by Peter P. Yim May 20, 2004

1. Shared Understanding : Standards, Ontologies & Collaborationa presentation to the [ontolog-forum] members by Peter P. Yim May 20, 2004 ppy / Shared_Understanding—PeterYim_20040520.ppt / May-2004 ( v. 1.00 )

2. 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 [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]

3. 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 [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]

4. 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 McGrath’s 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 [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]

5. 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) [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]

6. The Dao in our work • No, I’m not talking about Data Access Objects • I am referring to this: [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]

7. 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. The nameless is the beginning of the ten thousand things; The named is the mother of the ten thousand things; “Tao Te Ching” - Lao Tzu(circa 500 B.C.) as translated by Robert G. Henricks 1989 [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]

8. 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” [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]

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

10. 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 ) [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]

11. 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 Let’s focus on these … and don’t let other differences sidetrack us [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]

12. 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 [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]

13. 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 [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]

14. The CCT-Representation Project (2) • 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 [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]

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 – 2nd 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 announced [ Shared Understanding: Standards, Ontologies & Collaboration ]