Shared Understanding : Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration a presentation to the [ontolog-forum] members by Peter P. Yim May 20, 2004 ppy / Shared_UnderstandingPeterYim_ ppt / May-2004 ( v )

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 2 of 15 Outline Purpose of this presentation ONTOLOG – then and now What do Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration have in Common? The Dao in our work Back to basics – what are we here for? An unprecedented opportunity and challenge ONTOLOG – going forward

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 3 of 15 Purpose of this presentation An introduction of [ontolog] to those who are new A retrospect, now that we are already slightly more than 2 years old Share the vision of one very meaningful, yet challenging project in front of us Look forward to the future of the [ontolog] CoP

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 4 of 15 ONTOLOG – then and now Our first pitch – April 2, 2002 Semantics, Ontologies & UBL – Leo Obrst, Jack Park & Peter Yim a virtual presentation to the UBL TC members at Tim McGraths UBL-LCSC conference call another physical presentation, Leo Obrst & Peter Yim, at the UBL June 2002 f2f meeting in Minneapolis Reconstituted – September 1, 2002 Recognition of the difference in the UBL and the ONTOLOG execution timeline Reconstituting as an open international forum, in the form of a Community of Practice (CoP) – Co-convened by Leo Obrst, Kurt Conrad & Peter Yim hosted on the CIM3.NET Collaborative Work Environment (CWE) Today: over 90 members (list subscribers) from more than 10 countries a fertile virtual spaces for discourse on the business domain ontology and related issues a rich resource for ontological engineering and business ontology a network of individuals in this space who have known and worked with each other for an extended period of time

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 5 of 15 What do Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration have in Common? Common goals Interoperability (working together) Better efficiency (time & cost) Adopting best practices Eliminating duplicated efforts Optimal Effectiveness (getting things done) Common approach Eliminate/Reduce Ambiguity Develop Shared Understanding … on tackling 'wicked problems': it's about having a shared commitment, developing a shared understanding, augmented by a shared display and a facilitator. -- citing the work by the IBIS people (Horst Rittle/Jeff Conklin)

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 6 of 15 The Dao in our work No, Im not talking about Data Access Objects I am referring to this:

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 7 of 15 As for the Way (Tao), the Way that can be spoken of is not the constant Way; As for names, the name that can be named is not the constant name. Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu (circa 500 B.C.) as translated by Robert G. Henricks 1989 The nameless is the beginning of the ten thousand things; The named is the mother of the ten thousand things;

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 8 of 15 Living with the Duality Around Us the small o vs. the big O in Ontology Classic AI vs. Augmentation approaches the Form vs. Free-form Transaction Process vs. Collaborative Process the Cathedral vs. the Bazaar we are not bound to choose ONE or THE OTHER

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 9 of 15 A Challenge I would challenge anyone to represent the semantics of [this]this While you can represent it properly (in some form), can you capture its semantics … can you really fully represent it? If you dont think it means anything, I can probably find millions of people who will disagree with you The lesson: not everything is f ully describable, fully online, fully informative, fully accurate, or fully responsible ( ref: Winograd, Newman, Yim Including People in CIM Designs )Including People in CIM Designs

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 10 of 15 Back to basics – what are we here for? Ontolog is an open forum to: Discuss practical issues and strategies associated with the development of both formal and informal ontologies used in business Identify ontological engineering approaches that might be applied to the UBL effort* (* By now, we should have extended this to cover the broader domain of eBusiness standardization efforts )

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 11 of 15 What holds us together: Our Core Value Developing Shared Understanding Openness Advancing the practice of semantic engineering Doing meaningful work and making a difference with it Lets focus on these … and dont let other differences sidetrack us

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 12 of 15 An unprecedented opportunity and challenge A meaningful set of deliverables from this community Introducing the ontological engineering approach to the standards development community A chance to influence the future of eBusiness standards Provide an example of good work by a virtual Community of Practice

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 13 of 15 The CCT-Representation Project (1) Develop a ebXML CCT ontology in KIF (from SUMO) Gain the opportunity to work with people from UBL, OAG, NIST, UN/CEFACT- CCTS, TBG-17, …etc. From lessons learned in the exercise, provide meaningful and actionable input into standards groups

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 14 of 15 Take the normative KIF-based CCT-ontology, and expressed them in (either lossless or lossy, as long as we are fully aware): Protégé OWL UML Class Diagram UML 2 / OCL XML / XSD RDF/S … etc. Capitalize on the KIF-Protégé project and the power and capabilities of Protégé to provide some of the mapping The CCT-Representation Project (2)

ppy / May-2004[ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]Slide 15 of 15 ONTOLOG – going forward Lots of work awaiting us … … few has the expertise to do what we can do as a team We are reaching out July 2004 – 2 nd Ontolog F2F Meeting /Workshop in the Washington DC Area Engaging the Protégé community, SICoP, … Going from online CoP to Virtual Enterprises even funding opportunities are surfacing (e.g. Information Technology Solutions-Business Information Strategic Support (ITS-BISS) - $70M-5 years, just announcedannounced