ontology Summit pot-mortem.

[9:56] Michael Grüninger: I will contact Mark Underwood to coordinate with the date

[9:57] Mike Bennett: Michael will contact Mark Underwood to co-ordinate on the date for Post mortem, provisionally the week of may 24 (The 28th)

[9:57] Mike Bennett: suggest we have at least one meeting before summer, ideally in June.

[9:57] Amanda Vizedom: +1 with Mike's comment

[9:57] Mike Bennett: Discussion on possible topics.

[9:58] Amanda Vizedom: It would be good to show life outside of Summit.

[9:58] Michael Grüninger: I will contact Bob Young about the Ontology-based Standards session

[9:58] Mike Bennett: What about the 2 mini-serieses that were part way through a couple of years back, since we didn't get them back on track last year.

[9:58] Michael Grüninger: try to schedule the session for June

[9:58] Mike Bennett: The Ontology Based Standards series: Michael will contact the Bob Young who was co-ordinating that series.

[9:59] Mike Bennett: Note that one the keynote speakers at the Summit had a suggestion to get some of their standards people to link with ontologists. This was the Industrial Internet Consortium.

[10:00] Mike Bennett: There is a lot of potential between the IIC and the Ontolog Forum.

[10:00] Amanda Vizedom: [Thinking about new job title: Industrial Ontologist]

[10:00] Amanda Vizedom: ;-)

[10:01] Michael Grüninger: OK, we can try to have two Ontology-based Standards sessions in June

[10:02] Mike Bennett: The exiting session in the ontology baed standards series is already set up with speakers etc. just awaiting a date.

[10:02] Mike Bennett: We coul follow this with something on the IC / IoT side of things while we have momentum from the Summit

[10:02] Leo Obrst: Dr. Shoumen Palit Austin Datta: http://www.iiconsortium.org/staff.htm

[10:03] Mike Bennett: This could form the basis of further sessions in the series on ontology based standards.

[10:03] Amanda Vizedom: Also apply standards theme to research data reuse/interop projects? Session on ontology based standards and the Earth Sciences, e.g.,

[10:03] Amanda Vizedom: ... because this is an area in which there is a lot of activity

[10:03] Leo Obrst: Ontologist-Machinist

[10:03] Mike Bennett: Invite the IIC folks to the next one in that series, as attendees, but include in the discussion topics for planning of the next session, which could be as soon or as late as is decided on that session.

[10:04] Michael Grüninger: Alternative -- invite people like Datta to the June session so they get some idea of what we are doing; use this as the basis for future meetings

[10:04] Mike Bennett: Also invite Mike B's contact, Kyle Morton.

[10:05] Mike Bennett: Anything else to try before the Summer break?

[10:05] Mike Bennett: None suggested.

[10:05] Mike Bennett: Next item: Summit

[10:06] Mike Bennett: Overall: had lower attendance this year face to face.

[10:06] Mike Bennett: Average 30 - 40 people at the Thursday on line sessions, and F2F was about 30 people. Previously we used to get 60 / 50 respectively.

[10:06] Mike Bennett: Will discuss this at the post mortem.

[10:06] Mike Bennett: Symposium was well planned. Speakers were good.

[10:07] Mike Bennett: Need a more permanent team in place on logistics e.g. posting last minute presentations, call management, sound management.

[10:07] Mike Bennett: Also this year we did not have any sponsors.

[10:07] Mike Bennett: Also we should make the communique public and accessible.

[10:07] Mike Bennett: There is a challenge that a certain other party gets it up on their site before we get it up on our own site.

[10:08] Mike Bennett: This is partly due to the timing of the Summit in relation to the academic year.

[10:08] Mike Bennett: Also need to still make a public call for endorsement of the communique once it is up.

[10:09] Amanda Vizedom: Yes, I was going to comment about non-visibility of communique so far and endorsement call. Noticeable to me since I wasn't able to participate in the later weeks at all. I've (thus) seen no mention at all of the communique in the general streams.

[10:10] Mike Bennett: Thoughts about next year's Summit. One idea that was brought up was, rather than have a specific topic, we do something that pulls together all of the previous Summits. For example, by using a set of 'challenge problems' so that what people contribute would be things that address those challenges, e.g. ontologies, demos, other ideas.

[10:10] Amanda Vizedom: I like this challenge-based summit idea quite a lot.

[10:10] Mike Bennett: The meta-challenge is identifying what those challenges would be.

[10:11] Mike Bennett: Need to identify the challenges and reduce these down into something specific people could address.

[10:12] Mike Bennett: we could set this conversation in motion ahead of the summer, have people think about the challenges over the summer, and have the problems in place by the tie of the launch of the Summit in November.

[10:12] Mike Bennett: Comments: This seems reasonable.

[10:13] Mike Bennett: Comments: see an earlier suggestion by Matthew West, to do a year round Ontology Summit. Peter is suggesting we use 3 moths to prepare for the 3 months of the Summit, and use the other 9 months of the year to do non summit stuff - new possibilities, edge issues and so on, that are not summit related.

[10:14] Mike Bennett: The two perspectives above are not mutually exclusive.

[10:14] Mike Bennett: which approach would we prefer as a Board?

[10:15] Mike Bennett: This idea would require more work than the typical single-topic Summit.

[10:16] Mike Bennett: This can also be discussed at the Post Mortem. However, whatever decision is made on the above, about the Summit, will impact what we can do with the Ontolog Forum. Therefore this is more of an Ontolog BoT decision.

[10:17] Mike Bennett: going round the table getting views on this:

[10:18] Mike Bennett: Amanda: Not clear about the "year round" suggestion. Likes the challenge idea, would be well worth it. if we can get the challenge thing focused, the value of it would be high. Would require at least 3 additional planning sessions across the summer.

[10:18] Amanda Vizedom: +1 for the Challenge-Based Summit, even given additional logistical / bandwidth costs.

[10:18] Mike Bennett: Peter: whether summit theme should consume community bandwidth or not.

[10:19] Mike Bennett: Ken: Nice idea but concerned we might lose focus. Previous Summits had specific and clear focus. A more generic Summit might itself be risky.

[10:20] Amanda Vizedom: I think that the Challenge(s) basis could increase focus, insofar as we put into practice a set of criteria for relevance to the challenge problems.

[10:20] Mike Bennett: Ken: in favor of this but we must be aware of the risks involved.

[10:21] Mike Bennett: What sort of thing would a challenge problem be?

[10:21] Mike Bennett: Any kind of contribution e.g. ontologies, ontology evaluation, tools etc.

[10:22] Mike Bennett: (those would be what addresses the problem; what is the problem); problem could be integration, health data, existing ontologies, problems with some existing ontologies, particular implementations of existing ontologies etc.

[10:23] Mike Bennett: Problems related to ontology based search; big data and so on.

[10:23] Mike Bennett: generally idea is something like a survival thing where you drop someone in the middle of the bush and they have to find the means to get home.

[10:24] Mike Bennett: What about IPR conflicts and so on, which might impact on what we can do in this area?

[10:24] Amanda Vizedom: A thought: For some challenges, we might be able to get sponsors who would supply real data or infrastructure support or (?), partly motivated by the value to them of crowd brainstorming on a problem close to what they face.

[10:25] Mike Bennett: Regardless of IPR, we will say that whatever someone presents must be a shareable presentation.

[10:25] Mike Bennett: If people propose a commercial product as a solution to some challenge, how do we deal with that? We have a waiver with language we have been able to use. [ ref. cases with OntologSummit ( http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2011_01_27#nid2M1G ) and Benjamin Grossof ( http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2013_06_20#nid3U3C ) ]

[10:26] Mike Bennett: Therefore even if there were commercial firms involved, this is still something we could do.

[10:26] Amanda Vizedom: Suggestion: Make clear and enforce that if someone wants to talk about their commercial product as part of a solution, they must not only present but also share materials and engage in open Q&A (not necessarily answering everything, but committing to do so as much as possible).

[10:27] Mike Bennett: Other aspects of future sessions planning. Can we find some way to crowd source or open up the forward planning of sessions / subjects for Ontolog Forum.

[10:27] Amanda Vizedom: +1 for crowd-sourcing topics. Also: Maintain asynchronous discussion via, e.g., a wiki page with comments.

[10:30] Mike Bennett: The other series that was till in flight last year was the rules based series. That may or may not have reached a conclusion. There is still potential interest from people who would be interested in presenting at that series.

[10:30] Mike Bennett: so while the topics are all good, we need people to own the co-ordination of those series or others.

[10:31] Mike Bennett: Nobody owns the Rules Reasoning LP mini-series, though Benjamin and Leo were co-chairs of it while it was in flight back in 2013/2014. Leo does not have the bandwidth to pursue this.

[10:32] Mike Bennett: Would it make sense to have champions for series, like the rules ones and the standards ones, such that for each such subject the champions take ownership of this and coordinate for use of slots.

[10:33] Mike Bennett: For instance, what about the IAOA SIGs?

[10:33] Mike Bennett: That would also be mechanism for having people arrange Thursday sessions and compete for spaces.

[10:33] Mike Bennett: What's happening with SoCOP?

[10:34] Amanda Vizedom: Funding ended for SoCOP. Ontologies are picking up a bit for Earth Cube in other areas.

[10:34] Mike Bennett: Their funding dried up towards the end of last year.

[10:35] Amanda Vizedom: (I will be taking part in the Earth Cube Yosemite Field Trip in August, for example)

[10:35] Mike Bennett: Nancy and Gary still involved with this, but it doesn't seem to have a community as such, in the way that IAOA and Ontolog do.

[10:36] Mike Bennett: Gruninger: Could we do a retrospective on SoCOP?

[10:35] Amanda Vizedom: Between us and the lamppost, SoCOP had some serious focus and management issues.

[10:37] Mike Bennett: This might not work. Knowledge of the domain or the technologies, is perceived by a number of people, as being pretty low.

[10:37] Mike Bennett: Earthcube is in the same space (ppy: and almost "owning" it now).

[10:38] Michael Grüninger: Additional Agenda Item: Meeting time/schedule and the issue of finding a Chair

[10:38] Mike Bennett: 6.1 Who drives the BoT

[10:39] Mike Bennett: Peter: likes Matthew's suggestion. We haven't found a means to give him the opportunity - he probably has more bandwidth but cannot make this meeting today.

[10:39] Mike Bennett: Matthew's suggestion was instead of a Chair taking one meeting and moving on to the next, one person should be identified to drive things through for a few months.

[10:41] Mike Bennett: Mike suggests that having the Chair be in place for a longer period than a meeting period, then the focus of the Chair can be on more than simply arranging the next meeting.

[10:41] Mike Bennett: Michael in favor

[10:41] Mike Bennett: Amanda in favor

[10:41] Mike Bennett: Peter in favor

[10:41] Mike Bennett: Mike B in favor

[10:41] Mike Bennett: See also agenda item 5.1 need for additional BoT members.

[10:42] Mike Bennett: We currently have 10 board members; arguably 7 in reality.

[10:42] Mike Bennett: Others on the list seem not to attend meetings.

[10:43] Mike Bennett: Also with Peter on tour, we are down to 6 active members.

[10:43] Mike Bennett: Can we open the floor to nominations from the larger Ontolog community for possible members.

[10:43] Mike Bennett: Perhaps each of us can think of possible suggestions.

[10:44] Mike Bennett: That is, the alternatives are whether only people in this group propose new members, or if we throw it out to a wider group to make nominations or suggestions

[10:45] Mike Bennett: In the latter case this would also include the possibility of people suggesting themselves, since they are not on this list.

[10:45] Amanda Vizedom: I think we should allow people to suggest themselves. I also think that the call for suggestions should include a summary of qualifications and expectations.

[10:45] Mike Bennett: Consensus is we will do that.

[10:46] Mike Bennett: Set next meeting tie and ask Matthew whether he is willing to be the Chair for the next 3 months.

[10:47] Mike Bennett: Mike would be willing to be the scribe over the next 3 months - we would subsequently have chair / scribe team on a 3 month rota.

[10:47] Mike Bennett: Michael will contact Matthew on this.

[10:47] Mike Bennett: AoB?

[10:48] Mike Bennett: Who will drive the wider call for nomination of board members that we agreed to above? Is this an action item from this meeting, or a later activity?

[10:49] Mike Bennett: Amanda' suggestion was we put out such a call in the next couple of weeks, someone does a draft and runs it by the rest of the board.

[10:49] Amanda Vizedom: "Chaos should be regarded as extremely good news." - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

[10:49] Mike Bennett: Amanda is willing to take the action on this.

[10:49] Peter P. Yim: great meeting!

[10:49] Mike Bennett: Meeting ended 13:49pm Eastern Time

Scribe Minutes

Resources

  • [ Raw Audio recording of the meeting] ... ...

Past Meetings

For the record ...

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