Ontology Summit 2007: OntologySummit2007_Survey individual responses

OntologySummit2007_Survey/Response input from Denise Bedford

Please make sure you refer to the Ontology Summit 2007 & OntologySummit2007_Survey pages for the full context of the input.   

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Question 1 Respondant Info

Name: Denise Bedford

Question 2 Affiliated - I am affiliated with the following constituencies/communities (please check all that apply)

[ ] Formal ontology communities

[ ] Semantic Web communities

[X] Linguistic communities

[X] Concept Map community

[X] Topic Map community

[X] SEARCH communities

[ ] Web 2.0 communities

[X] Thesauri community

[X] Taxonomy communities

[X] Metadata communities

[ ] XML communities

[X] Applications Development, Software Engineering and Information Model communities

[ ] System Architecture communities

[ ] Biomedical communities

[ ] Standards Development communities

[X] Other (please specify): Multilingual Architectures

Question 2a Representing - I represent the perspective of the following constituency/community (please pick one; if you want to provide input from more than one perspective, please return a separate form):

[ ] 1. Formal ontology communities

[ ] 2. Semantic Web communities

[ ] 3. Linguistic communities

[ ] 4. Concept Map community

[ ] 5. Topic Map community

[ ] 6. SEARCH communities

[ ] 7. Web 2.0 communities

[ ] 8. Thesauri community

[X] 9. Taxonomy communities

[ ] 10. Metadata communities

[ ] 11. XML communities

[ ] 12. Applications Development, Software Engineering and Information Model communities

[ ] 13. System Architecture communities

[ ] 14. Biomedical communities

[ ] 15. Standards Development communities

[ ] 16. Other (please specify): (Not Answered)

Question 2b Specific Community

or sub-community I am affiliated with: Taxonomy community

Question 2c Expertise Self Assessment - With respect to the perspective you are representing and providing input from, I am a/an:

[ ] 1. informed layman

[ ] 2. practitioner

[X] 3. expert

[ ] 4. other (please specify): (Not Answered)

Question 3a Ontology Value -

"It presents the opportunity to formalize and standardize what is current practice.

Also, it provides the opportunity to integrate into a larger context many different

kinds of practices. More importantly, it offers the potential to do something

more intelligent with an integrated foundation."

Question 3b Ontology Issues -

"Lack of a common understanding of what is meant by ontologies - different perspectives,

different applications. A framework into which most practices could plug, and a set

of more/less rigorous rules for ontological business processes would be a big advance."

Question 3c Ontology Problems -

"I think the first step we need to take is to reach agreement on basic underlying

components of ontologies, and the basic data structures for those components."

Question 3d Corresponding Solutions -

"First of all, we need to be inclusive rather than exclusive. I think it would be

helpful to have a working group come up with a first cut at the essential functional

components of an ontology. Then individual groups or project teams (such as an

extended Taxo Thesaurus project team) could take the individual components and elaborate

data structures, behaviors, etc. There is a 'chicken and egg' problem involved in

specifying the components and defining the functionality/business processes -- however,

if we had a systematic strategy, I think we could work this out. Or, at least push it

as far as it can go at this time."

Question 4aGlossary - Ontology-related 'vocabulary' and representative 'artifact' from your constituency or community:

Term: Network Taxonomy (sometimes called semantic network or thesaurus)

Gloss: Extended thesaurus structure of deep concepts (not words!!!)

Reference (citation/url): Older version http://www.multites.com/wb/

Artifact (name/version): World Bank MetaThesaurus

- Artifact Ref. (url): http://www.multites.com/wb/

Question 4a1 Called An Ontology - On a scale of 1 to 5, (where 1 means totally unlikely and 5 means almost always), would the above term or artifact be referred to as an "ontology" in your community?

[ ] 1. 1 - totally unlikely

[ ] 2. 2 - rarely

[X] 3. 3 - sometimes

[ ] 4. 4 - quite often

[ ] 5. 5 - almost always

Question 4a2 Additional Remarks -

"Leveraged in topic classification, used to support search (equivalent terms

for synonym expansion), other relationships for suggesting other search terms."

Question 4bGlossary - Ontology-related 'vocabulary' and representative 'artifact' from your constituency or community:

Term: Hierarchical Taxonomy

Gloss: Classification Scheme - World Bank Topics

Reference (citation/url): http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=633473&pagePK=64165395&piPK=64165418&theSitePK=469372

Artifact (name/version): Enterprise Topic Classification Scheme

- Artifact Ref. (url): http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=633473&pagePK=64165395&piPK=64165418&theSitePK=469372

Question 4b1 Called An Ontology - On a scale of 1 to 5, (where 1 means totally unlikely and 5 means almost always), would the above term or artifact be referred to as an "ontology" in your community?

[X] 1. 1 - totally unlikely

[ ] 2. 2 - rarely

[ ] 3. 3 - sometimes

[ ] 4. 4 - quite often

[ ] 5. 5 - almost always

Question 4b2 Additional Remarks -

"Topic maps are typically the products of dynamic statistical clustering.

This is actually a rule-based topic classification scheme which we use to

programmatically classify content. This is used in either search or browsing.

Can also be used to support syndication."

Question 4cGlossary - Ontology-related 'vocabulary' and representative 'artifact' from your constituency or community:

Term: Metadata Scheme

Gloss: Set of metadata attributes which are required for all WB content.

Reference (citation/url): Not accessible outside the WB.

Artifact (name/version): World Bank Core Metadata Strategy

- Artifact Ref. (url): (Not Answered)

Question 4c1 Called An Ontology - On a scale of 1 to 5, (where 1 means totally unlikely and 5 means almost always), would the above term or artifact be referred to as an "ontology" in your community?

[ ] 1. 1 - totally unlikely

[X] 2. 2 - rarely

[ ] 3. 3 - sometimes

[ ] 4. 4 - quite often

[ ] 5. 5 - almost always

Question 4c2 Additional Remarks -

"What people sometimes refer to as 'faceted' structures when properly formed is

actually a metadata scheme, each facet of which may have its own distinct behavior

and structures. There is a need to bring together the people who talk about

'metadata' and the people who talk about 'faceted search'. They using different

terms but meaning the same thing. There are discrepancies in business rules applied

to each one, though."

Question 4dGlossary - Ontology-related 'vocabulary' and representative 'artifact' from your constituency or community:

Term: Ring Taxonomy (synonyms)

Gloss: Set of equivalent terms, including predecessors, successors, variant

lexical forms, abbreviations, variant spellings, other language forms, etc.

Reference (citation/url): (Not Answered)

Artifact (name/version): ISO Country Names, ISO Languages, World Bank currency names

- Artifact Ref. (url): http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/list-en1.html

Question 4d1 Called An Ontology - On a scale of 1 to 5, (where 1 means totally unlikely and 5 means almost always), would the above term or artifact be referred to as an "ontology" in your community?

[X] 1. 1 - totally unlikely

[ ] 2. 2 - rarely

[ ] 3. 3 - sometimes

[ ] 4. 4 - quite often

[ ] 5. 5 - almost always

Question 4d2 Additional Remarks -

"Ontologists may argue about country names, currency names, etc. but the groups

that maintain these lists would rarely consider them to be an ontology or

even a component of an ontology."

Question 4eGlossary - Ontology-related 'vocabulary' and representative 'artifact' from your constituency or community:

Term: (Not Answered)

Gloss: (Not Answered)

Reference (citation/url): (Not Answered)

Artifact (name/version): (Not Answered)

- Artifact Ref. (url): (Not Answered)

Question 4e1 Called An Ontology - On a scale of 1 to 5, (where 1 means totally unlikely and 5 means almost always), would the above term or artifact be referred to as an "ontology" in your community?

[ ] 1. 1 - totally unlikely

[ ] 2. 2 - rarely

[ ] 3. 3 - sometimes

[ ] 4. 4 - quite often

[ ] 5. 5 - almost always

Question 4e2 Additional Remarks -

"(Not Answered)"

Question 4fGlossary - Ontology-related 'vocabulary' and representative 'artifact' from your constituency or community:

Term: (Not Answered)

Gloss: (Not Answered)

Reference (citation/url): (Not Answered)

Artifact (name/version): (Not Answered)

- Artifact Ref. (url): (Not Answered)

Question 4f1 Called An Ontology - On a scale of 1 to 5, (where 1 means totally unlikely and 5 means almost always), would the above term or artifact be referred to as an "ontology" in your community?

[ ] 1. 1 - totally unlikely

[ ] 2. 2 - rarely

[ ] 3. 3 - sometimes

[ ] 4. 4 - quite often

[ ] 5. 5 - almost always

Question 4f2 Additional Remarks -

"(Not Answered)"

Question 4gGlossary - Ontology-related 'vocabulary' and representative 'artifact' from your constituency or community:

Term: (Not Answered)

Gloss (definition): (Not Answered)

Reference (citation/url): (Not Answered)

Artifact (name/version): (Not Answered)

- Artifact Ref. (url): (Not Answered)

Question 4g1 Called An Ontology - On a scale of 1 to 5, (where 1 means totally unlikely and 5 means almost always), would the above term or artifact be referred to as an "ontology" in your community?

[ ] 1. 1 - totally unlikely

[ ] 2. 2 - rarely

[ ] 3. 3 - sometimes

[ ] 4. 4 - quite often

[ ] 5. 5 - almost always

Question 4g2 Additional Remarks -

"(Not Answered)"

Question 4hGlossary - Ontology-related 'vocabulary' and representative 'artifact' from your constituency or community:

Term: (Not Answered)

Gloss: (Not Answered)

Reference (citation/url): (Not Answered)

Artifact (name/version): (Not Answered)

- Artifact Ref. (url): (Not Answered)

Question 4h1 Called An Ontology - On a scale of 1 to 5, (where 1 means totally unlikely and 5 means almost always), would the above term or artifact be referred to as an "ontology" in your community?

[ ] 1. 1 - totally unlikely

[ ] 2. 2 - rarely

[ ] 3. 3 - sometimes

[ ] 4. 4 - quite often

[ ] 5. 5 - almost always

Question 4h2 Additional Remarks -

"(Not Answered)"

Question 5 Confirm Participation - where,

a 'convener' is a participant who provides substantive contribution to the Ontology Summit 2007

initiative (through the online discourse, this survey, and other events leading to or during

the workshops and the written communique process), and

a 'co-sponsor' is an organization who is providing technical or funding support (e.g. supporting

member(s) of its technical staff to participate as a 'convener'), and/or endorsing the objective

of this Ontology Summit 2007,

[ ] I agree that my name can be listed as a 'convener' of Ontology Summit 2007

[ ] I will consider endorsing the Ontology Summit 2007 communique. Please send it to me for

review when it is ready. I will confirm my endorsement after the review.

[ ] I confirm that you may list my organization as a 'co-sponsor' for

Ontology Summit 2007 (details below).

Question 5a Co-Sponsor confirmation:

Organization Name: (Not Answered)

Link (url) to Logo: (Not Answered)

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