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Re: [cuo-wg] Technical maturity of Semantic Web solution

To: common upper ontology working group <cuo-wg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: richard murphy <rick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2007 19:24:53 -0500
Message-id: <45C91C55.8080909@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Jim, Pat & All:    (01)

I'd like to suggest the approach Pat has described is working and its 
working everywhere, In fact, you'll find some very interesting work on 
this site: http://rhizomik.net/livingsw/ in which the research shows the 
semantic web behaves like a living system.    (02)

I've also suggested an alternative approach here:    (03)

http://colab.cim3.net/forum//cuo-wg/2007-02/msg00012.html    (04)

to assessing maturity which I believe is consistent with what you, Pat, 
are saying about "letting loose a method of social interaction."    (05)

Pat, any thoughts ?    (06)

However, Jim, to assess maturity using this approach we'd have to better 
understand how you're technical maturity scale relates maturity and 
scaleability.    (07)

I believe posing and examining alternatives to your maturity scale is 
important and deserves debate. Thomas Kuhn, in the Structure of 
Scientific Revolutions says that scientists will hold onto a failing 
theory until an alternative is posed and compared.    (08)

I'm not sure why you'd want to perpetuate a *not so good* maturity 
model, but maybe that says something about the audience for the paper.    (09)

-- 
Best wishes,    (010)

Rick    (011)

email:  rick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
web:    http://www.rickmurphy.org
cell:   703-201-9129    (012)

Schoening, James R C-E LCMC CIO/G6 wrote:
>  Pat,
>       I agree this is not the best model, but for our purposes, I suggest it 
>is good enough. Perhaps you (or someone) could cite some recent demonstrations 
>and whether they were in a laboratory, relevant, or operational environment. 
> 
>       I'd also be in favor of doing a version of this model for semantic 
>interoperability.
> 
>       I'm guessing the Semantic Web approach you describe works well in a 
>small scale or a laboratory environment, but that there is no evidence (yet) 
>it could scale up. If so, I believe further work should be funded to advance 
>this approach. 
> 
> Jim
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pat Hayes [mailto:phayes@xxxxxxx] 
> Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 1:09 PM
> To: Schoening, James R C-E LCMC CIO/G6
> Cc: cuo-wg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [cuo-wg] Technical maturity of Semantic Web solution
> 
> 
>>Pat (or anyone),
> 
> 
> Someone else will have to do this. I have no idea what these distinctions 
>mean in this kind of a context. When did the WWWeb satisfy a 'proof of 
>concept' or a 'breadboard validation'? This seems to be about engineering some 
>kind of device, not letting loose a social method of interaction.
> 
> Pat
> 
> 
>>     OK, if what you describe is a potential solution, at what level 
>>of technical maturity (using scale below, from the paper) would you 
>>rate this, and please consider scalability as part of this assessement?
>>
>>1.  Basic principles observed and reported.
>>2.  Technology concept and/or application formulated.
>>3.  Analytical and experimental critical functions and/or 
>>characteristic proof of concept.
>>4.  Component and/or breadboard validation in laboratory environment.
>>5.  Component and/or breadboard validation in relevant environment.
>>6.  System/subsystem model or prototype demonstration in a relevant 
>>environment.
>>7.  System prototype demonstration in an operational environment.
>>8.  Actual system completed and 'flight qualified' through test and 
>>demonstration.
>>9.  Actual system 'flight proven' though successful mission operations.
>>
>>Jim Schoening
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Pat Hayes [mailto:phayes@xxxxxxx]
>>Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 5:52 PM
>>To: Schoening, James R C-E LCMC CIO/G6
>>Cc: cuo-wg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>Subject: Re: [cuo-wg] The next key question
>>
>>
>>>CDSI WG,
>>>
>>>     Given Pat Hayes' description (below) of what Jim Hendler refers to as 
>>>"URI-based reference mechanism coupled with the standard for KR and 
>>>other aspects is aimed exactly at scalability.":
>>>        
>>>         The key question now is: Could the above referenced 
>>>technology (when it matures) be used to achieve semantic 
>>>interoperability across large numbers of domains (with independently 
>developed ontologies)?
>>>Any takers?
>>
>>Sure. The direct answer to your question is, no.
>>BUt that is because your question as posed misses the point: the open 
>>publication paradigm allows ontologies to NOT be developed 
>>independently of one another. They will cross-refer, use parts of other 
>>ontologies, and include references - eventually, one hopes, 'nuanced' 
>>references - to one another in a global network of semantic hyperlinks. 
>>And they will do this because to create a useful ontology by re-using 
>>and linking in this way will be vastly easier than building entire 
>>ontologies from scratch, in isolation from other ontology building. 
>>Think of the SWeb as a growing ontology 'library', freelyopen to all 
>>for modification and re-use. As pieces of this are written and found 
>>widely useful, the number of links to them (and the economic pressure 
>>on the community to find ways to preserve them) will grow, ensuring 
>>their even wider re-use. This effect snowballs on the Web, as we all 
>>know. As far as I can see, the pressures which make such phenomena as 
>>YouTube go from nothing to billions of users in less than a year will 
>>still operate, albeit perhaps at a different timescale, for the 
>>semantic web also. The semantic web is not just traditional ontology 
>>engineering with XML added as a kind of afterthought. It is part of the 
>>Web, and will be governed by Webbish laws of growth and distribution.
>>
>>Pat
>>
>>
>>>Jim Schoening
>>>
>>>        
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Pat Hayes wrote:
>>>
>>>>  OK, here's my take on that.
>>>>
>>>>  First, "standard for KR". I think all that Jim means is, the SWeb 
>>>>is  intended to use whatever is the best available KR mechanism that 
>>>>can  be adopted as a 'standard', ie which a wide enough spectrum of 
>>>>users  can be persuaded to agree to use. No such choice will be free 
>>>>from  controversy. OWL wasn't and isn't free from controversy, and 
>>>>nobody  even knows if a large enough community can ever be brought 
>>>>to  consensus on an acceptable Rule language. But assuming that some 
>>>>WG  can get its job completed, and produces a useful notation, then 
>>>>that  can be used on the SWeb. There are plenty of potential 
>>>>candidates
>>
>> >> which are way more expressive than OWL readily available. So it 
>>would
>>
>>>> be a mistake to identify the SWeb vision with OWL or DL technology 
>>>>in  particular. OWL-DL is just the first in what one hopes will be 
>>>>an  evolving series of KR standards which will provide the 
>>>>infrastructure  of the SWeb. Perhaps the next one will be more like  
>>>>Python+Prolog on  steroids. Or it may be a  breakthrough in CL 
>>>>reasoners using the  guarded fragment, who knows?
>>>>  The decision is as much political as technical, or even subject to  
>>>>whims of intellectual fashion.
>>>>
>>>>  "URI-based reference mechanism" is more interesting. This is one 
>>>>of  the few things that really is new and different about the SWeb: 
>>>>it is  part of the Web, and subject to Web conventions and 
>>>>protocols. It  isn't *just* applied ontology engineering. So, every 
>>>>SWeb ontology is  required to use names drawn from a (literally) global set 
>of names.
>>>>  The scope of these names is the entire Web. There are no 'locally  
>>>>scoped' or 'private'
>>>>  names on the Sweb. So if your ontology uses a name for a concept, 
>>>>my  ontology can use it too.
>>>>  Anyone can 'say' anything about everyone else's concepts, on the Sweb.
>>>>  This is a whole new game, which nobody has played before. A can  
>>>>introduce a concept called A:thingie1 and B can introduce 
>>>>B:thingie2,  and C can then, entirely independently and without 
>>>>asking for A or  B's  permission, assert that (say) A:thingie1 is 
>>>>the same as  B:thingie2. A
>>>
>>>  > and B may disagree: tough tittie, they can't stop C from making 
>>>the
>>>
>>>>  assertion. C can say things about A's ontology, in fact, such as
>>>> assert that it is all BS. The globality of the namespace has a 
>>>>whole
>>>> range of consequences which we are only beginning to explore. And
>>>> being URIs (actually IRIs these
>>>>  days) , these names can also be used as identifiers which *access*
>>>> things on the Web.
>>>>  Whether these accessed things should be the referents of the names
>>>> is  currently controversial (I think not, in general), but that 
>>>>they
>>>> access
>>>>  *something* is not even remotely at issue. So SWeb concept names
>>>> have  a whole new dimensionality to them, which is (or at any rate
>>>> can be)  orthogonal to their use as referring names. In particular,
>>>> it allows  ontologies to "address" other ontologies (a pale version
>>>> of which is  the OWL:imports primitive, but one can do a lot more
>>>> than this), which  obviously has many potential applications 
>>>>relevant to scaling.
>>>>
>>>>  Hope this helps.
>>>>
>>>>  BTW, I entirely agree with Jim's optimism. I think people are way  
>>>>too  scared of inconsistencies. Lets wait and see what problems  
>>>>actually  crop up before trying to solve or avoid ones that we only  
>>>>worry about  rather than actually find.
>>>>
>>>>  Pat
>>>>
>>>
>>>___
>>
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