Collaborative Expedition Workshop #38, February 22, 2005 at NSF    (2P1I)

Semantic Conflict, Mapping, and Enablement: Making Commitments Together    (2P1J)

AGENDA    (2P1K)

Purpose/ Description    (2P1L)

How can Communities of Practice build the capacity needed for shared understanding and governance around new mission responsibilities for data stewardship and sharing? How can emerging standards-based protocols (RDF, OWL, Topic Maps) improve collaboration around problem-centered, intergovernmental scenarios? In the realm of semantic technologies, conflict and context is the crux of everything. In light of this reality what is the potential for creating Public Information Environments that Strengthen Citizen-Government Relationships?    (2IOY)

The reason why semantic technologies exist at all is because of the unavoidable fact of semantic conflict. Software engineers cannot escape it; business leaders pay a hefty price because of it. The only way semantic conflict can be dealt with successfully is by fully understanding the context in which the conflict exists. In fact, context is crucial regardless of whether software engineers program a solution in a popular programming language or model the solution in a scalable data representation modeling language. So, whether Java is used or OWL is used, the engineer and analysts will always have to understand the business context that created a given data conflict. Source: Chapter 5. Semantic Conflict Solution Patterns in "Adaptive Information – Improving Business Through Semantic Interoperability, Grid Computing & Enterprise Integration," Wiley-Interscience by Pollock and Hodgson. Also see Achieving Semantic Interoperability (DKR Version).    (2IKE)

/AdditionalContextualBackground - from the Network of Communities of Practice    (8XV)

/VenueLogistics_2005_02_22    (8Y4)

Attendees    (8Y5)

1. Agenda    (8Y7)

8:30 a.m. - Check-in, Lunch Order ($8.00/person) and Coffee    (8Y8)

8:45 a.m. - Welcome and Introduction    (8Y9)

9:00 a.m. - Introduction to FEA DRM Success Strategy - MikeDaconta, Meta Data Program Manager, Center of Excellence, DHS and Lead, DRM WG (DKR Background)    (8YI)

Introduction to the Data Reference Model Public Forum    (2IPY)

9:30 a.m. - Netcentric Semantic Linking: An Approach for Enterprise Semantic Interoperability(Paper) (DKR Version) and PowerPoint Presentation, MaryPulvermacher, MITRE    (8UV)

As threats around the world become ever more complex, the Department of Defense (DoD) must seek ways to minimize the lag time required for synthesizing information and providing the resultant intelligence to the Warfighter. Key to this goal is providing a Command and Control (C2) machine to machine (M2M) environment where rapid and flexible exchange of information with new, and often unanticipated, trading partners is possible.    (1TYJ)

This research explored Network Centric Semantic Linking as a potential solution for integration across the U.S. Military C2 Enterprise. We automated portions of the target validation process to show how semantic linking across military domains could meet a real mission need. We built OWL ontologies to capture concepts in the Air Operations Database (AODB) and the Military Intelligence Database (MIDB).    (1TYK)

10:30 a.m. - BREAK    (1TYL)

10:45 a.m.- Collaborative Approach to Ontology Design: Innovator Perspectives and Demonstrations of New Open Standards and Technologies in Support of Ontology Engineering    (8YJ)

COVE - Collaborative Ontology Visualization and Evolution, TopQuadrant (Allemang, Polikoff, and Hodgson) and NASA Ames Research Center (PaulKeller, remote participant) (DKR Version)    (2IKJ)

Large aerospace efforts have intense requirements for semantic collaboration, in order to enhance project communication and reduce mission risk. The key element in this approach is the Ontology - a strucutured set of concepts and relationships between them that allow data from different souces to interact, in predictable and consistent ways. The first generation of COVE addresses design and reuse of ontologies and has produced promising case studies. The next generation of COVE will build on the first phase to provide comprehensive support throughout the engineering and mission support lifecycle.    (8RW)

Presentation as PDF file http://www.topquadrant.com/documents/talks/TQ%20Ontology-Based%20Collaborative%20Environments%20(v4).pdf    (2KMS)

COVE paper http://www.aeroconf.org/aeroupload/finishedpdf/F1458_2.pdf    (2KMU)

11:15 a.m. - Semantic Integration Using A Bottom-Up Approach, by MichelBiezunski and SteveNewcomb, Coolheads Consulting    (2IP3)

There are two approaches to the problem of integrating information, and both are important. The "top-down" approach emphasizes modeling uniformity and modeling power; it generally means defining models and persuading providers of information to understand them, and to make the information they provide conform to them. The bottom-up approach emphasizes modeling diversity and minimality; the idea is to take whatever information is available, and, with or without the provider's cooperation, to try to make one or more kinds of sense out of it. Each kind of sense is reflected in an ad-hoc model that captures only as much of the internal consistency of the incoming information as was needed for the sense that needed to be made. Our presentation will focus on the bottom-up approach, with the purpose of showing that it offers vital benefits, and that it is feasible, robust, exportable, maintainable and interchangeable. (Slides from our recent tutorial on a related subject: http://web-services.gov/XML2004f.ppt)    (2IP5)

11:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. - Networking Lunch (video optional)    (8YO)

Tim Berners-Lee Semantic Web 101 Talk at the MIT Emerging Technologies Conference, September 29, 2004    (8UO)

12:45 p.m.- Policy Content at SSA: Using XML and Semantic Metadata TerryHynes, PolicyNet, Program Manager, Social Security Administration, and DuaneDegler, Strategic Designer, Lockhead Martin/IPGems    (8YM)

PolicyNet is a content management and delivery system designed for the SSA's 70,000 front-line employees. A new content navigation and management approach has moved to a pilot status for online disability cases using an ontology of SSA knowledge along with a metadata engine that maps to an XML database. About 250,000 pages of manuals and documents will be broken down into a more granular form and tagged with XML - initial pilot content is managed by about six subject matter experts and field employees familiar with disability filings to help case workers find bits of information for common scenarios that case workers encounter.    (8SF)

1:15 p.m. - Developing Semantic Technologies in a Collaborative Work Environment - PeterYim    (2IGF)

In this presentation, the speaker will share his insight on how we can collaboratively develop semantic technologies through engaging virtual open communities. He will be citing case examples from projects and communities of practice that he has been involved in -- including those from the Ontolog Forum, OASIS, the CIM3-CWE system development team, and the AC/UNU Millennium Project. Through these examples, he will examine the efficacy of the work environment and the organizational form that are being employed.    (2IK6)

The speaker will argue for (i) a holistic application of collaboration in tools, process and people, (ii) open communities of practice, and (iii) virtual enterprising over "Fishnet" organizations. Parallels between innovations from the Silicon Valley and potential promises of these endeavors will be examined. He concludes that these approaches will likely give us the agility we need; allowing us to be more innovative, and to be highly effective in a knowledge economy. However, he also warns that the key to true collaboration will lie in our own "attitude towards sharing".    (2IK7)

Wicked Problem - a problem whose definition changes more rapidly that the architecting of its solution; e.g. hysteresis. (MarkFrautschi)    (2KMY)

David Bohm's five principles of dialogue. (RalphHodgson)    (2KN0)

1:45 p.m. - Federal Web Content Managers Forum-Weblogs, RSS Feeds, etc. - John Gladstone, NAL/USDA    (8UA)

2:15 p.m. - 2:30 p.m - BREAK    (2IIN)

2:30 p.m. - Who is Here? Who is Missing? What's the News from CoPs?    (8YN)

3:45 p.m. - Reflections from workshop presenters and participants    (8YW)

4:15 p.m. - ADJOURN    (8YX)

2. Collaborative Expedition Workshop Series Background    (8YY)

The Collaborative Expedition workshops serve individuals and policy-makers from all sectors: government, business, and non-government organizations to practice an emerging societal form that advances realization of the citizen-centric government goal of the President’s Management Agenda. Each workshop organizes participation around a common purpose, larger than any institution, including government. By learning how to appreciate multiple perspectives around the potentials and realities of this larger “purpose”, subsequent actions of individuals representing many forms of expertise, can be expressed more effectively in their respective settings. Workshop sponsors, including, GSA Office of Intergovernmental Solutions, the Architecture and Infrastructure Committee of the Federal CIO Council and National Coordination Office of the Interagency Committee on IT R&D (Social, Economic and Workforce Implications of IT and IT Workforce Development (SEW) Coordinating Group) value this “frontier outpost” to open up quality conversations, augmented by information technology, that leverage the collaborative capacity of united and diverse Americans seeking to discover, frame, and act on national potentials.    (8YZ)

A key finding of the past year, is the need to apply emerging technologies (web services, grid computing, and semantic web) to tune up the innovation pipeline with better linkages among business incubators (state economic development programs), innovation diffusion networks (SBIR, angel investors, etc.) and business intelligence centers with quality information about e-government and e-commerce gaps. Many of the agile business components surfacing in the small business innovation world are not easily discovered by e-government managers, resulting in lost or delayed opportunities for both parties.    (8Z0)

3. Past Workshop Archives, Collaborative Pilots, and Related Resources    (8Z1)

Brief Tour of Highlights from Three Sites (click on View Now to launch control panel for pause, resume page progression, speed-up; please disable your pop-up blocker on your browser)    (8ZA)

4. Upcoming Events    (8ZE)