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Re: [cuo-wg] White Paper

To: "Brad Cox, Ph.D." <bcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: common upper ontology working group <cuo-wg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2006 17:02:30 -0600
Message-id: <p06230903c18691692119@[192.168.2.2]>
>The point is designed systems and evolved systems arise from two ways of
>solving similar problems. Evolved systems ("free markets" for example) often
>solve the hardest ones better, as the soviet economy's shot at central
>planning shows.
>It was also an evolved problem that has pretty much solved the N^2 problem of
>cross-domain ontologies  between diverse real languages, a problem I think we
>do agree won't be solved by centrally planned technologies like OWL.    (01)

Hey, hold on. The point of OWL is to provide a 
standard for ontology information exchange, not a 
centrally planned ontological technology. There 
is no standard, centrally planned OWL reasoner or 
OWL tool kit: indeed, they should evolve in just 
the way you describe. But without having a common 
language to communicate in, the evolutionary 
process can't even get started. Just as you can't 
have much of a free market if there is no 
standard currency.    (02)

>  No
>shortage of cross-domain ontologies (dictionaries, etc) in bookstores    (03)

A very misleading characterization, IMO. In what 
sense is a dictionary 'cross-domain'? In what 
sense is it an ontology? And dictionaries didn't 
evolve (or Dr. Johnson wouldn't have had anything 
to do)    (04)

>; another
>evolved system, with the incentive structures I mentioned.
>
>Rain forests are just one example of evolved systems. If that example doesn't
>work for you just pick one that does. But don't rule evolved solutions out
>just because they are seen as unconventional in these circles.
>
>--
>Work: Brad Cox, Ph.D; Binary Group; Mail bcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Home: 703 361 4751; Chat brdjcx@aim; Web http://virtualschool.edu
>
>
>---------- Original Message -----------
>From: "Cory Casanave" <cory-c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: <bcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "common upper ontology working group"
><cuo-wg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Cc: "Flynn, John P." <john.flynn@xxxxxxx>
>Sent: Sun, 19 Nov 2006 14:17:48 -0500
>Subject: RE: [cuo-wg] White Paper
>
>>  Brad,
>>  In that I don't do much work for or about the rain forest, it is a bit
>>  hard to place your analogy. If fact, all of the work we do is for
>>  "intentional systems" rather than natural systems.  Those intentional
>>  systems may be organizations, communities or information technology.
>>  There is certainly parts of those systems that can work based on an
>>  incentive system, but in almost every case it is the incentive for
>>  intentional systems to work together - and in doing so become a larger
>>  intentional system.  It is not just the government that thinks they need
>>  to design, architect and specify how their organization, resources and
>>  supporting technologies work and work together - it is everyone and
>>  everything which has a goal. 
>>  -Cory
>>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: Brad Cox, Ph.D. [mailto:bcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
>>  Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2006 5:36 PM
>>  To: Cory Casanave; common upper ontology working group
>>  Cc: Flynn, John P.
>>  Subject: RE: [cuo-wg] White Paper
>>
>>  Cory; couldn't let this claim go by unchallenged.
>>
>>  > The government, like any large organization, is a system and parts of
>>  > that system need to be designed.
>>
>>  Its absolutely true that government believes this to its very soul. But
>>  its definitely not true for almost all other large organizations, like
>>  rain forests, the distributed organization that feeds lunch to millions
>>  of New Yorkers each day, nor the more localized ones that build
>>  everything from pencils to automobiles to telephone calls.
>>
>>  Such organizations were never "designed". They "evolved", completely
>>  oblivious to the guiding hand of some almighty nerd. For more along
>>  these lines search for Bionomics on http://virtualschool.edu.
>>
>>  This is actually the reason I keep yammering on about incentive
>>  structures.
>>  Evolutionary systems rely on such structures (based on calorie exchange
>>  in
>>  nature) to distinguish success and failure. Govt largely lacks this, and
>>  thus the guiding hand it provides.
>  >
>>  --
>>  Work: Brad Cox, Ph.D; Binary Group; Mail bcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>  Home: 703 361 4751; Chat brdjcx@aim; Web http://virtualschool.edu
>>
>>  ---------- Original Message -----------
>>  From: "Cory Casanave" <cory-c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>  To: "common upper ontology working group" <cuo-wg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
>  > <bcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>  Cc: "Flynn, John P." <john.flynn@xxxxxxx>
>>  Sent: Sat, 18 Nov 2006 15:49:56 -0500
>>  Subject: RE: [cuo-wg] White Paper
>>
>>  > John,
>>  > I don't think we are talking about the same thing.  We are concerned
>>  > with the architectures of the government, not architectures the
>>  > government imposes on others.  The government, like any large
>>  > organization, is a system and parts of that system need to be
>>  designed.
>>  > Some parts need to be designed to work with other parts, good
>>  > architecture does that flexibly and without N**2 integration.  These
>>  > architectures need to work together - architectures working together
>>  > is exactly what interoperability is, separately architected systems
>>  > (business or technology systems) coming together on common ground. 
>>  > "The internet" does not "work together" in this way, it is technology
>>  > infrastructure.
>>  >
>>  > As for as tried and proven approaches, building solid architectures is
>>
>>  > as about as proven as it gets.  Common agreement in a community is
>>  > proven (also known as standards).  Point to point interoperability is
>>  > also proven.  We want to go beyond that, here we have some great
>>  > candidates but I don't see anything as proven.
>>  >
>>  > As far as LDC and fuzzy architectures, I agree completely.
>>  >
>>  > -Cory
>>  >
>>  > -----Original Message-----
>>  > From: cuo-wg-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>  > [mailto:cuo-wg-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Flynn
>>  > Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2006 9:46 AM
>>  > To: 'common upper ontology working group'; bcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>  > Cc: 'Flynn, John P.'
>>  > Subject: Re: [cuo-wg] White Paper
>>  >
>>  > Cory,
>>  >
>>  > A typical problem with government designed and managed architectures
>>  > is that they have the potential to represent a lowest common
>>  > denominator
>>  > (LCD) approach in order to accommodate the interest of all the
>>  > candidate participants. The resultant LCD architectures are so vague
>>  > that they still allow many non-interoperable applications to be
>>  > developed and almost always contain relatively easy to obtain
>>  > provisions for exceptions. It seems that the one architectural
>>  > standard that has best held up over a number of years, gracefully
>>  > evolved and truly supported broad interoperability is the World Wide
>>  > Web architecture. It was not designed or managed by the government.
>>  > Also, it is not proprietary. So, it may be useful to focus on ways to
>>  > extend the proven WWW model, via W3C processes, to accommodate the
>>  > CDSI requirements before branching out to seriously consider other
>>  > less tried and proven approaches.
>>  >
>>  > John
>>  >
>>  > -----Original Message-----
>>  > From: cuo-wg-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>  > [mailto:cuo-wg-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
>>  > On Behalf Of Cory Casanave
>>  > Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 11:21 AM
>>  > To: bcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; 'common upper ontology working group'
>>  > Subject: Re: [cuo-wg] White Paper
>>  >
>>  > Brad,
>>  > We have been thinking along similar lines but I submit the government
>>  > has to own their architectures, only they have the cross-cutting view
>>  > (or should have).  Contractors can help build these, but the
>>  > architecture asset (as the expression of the enterprise, enterprise
>>  > needs and solutions - business or
>>  > technical) has to be put into the acquisition cycle.   Systems then
>>  need
>>  > to
>>  > be built to that architecture is an executable, testable way.  Those
>>  > architectures have to STOP being "for a system" and be "for the
>>  > enterprise".
>>  > SOA makes a great model for these architectures - separating concerns
>>  > and providing the boundaries to build to.  The semantic technologies
>>  > can help here to join and bridge architectures, but you are absolutely
>>
>>  > correct that the core problem is not technical.
>  > > -Cory
>>  >
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>>  ------- End of Original Message -------
>------- End of Original Message -------
>
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