Difference between revisions of "Ontology"

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<noinclude>{{glossary}}</noinclude>In [[OrganicDesign]], the [[Ontology]] refers to all the nodes in the [[peer-to-peer]] network, even ones representing abstract concepts. There are then subsets of this Ontology formed by various kinds of nodes, for example, each [[member]] of a [[trust group]] is a person or legal entity and has a corresponding node in the Ontology, or the [[Platform network]] which is all the nodes representing [[trust group]]s that implement the [[platform specification]]. Every node in the Ontology has the potential to be a [[self governance|self governing]] [[organisation]] working in [[alignment]] with the [[TGAL|Whole]] equivalent to a [[Spontaneous Evolution|cell in an organism]].
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{{glossary}}<onlyinclude>[[Ontology]] (from the Greek ὄν, genitive ὄντος: "of that which is", and -λογία, -logia: ''science'', ''study'', ''theory'') is the philosophical study of the nature of ''being, existence'' or ''reality'' as such, as well as the basic [[w:category of being|categories of being]] and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as [[w:metaphysics|metaphysics]], ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences. Ontology asks in what sense the items in those categories can be said to "be".
  
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Ontologies are closely related to the [[web3|Semanic Web]] (also known as "Web 3.0") which is a general term meaning that all the information is connected into a web of concepts and relationships connecting them. The relationships are of a particular kind which is also a concept in the network. In Information Technology, an Ontology refers to a specific named and defined collection of such concepts and relations that cover a specific domain of operation and often comes with high-level methods and tools specialised for working with information structured in terms of their associated ontology.<noinclude>
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In the context of information technology, an '''ontology''' formally represents knowledge as a set of concepts within a particular [[w:Domain of discourse|domain]], and the relationships between those concepts. An ontology is like a [[mind map]] except that it is described using [[web 3.0|open Internet standard]]s so that the concepts are all described in a universally shareable way. All the organisations in the Platform network are [[alignment|align]]ed with the [[common vision]] and so they all inherit some default aspects to their ontology called the [[Foundation Ontology]] which is a basic [[system]] involving alignment and deployment processes.</onlyinclude>
  
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== Portals ==
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== Unified ontology ==
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Every node in the Ontology has the potential to be a [[self governance|self governing]] [[organisation]] because the [[Platform specification]] includes the requirement that all nodes have an [[Portal|informational portal]] forming a foundation of knowledge and tools for discussion, collaboration and eventually [[governance]] to take place around it.
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Each foundation ontology should maintain a map of its instances - i.e. other ontologies that are based on it or refer to part of it.
  
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== Common aspects ==
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Each should also maintain a mapping between foundation ontologies so that instances can move between foundation ontologies.
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*Globally unique references (URI)
 
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*Typed relationships between nodes (triple-space)
 
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*Relative addressing
 
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*Templates ([[class]]es and [[instance]]s)
 
  
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== Types of node ==
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This process can be thought of as adding an ''instance'' aspect to the ''class-oriented'' ontology aspect.
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Every concept fulfils a certain specific [[role]] in our civilisation, in the global organisation, equivalent to [[Spontaneous Evolution|cells in an organism]]. However, one important point which is often overlooked in the analogy of organisation and organism is that the individuals making up our society are not just people (and animals) but also organisations. Just like other individuals, organisations can be communicated with, have addresses for service and can trade with other individuals in the society.
 
  
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Institutes are organisations representing specific domains of knowledge or groups of concepts within a particular domain. ''Standards'' emerge which are common ontologies used to unify institutes and organisations globally. ''Standards institutes'' are organisations dedicated to this pursuit.
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This leads to a natural "unified commons" where bodies of knowledge, resources and market ecosystem can organise in the context. These unified commons are like special interest communities formed around specific domains of expertise.
  
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So in the sense of [[Spontaneous Evolution]], the cells composing our global civilisation cover many types, but stop at individuals, organisations and institutes? The co-called [[Web 3.0]] concept is pushing this standardisation movement out further into ''all concepts'' by maintaining ontologies that specialise in the most general concepts that are common to all disciplines. These special ontologies are called "foundation ontologies", a couple of the most popular examples are the [[w:Suggested Upper Merged Ontology|Suggested Upper Merged Ontology]] and [[w:Basic Formal Ontology|Basic Formal Ontology]].
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Hayek's description of a society "capturing knowledge from the edges" by using the price system in a free market, can be extended to support the process of specialisation itself by using these special interest communities.
  
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== OrganicDesign Ontology ==
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The members of these communities are those who produce the local specialist knowledge. Together they're the ones who best know how to organise and curate this knowledge and resources. And they can all participate in a specialist market representing their specialist ecosystem.
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In [[OrganicDesign]] the Ontology refers to the entire network of all concepts, which can each be considered as an organisation or project which is [[Evolution|evolving]] under the collaboration and [[governance]] of its members.
 
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{{section zero|Foundation Ontology}}
 
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== More general meaning ==
 
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A [[w:Ontology|domain ontology]] (or domain-specific ontology) models a specific domain, or part of the world. It represents the particular meanings of terms as they apply to that domain. For example the word ''card'' has many different meanings. An ontology about the domain of poker would model the "playing card" meaning of the word, while an ontology about the domain of computer hardware would model the "punched card" and "video card" meanings.
 
  
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An [[w:Upper ontology (computer science)|upper ontology]] (or foundation ontology) is a model of the common objects that are generally applicable across a wide range of domain ontologies. It contains a [[w:core glossary|core glossary]] in whose terms objects in a set of domains can be described. There are several standardized upper ontologies available for use, including [[w:Dublin Core|Dublin Core]], [[w:General Formal Ontology|GFO]], [[w:Cyc#OpenCyc|OpenCyc]]/[[w:Cyc#ResearchCyc|ResearchCyc]], [[w:Suggested Upper Merged Ontology|SUMO]], and [http://www.loa-cnr.it/DOLCE.html DOLCE]. [[w:WordNet|WordNet]], while considered an upper ontology by some, is not strictly an ontology. However, it has been employed as a linguistic tool for learning domain ontologies.
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== Enterprise architecture framework ==
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An [[w:Enterprise Architecture Framework|Enterprise Architecture Framework]] is a [[w:Conceptual framework|framework]] for an [[w:Enterprise Architecture|Enterprise Architecture]] which defines how to organize the structure and [[w:view model|views]] associated with an Enterprise Architecture.
  
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The [[w:Gellish|Gellish]] ontology is an example of a combination of an upper and a domain ontology.
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The three components of the enterprise architecture framework are:
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* '''Views''': provide the mechanisms for communicating information about the relationships that are important in the architecture
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* '''Methods''': provide the discipline to gather and organize the data and construct the views in a way that helps ensure integrity, accuracy and completeness
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* '''Training/Experience''': support the application of method and use of tools
  
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Since domain ontologies represent concepts in very specific and often eclectic ways, they are often incompatible. As systems that rely on domain ontologies expand, they often need to merge domain ontologies into a more general representation.  This presents a challenge to the ontology designer. Different ontologies in the same domain can also arise due to different perceptions of the domain based on cultural background, education, ideology, or because a different representation language was chosen.
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Because the discipline of ''Enterprise engineering'' and ''Enterprise Architecture'' is so broad, and because enterprises can be large and complex, the models associated with the discipline also tend to be large and complex. To manage this scale and complexity, an Architecture Framework provides tools and methods that can bring the task into focus and allow valuable artifacts to be produced when they are most needed.
  
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At present, merging ontologies that are not developed from a common foundation ontology is a largely manual process and therefore time-consuming and expensive. Domain ontologies that use the same foundation ontology to provide a set of basic elements with which to specify the meanings of the domain ontology elements can be merged automatically. There are studies on generalized techniques for merging ontologies, but this area of research is still largely theoretical.
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Architecture Frameworks are commonly used in Information technology and Information system [[governance]]. An organisation may wish to mandate that certain models be produced before a [[system]] design can be approved. Similarly, they may wish to specify certain views be used in the documentation of procured systems - for example the [[w:United States Department of Defense|U.S. Department of Defense]] stipulates that specific [[w:DoDAF|DoDAF]] views be provided by equipment suppliers for capital project above a certain value.
  
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== Related software and projects ==
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== Operations research ==
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*[http://live.gnome.org/action/show/ScratchPad/FirstClassObjects GNOME First Class Objects] & [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Tracker Ubuntu Tracker]
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[[w:Operations research|Operations research]] (also referred to as '''decision science''', or '''management science''') is an interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective ''use'' of technology by organizations. In contrast, many other science & engineering disciplines focus on technology giving secondary considerations to its use.
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*[http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Ontology CS Definition of Ontology at Eduwiki]
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*[http://www.ksl.stanford.edu/people/dlm/papers/ontology101/ontology101-noy-mcguinness.html Ontology Development 101: A Guide to Creating Your First Ontology]
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Employing techniques from other mathematical sciences — such as mathematical modelling, statistical analysis, and mathematical optimisation — operations research arrives at optimal or near-optimal solutions to complex decision-making problems. Because of its emphasis on human-technology interaction and because of its focus on practical applications, operations research has overlap with other disciplines, notably industrial engineering and management science, and draws on psychology and organisation science. Operations Research is often concerned with determining the [[w:Maxima and minima|maximum]] (of profit, performance, or yield) or minimum (of loss, risk, or cost) of some real-world objective. Originating in military efforts before World War II, its techniques have grown to concern problems in a variety of industries.
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*[http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/work.html?WORKID=58292&lang=en Organic ontology evolution as a basis for collaborative tagging in a polyscopic socio-semantic bookmarking system]
 
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*[http://www.daml.org/services/swsf/1.0/ Semantic Web Services Framework (SWSF)]
 
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*[http://www.ksl.stanford.edu/software/chimaera/ Chimaera] ''- Chimaera is a software system that supports users in creating and maintaining distributed ontologies on the web. Two major functions it supports are merging multiple ontologies together and diagnosing individual or multiple ontologies.''
 
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*[http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/sns.shtml Stanford links to Ontology editing tools and frameworks]
 
  
 
== See also ==
 
== See also ==
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*[[Portal]]
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*[[Foundation Ontology]]
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*[[Mind map]]
 
*[[Web 3.0]]
 
*[[Web 3.0]]
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*[[Wikipedia:Ontology]]
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*[[Wikipedia:Ontology (information science)]]
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*[[Organic Ontology]] ''- mindmaps and trees of our information a few years ago (legacy)''
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*[[Wikipedia:Enterprise architecture]]
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*[[Wikipedia:Operations research]]
 
*[http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/articles/ontologies.htm Introduction to Ontology] ''- [[w:Barry Smith (ontologist)|Barry Smith]] (he's heavily influenced by [[w:Husserl|Husserl]] - particularly Husserl's "Logical Investigations")''
 
*[http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/articles/ontologies.htm Introduction to Ontology] ''- [[w:Barry Smith (ontologist)|Barry Smith]] (he's heavily influenced by [[w:Husserl|Husserl]] - particularly Husserl's "Logical Investigations")''
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</noinclude>
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[[Category:Web3.0]]

Latest revision as of 21:02, 2 June 2023

Glossary.svg This page describes a concept which is part of our glossary

Ontology (from the Greek ὄν, genitive ὄντος: "of that which is", and -λογία, -logia: science, study, theory) is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences. Ontology asks in what sense the items in those categories can be said to "be".

In the context of information technology, an ontology formally represents knowledge as a set of concepts within a particular domain, and the relationships between those concepts. An ontology is like a mind map except that it is described using open Internet standards so that the concepts are all described in a universally shareable way. All the organisations in the Platform network are aligned with the common vision and so they all inherit some default aspects to their ontology called the Foundation Ontology which is a basic system involving alignment and deployment processes.

Unified ontology

Each foundation ontology should maintain a map of its instances - i.e. other ontologies that are based on it or refer to part of it.

Each should also maintain a mapping between foundation ontologies so that instances can move between foundation ontologies.

This process can be thought of as adding an instance aspect to the class-oriented ontology aspect.

This leads to a natural "unified commons" where bodies of knowledge, resources and market ecosystem can organise in the context. These unified commons are like special interest communities formed around specific domains of expertise.

Hayek's description of a society "capturing knowledge from the edges" by using the price system in a free market, can be extended to support the process of specialisation itself by using these special interest communities.

The members of these communities are those who produce the local specialist knowledge. Together they're the ones who best know how to organise and curate this knowledge and resources. And they can all participate in a specialist market representing their specialist ecosystem.

Enterprise architecture framework

An Enterprise Architecture Framework is a framework for an Enterprise Architecture which defines how to organize the structure and views associated with an Enterprise Architecture.

The three components of the enterprise architecture framework are:

  • Views: provide the mechanisms for communicating information about the relationships that are important in the architecture
  • Methods: provide the discipline to gather and organize the data and construct the views in a way that helps ensure integrity, accuracy and completeness
  • Training/Experience: support the application of method and use of tools

Because the discipline of Enterprise engineering and Enterprise Architecture is so broad, and because enterprises can be large and complex, the models associated with the discipline also tend to be large and complex. To manage this scale and complexity, an Architecture Framework provides tools and methods that can bring the task into focus and allow valuable artifacts to be produced when they are most needed.

Architecture Frameworks are commonly used in Information technology and Information system governance. An organisation may wish to mandate that certain models be produced before a system design can be approved. Similarly, they may wish to specify certain views be used in the documentation of procured systems - for example the U.S. Department of Defense stipulates that specific DoDAF views be provided by equipment suppliers for capital project above a certain value.

Operations research

Operations research (also referred to as decision science, or management science) is an interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective use of technology by organizations. In contrast, many other science & engineering disciplines focus on technology giving secondary considerations to its use.

Employing techniques from other mathematical sciences — such as mathematical modelling, statistical analysis, and mathematical optimisation — operations research arrives at optimal or near-optimal solutions to complex decision-making problems. Because of its emphasis on human-technology interaction and because of its focus on practical applications, operations research has overlap with other disciplines, notably industrial engineering and management science, and draws on psychology and organisation science. Operations Research is often concerned with determining the maximum (of profit, performance, or yield) or minimum (of loss, risk, or cost) of some real-world objective. Originating in military efforts before World War II, its techniques have grown to concern problems in a variety of industries.

See also

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