1. Upper Ontologies for Specifying Context
Ontology Summit 2018
Track Session 2: 14 March

2. Agenda Background: Upper ontology business case and examples
Vipul Kashyap: Inter-ontology Interoperation
Upper Ontologies tour
Discussion points
Open discussion

3. Business Rationale for Context in Ontology

4. Aligning Business Glossary and Data Elements
Analysis of a representative set of terms in a bank business glossary and accompanying data dictionary. Terms like ‘Country’ are defined in the context in which they are used, for example country of domicile, risk etc. Meanwhile data elements need the context of class, class hierarchy in data models to determine semantics.
ONTOLOGY
Contexts:
Time
Role / Relationship
Records / history
etc.
Business concept context
Data element context
Business Glossary
Data Model
trace
Country
A self-governing geopolitical unit that is recognized as a country by the United Nations
Country of Incorporation
This term refers to country in which a corporation is legally registered for operations. This term is applicable to corporate entities only.
XYZ: Registered Address Country
Country of Birth
The country which customer documentation identifies as country of birth of the customer. This term refers to individuals only.
PQR: Customer Birth place
Country of Residence
The country where the customer declared he / she resides . This attribute refers to individuals only.
PQR: Customer Domicile Country Code
Domicile Country
This term refers to the country where the company operates for its primary operations. This term is applicable to corporate entities only
XYZ: Customer Domicile Country Code
Country Code
This is a 2-3 digit standard used to refer to a country, where the code is applicable to county of birth, county of residence, etc.
ISO 3166 Country Code
Country of Risk
This term refers to the country of risk for a customer's exposure with the Bank. This may be related to the currency of transaction or to location of a transaction or payee. This is applicable to corporations of individuals.
XYZ: Customer Risk Country Code
PQR: Customer Collateral Country Code
Business Glossary Details

5. Customer Relationships Current State
To make data reusable the contexts implicit in application siloes must be made explicit. Consider a set of applications for relationships between the bank and some party. Each silo combines relationship-specific data, entity data and historical records of the product or loan application.
Bank
Data Siloes
CRM2
CRM1
CRMn
There are various points at which the bank interacts with a given person (customer for various products)
First name
Family name
Customer ID
Drawdown date
Credit rating
Address
Country of Birth
Full name
Customer ID
Purchase date
Phone
Address Line 1 …
City
Country
Name
Customer ID
Date of Birth
Purchase date
Phone
Address Line 1 …
Country of Collateral
Legal Person

6. Customer Relationships Data: Future State
The Ontology makes implicit contexts explicit. It provides contextual semantics, distinguishing concepts specific to relationships, historical records (e.g. loan applications), current information for entities, and others. This is independent of the deployment benefits of semantic technology.
FIBO ONTOLOGY
Contexts:
Time
Role / Relationship
Records / history
etc.
Purchase
date
Current
date
Ontology provides the context for each kind of data
Relationship (context) specific data
Customer ID
Purchase history
Contact Phone
Customer ID
Drawdown date
Payment history
Customer ID
Purchase date
Country of collateral
Full name
Customer ID
Purchase date
Application Credit rating
Phone
Address Line 1 …
City
Country of Domicile
Non context specific data becomes real-time entity data
Entity Data
Address
Records: Loan application data
First name
Family name
Current Credit rating
Date of Birth
Home Phone
Country of Birth
Address Line 1 ..
Address line n
City
State
Country
Independent entity data

7. Examples of Context

8. Values Example Birger Andersson and Paul Johannesson
‘Ascribing Value’, VMBO 2018

9. Values Example Birger Andersson and Paul Johannesson
‘Ascribing Value’, VMBO 2018

10. Today’s Talk: Inter-ontology Interoperation Vipul Kashyap
Vipul will present an example of Inter-ontology interoperation - by translation of a query from one ontology to another - and characterize the loss of information that is incurred as a result.
There would be a need for an upper level ontology as the translation requires integration of two (publication) ontologies which is not possible without the existence of an implicit upper ontology.

11. Targeted Discussion Look at the upper ontologies
Look at what kinds of context there are
Look at possible treatments of context
Think about Context v Perspective (intention etc.)
Possible treatments
Discussion

12. What we Learned Last Time

13. Smith (BFO) Regions, places – perspectives Multi-perspectival:
Continuant View
Occurrent view
Bicategorial view
Single perspective view - molecular etc.
Multi-perspective view – molecules v cells
Holes, niches, sites etc.
Granularity
Systems as context; environments as systems

14. Loebe (GFO) Context determines views (extraction) Role as context
Relational role
Processual role
Social role
Abstract role model
Player – Role – Context
See also Searle ‘X counts as Y in C’

15. Scope EVA WHAT WHO WHEN WHERE HOW
Thank you.
The agenda I propose will address the What, Why, Who, How, When and Where of Test and Evaluation.
This will range from Test and Evaluation
of an individual,
of machines (such as this NASCAR vehicle in a wind tunnel rolling on a belt that is moving at 180 mph in order to discover ground effects),
of individuals collaborating on a previously defined task and
of several individuals co-learning in a dynamic situation.
The latter approximates the activity of System Engineering, a system that also needs to be tested and evaluated.
Yes, that means you. And I will tell you why in a few minutes.
" The FAA predicts 400,000 to 2.3M licensed Part 107 remote pilots by 2020”
- FAA Air Traffic Organization Policy: Order JO
WHY
10/9/17

16. Upper Ontology Views

17. DOLCE

18. TUpperWare

19. A View on GFO
Ontology Summit 2018, Feb 07

20. YAMATO

21. IDEAS

22. IDEAS

23. GIST

24. Sowa KR Lattice

25. Sowa Partitions (FIBO++)

26. BFO

27. Organism-Level Process
CONTINUANT
OCCURRENT
INDEPENDENT
DEPENDENT
ORGAN AND
ORGANISM
Organism
(NCBI
Taxonomy)
Anatomical Entity
(FMA, CARO)
Organ
Function
(FMP, CPRO)
Phenotypic Quality (PaTO)
Organism-Level Process
(GO)
CELL AND CELLULAR COMPONENT
Cell
(CL)
Cellular Component
(FMA, GO)
Cellular Function
Cellular Process
MOLECULE
Molecule
(ChEBI, SO,
RNAO, PRO)
Molecular Function
Molecular Process
BFO
RELATION TO TIME
GRANULARITY
rationale of OBO Foundry coverage = BFO

28. OBO ~2005 initial OBO Foundry suite TO TIME GRANULARITY CONTINUANT
RELATION
TO TIME
GRANULARITY
CONTINUANT
OCCURRENT
INDEPENDENT
DEPENDENT
ORGAN AND
ORGANISM
Organism
(NCBI
Taxonomy)
Anatomical Entity
(FMA, CARO)
Organ
Function
(FMP, CPRO)
Phenotypic Quality (PaTO)
Biological Process
(GO)
CELL AND CELLULAR COMPONENT
Cell
(CL)
Cellular Component
(FMA, GO)
Cellular Function
MOLECULE
Molecule
(ChEBI, SO,
RnaO, PrO)
Molecular Function
Molecular Process
OBO
~2005 initial OBO Foundry suite

29. Approaches to Context Context as a Class Kinds of Context
Mediating Thing partition
Kinds of Context
Who What When Where hoW
Why?
Everything as Context

30. Context as a Class Mediating Thing partition Independent Thing
Identified by properties intrinsic to the thing
Properties that do not depend on context
Relative Thing
Identified by properties of the thing in a given context
Mediating Thing is the context
Leads to a hierarchy of kinds of context

31. Hierarchy of Contexts: Customer
Legal Person
Bank Client
Bank Client Relationship
played by
In context
Retail Customer
Retail Customer Relationship
Natural Person
Organization
Current Account Holder
Current Account Relationship
Loan Borrower
Loan Relationship

32. Kinds of Context Who What When Where hoW Why? Treatments of these:
Identify these as top level classes in upper ontology?

33. Treatments When: Continuant v Occurrent Who What Where hoW
Each as context to the other
Who
Parties in Roles – context is relationship (contract etc.)
Relator in OntoUML
What
What?
Where
Location as concept
Ontology of Holes (Smith, last time)
hoW
Process, workflow etc.
Usually a different model style; amenable to occurrent treatment

34. What if these are all Mediating Things?
Independent
Relative (contextual)
Mediating (Context)
played by
In context
Who Context
What Context
Where Context
When Context
hoW Context
Actor
Concrete
Location
Event
Process
Party
Granularity
Hole ??
Aspect
Situation
State of Affairs

35. Why? Does this merit special treatment?
Is the ‘Why?’ beyond the scope in which the ontology is applied
Reason for the ontology (usage)
Use Case – for an individual application ontology
What about a broader concept ontology?
Is there always something beyond the ontology
Or is only God beyond ontology?
Why = pragmatics
Meaning as pragmatics
Meaning as referent (of a symbol)

36. Everything as Context
For any given item in the ontology, the context is specified by its relation to everything else
Is there a context beyond the ontology?
Everything else
Everything else
Something
Everything else
Everything else
Everything else
Everything else

37. Everything as Context Perspective
Is there a context beyond the ontology?
Everything else
Everything else
Something
Everything else
Everything else
Everything else
Everything else

38. Context and Perspective
Questions
How are Context and Perspective related?
Is Perspective a kind of Context
‘from the perspective of’ party
Party as part of the ontology?
Perspective and Intention
John Sowa’s previous comments
The observer / user brings their perspective to bear on the ontology (or any model)

39. Meaning and Intent
21 Feb Session - Sowa: ‘Intent’ necessary for context; later discussions…
Does every context require intent?
Is there a disconnect between a model-theoretic viewpoint and a conceptual viewpoint?
Model: Aim to capture a view of the world without intent
Intention v Intension
Role of the observer in deciding to conceptualize the world in one way or another
All ‘ontology’ is conceptual representation of things in the world, which requires agency
Is Intent the ‘Why’ in who what when where why how?
Proposition: ‘Meaning’ in terms of pragmatics
Something has no meaning until an agent believes it?? (Meaning v Truth)
Perspective: “set of things I believe that impact my current actions and beliefs”
Acts of interpretation / closing the world

40. Treatments Ontology scoping
Perspective on the ontology or its application
Pragmatics
Selection of upper ontology partitions
Most appropriate
Best of breed
Best match to usage (realist v idealist etc.)
What else?

41. Discussion Points
How to recognize all the contexts for an item in the ontology
Whether to simply apply the ‘relative thing’ test along each dimension (hierarchy of mediating things)
What is the context of the ontology itself
Are there contexts outside of the ontology itself
Are there always?
What to include in the ontology and what lies beyond?