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Ontology: The Need for International Coordination NCOR Inaugural Oct 27, 2005

Ontology: The Need for International Coordination NCOR Inaugural Oct 27, 2005. Dr. W. Ceusters European Centre for Ontological Research Saarland University, Saarbrücken - Germany. European Centre for Ontological Research. ECOR’s members & partners. External members. Local members.

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Ontology: The Need for International Coordination NCOR Inaugural Oct 27, 2005

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  1. Ontology:The Need forInternational CoordinationNCOR Inaugural Oct 27, 2005 Dr. W. Ceusters European Centre for Ontological Research Saarland University, Saarbrücken - Germany

  2. European Centre forOntological Research

  3. ECOR’s members & partners External members Local members Partners Status Oct 2, 2005

  4. Goals and objectives • sustained and coordinated collaboration with institutions with proven track record of excellence in ontological research and in the application of ontology to solve concrete problems. • interdisciplinary approach based on philosophical rigour • exchange of research personnel for short research visits • participation in joint projects, • joint supervision of doctoral research, • joint production of software and authorship of research papers • collaborate in seeking funding at national and international levels for ontology-related research and development activities

  5. Similar Centers • Created: • Interdisciplinary Ontology forum Japan • NCOR • Considered: • Canadian Centre for Ontological Research • Australasian Ontology Center

  6. Europe: cross-bordercoordination is in our genes • Flanders: a wealth of dialects • About 850 for a population of 6,000,000 • Belgium: population: 10,000,000 • 3 communities: French, Flemish, German • 3 regions: Flanders, Wallony, Brussels • 6 governments • Europe: • 25 countries • Many more regions, some cross-national • Flanders, Basque country, Occitania, ...

  7. European Member States

  8. Permanent cross-border awareness • Variations in legislation: • What is forbidden in one jurisdiction, might be allowed in a second one, and mandatory in a third one. • Variations in culture and habits • Biggest incentive: • No cross-border issue, no money ! • Biggest source of (research) funding: EU • Requirement for EU-funding • Europe-wide problem • Problem cannot be solved by one Member State

  9. Reasons for coordination in general • Avoid waste of financial resources and efforts • Pro: • Division of labor • Roadmap for future developments • Contra: • Additional overhead • Sharing of resources • But: competition is a good driver for quality • Benchmarking, quality assurance

  10. Coordination needs and opportunities for Ontology • Horizontal • Ontology languages • We asked for one, but did we ask for OWL ? • Terminologies, concept systems, ontologies • The Syntactic Web • Ontology-based applications • Vertical • Healthcare & Life Sciences • Finance • Legal • Globalisation

  11. Current US GOV eHealth goals & strategies • G1: Inform Clinical Practice: • S1. Provide incentives for EHR adoption. • S2. Reduce risk of EHR investment. • S3. Promote EHR diffusion in rural and underserved areas. • G2: Interconnect Clinicians. • S1. Regional collaborations. • S2. Develop a national health information network. • S3. Coordinate federal health information systems. • Goal 3: Personalize Care. • S1. Encourage use of Personal Health Records. • S2. Enhance informed consumer choice. • S3. Promote use of telehealth systems. • Goal 4: Improve Population Health. • S1. Unify public health surveillance architectures. • S2. Streamline quality and health status monitoring. • S3. Accelerate research and dissemination of evidence. US Department of Health and Human Services July 21, 2004

  12. UMLS Semantic Network

  13. Main problems with eHealth‘ontologies’ • Internal and external (in)consistency • What do the terms in a terminology stand for ? • ‘meaning is context’ • The biggest defenders are • Those who build them • Those who never studied them • Lobbying for mandatory use

  14. universals terms concepts ideas in people’s minds particulars Terminologies, concept systems, ontologies

  15. wisdom (- representation) knowledge - representation information - representation • Questions not often enough asked: • What part of our data corresponds with something out there in reality ? • What part of reality is not captured by our data, but should because it is relevant ? data - representation Reality What is there on the side of the concrete, real entities Current mainstream thinking

  16. The ultimate eHealth scenario Ontology continuant disorder person CAG repeat EHR Juvenile HD Referent Tracking Database #IUI-1 ‘affects’ #IUI-2 #IUI-3 ‘affects’ #IUI-2 #IUI-1 ‘causes’ #IUI-3

  17. International Virtual Observatory Alliance • development and deployment of technology to enable international utilization of astronomical archives • Created 2002 • By January 2005: funded participation from 15 countries ($20 million) • Collaborative efforts in: XML data format standards VO Resource Registries VO Resource Metadata VO Query Language Universal Content Descriptions Space-Time Coordinate Metadata unified Data Access Layer standards for spectra and images, unified astronomical Data Models Web Service technologies for the VO.

  18. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions • 1998: Functional RequirementsforBibliographic Records • Delineates thefunctions performed bythe bibliographic record wrt variousmedia, applications, and user needs. • Provides a clearprecisely stated, and commonly shared understanding of what it is that thebibliographic record aims to provide information about, and what it is that weexpect the record to achieve in terms of answering user needs. • May 2005 meeting of the FRBR Review Group: • It is accepted that the FRBR model would benefit from an ontology, and it isacknowledged by the FRBR Review Group that the FRBR/CRM Harmonization Groupis going in that direction.

  19. IFLA-FRBR entities • Group 1 entities: user interests in intellectual or artistic products • Work: a distinct intellectual or artistic creation • Expression: its intellectual or artistic realization • Manifestation: the physical embodiment of anexpression of a work • Item: a single exemplar of a manifestation • Group 2 entities: are responsible for content, production, ..., of group 1 entities. • Person: an individual • Corporatebody: anorganization or group of individuals and/or organizations • Group 3 entities: serve as the subjects of works. • Concept: an abstract notion or idea • Object: a material thing • Event: an action or occurrence • Place: a location

  20. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations • Established ‘ontologies’: • AGROVOC • Food Safety and Animal Health Ontology • Fishery ontology • Ontology for indexing FAO’s Food, Nutrition and Agriculture (FNA) journal • Many other topics still untouched • Practical implementations of the above not yet realised

  21. Fisheries Global Information System

  22. FIGIS budget issues FAO Council, Rome, 20 - 25 June 2005. Summary Programme of Work and Budget 2006-07

  23. Recommendations of Committee I of the 11thUN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice on money laundering(April 2005) • Establish mechanisms at national, regional and international level to improve data collection on economic and financial crimes; • Improve the global legal framework to counter economic and financial crimes; • Provide effective technical assistance to developing countries to improve their capacity to confront the problem; • Agree on measures to improve cooperation between government and private sector in preventing such crimes; • Identify effective measures to curb money-laundering in countries where participation in the "formal" financial system is low, including in the areas of research, training, skills development, technical assistance programmes and regional and international cooperation.

  24. Other topics • Internet (financial) fraud detection and prevention • Electronic payments • V.A.T. in international transactions • Freight and transport • (Bio-)terrorism • ‘Future Force’ • Economic development: • The High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, a new independent global initiative, announced it will fight global poverty by focusing on the connection between poverty and the lack of legal protections.

  25. Non-technical aspects • International legal framework for ontology- • development: IPR • use: • responsability in case of mistakes • national security • Public involvement • Market driven versus social or cultural well-being • Funding: • combining sources • Cross-nation governmental: national funding for participation in global initiative • Mixed governmental / industry: InnoMed

  26. Tasks in international coordination • Identify relevant national contact points • Identify relevant international cross-sectorial organisations • Organise planning meetings for • Common research agenda • Promotion • Identify waste of resources by lack of ontology • Identify success cases • Collection and dissemination of information • Policy on what should be disseminated • Provide support for • technical and (pre-)investment studies • Pilot projects implementations • Monitoring of its own functioning

  27. But overall: bring clarity ! This is truly ... “a silver car” an image of

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