ConferenceCall 2006 01 12

= Ontolog invited Speaker Presentation - Dr. Leo Obrst - Thu 2006-01-12 & Thu 2006-01-19 =

Conference Call Details

 * Subject: Ontolog Invited Speaker Presentation by LeoObrst - Part-1: Thu 2006-01-12, Part-2: Thu 2006-01-19
 * Agenda: Dr. Leo Obrst of MITRE, and a co-convener of the Ontolog Forum, will be presenting to the community. His talk is entitled: "What is an ontology? - A Briefing on the Range of Semantic Models"
 * Date: Part-1: Thursday, January 12, 2006; Part-2: Thursday, January 19, 2006
 * Start Time: 10:30 AM PST / 1:30 PM EST / 18:30 UTC (Part-2 start time, see world clock for other time zones)
 * Duration: 1.5 hours
 * Dial-in Number: 1-702-851-3330 (Las Vegas, Nevada)
 * Participant Access Code: "686564#"
 * Shared-screen support (VNC session) will be started 5 minutes before the call at: http://vnc2.cim3.net:5800/
 * view-only password: "ontolog"
 * if you plan to be logging into this shared-screen option (which the speaker may be navigating), and you are not familiar with the process, please try to call in 5 minutes before the start of the session so that we can work out the connection logistics. Help on this will generally not be available once the presentation starts.
 * people behind corporate firewalls may have difficulty accessing this. If that is the case, please download the slides below and runing them locally. The speaker will prompt you to advance the slides during the talk.


 * RSVP to [mailto:peter.yim@cim3.com peter.yim@cim3.com]. This will help us prepare enough conferencing resources.


 * This session, like all other Ontolog events, is open to the public. Information relating to this session is shared on this wiki page: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2006_01_12


 * For Virtual Speaker Session Tips and Ground Rules - see: VirtualSpeakerSessionTips


 * Please note that this session will be recorded, and the audio archives is expected to be made available as open content to our community membership and the public at-large under our prevailing open IPR policy.

Part-1 session - Attendees

 * Attended:
 * SteveRay
 * LeoObrst
 * PeterYim
 * BillMcCarthy
 * JosephChiusano
 * Ken Baclawski
 * Theresa M. Anthony (US Marine Corps University)
 * DuaneNickull
 * BobSmith
 * Herb Basik (Lockheed Martin)
 * PatHeinig
 * Ugo Corda (Sun Microsystems)
 * Morgan Bentley (US Dept of VA)
 * Adreas Tolk (Old Dominion Unversity)
 * Scott Petrie (BAE Systems)
 * JohnGilman
 * Doug Marder (Booz Allen Hamilton)
 * Charles Turnitsa (Old Dominion Unversity)
 * Elizabeth Olson (US Dept. of VA)
 * Wendy Pohs (Infoclear Consulting)
 * KurtConrad
 * PatCassidy
 * Jakub Kodowski (Sun Micosystems)
 * Karen Danis (US Navy)
 * David Eddy (David Eddy & Associates)
 * Shannon Wagner (US Marine Corps)
 * Christine Holiday (US Army)
 * Ken Tran (Convera)
 * RoyRoebuck
 * Mary Parmelee ( McDonald Bradley )
 * Itzhak Roth (Unicorn)
 * DavidWhitten
 * Keith Walker (Lockheed Martin)
 * Antoinette Arsic (Mitre)
 * MonicaMartin
 * Judy Riggie (US NIH)
 * Kathy Ellis (Eli Lilly)


 * Also Expected (who might have called in after our roll call):
 * Peter Gratzer (Sun Microsystems)
 * Bernard Horan (Sun Microsystems)
 * Daniel Redmon (with 2~3 colleagues; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Library)
 * SusanGolden
 * Brenda Coblentz (DoE)
 * JoshuaLieberman
 * James Werner (Boeing)
 * RexBrooks
 * DavidCMartin
 * CeceliaHickel
 * Mike Morgan (BAE Systems)
 * Angela Pitts (US Naval Postgraduate School)
 * Paul Rosenberg (Information Designs)
 * Marcelo Hoffmann (SRIC-BI)


 * Regrets:
 * DougEngelbart
 * JonathanCheyer
 * MarkGreaves
 * BrandNiemann
 * EMichaelMaximilien


 * Delayed Listener:
 * EdDodds

Part-2 session - Attendees

 * Expected (no roll call or intro round in this session):
 * LeoObrst
 * PeterYim
 * BobSmith
 * BillMcCarthy
 * Doug Marder (Booz Allen Hamilton)
 * Mary Parmelee ( McDonald Bradley )
 * JakubKotowski
 * RexBrooks
 * MarcWine
 * Dennis Scheessele (Naval Facilities Engineering Command, US Navy)
 * Morgan Bentley (US Dept of VA)
 * PaulKoch
 * RoyRoebuck
 * Charles Turnitsa (Old Dominion Unversity)
 * Ugo Corda (Sun Microsystems)
 * EMichaelMaximilien
 * Elizabeth Olson (US Dept. of VA)
 * Deborah Sher (US Dept. of VA)
 * MonicaMartin
 * DavidCMartin
 * Kathy Lesh (Kevric)
 * MichaelGruninger
 * PatCassidy


 * Regrets:
 * DuaneNickull
 * Christine Holiday (US Army)
 * DougEngelbart
 * PeterBrown

Agenda & Proceedings

 * Dr. Leo Obrst of MITRE, and a co-convener of the Ontolog Forum, will be presenting to the community. His talk is entitled: "What is an ontology? - A Briefing on the Range of Semantic Models"


 * http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/resource/presentation/LeoObrst_20060112/LeoObrst_20060112.png [picture of Dr. Leo Obrst]


 * Abstract: (by LeoObrst)


 * The Ontology Spectrum describes a range of semantic models of increasing expressiveness and complexity: taxonomy, thesaurus, conceptual model, and logical theory. 


 * This presentation initially describes the Ontology Spectrum and important distinctions related to semantic models, e.g., the distinction among term, concept, and real world referent; the distinction among syntax, semantics, and pragmatics; the distinction between intension and extension; and de facto distinctions that the ISO 11179 standard makes (as do many others): data objects, classification objects, terminology objects, meaning objects, and the relationships among these. 


 * The individual semantic model types are then discussed: weak and strong taxonomies, thesauri, and weak and strong ontologies (conceptual model and logical theory, respectively). Each of these are defined, exemplified, and discussed with respect to when a more expressive model is needed. 


 * If time permits, semantic integration and interoperability are discussed with respect to the models.


 * Finally, a pointer to an expansion of the logical theory portion of the Ontology Spectrum is given: the Logic Spectrum, which describes the range of less to more expressive logics used for ontology and knowledge representation.


 * Session Format and Agenda:
 * this will be virtual session over a phone conference setting, augmented by shared computer screen support
 * 1) Part-1: The session will start with a brief self-introduction of the attendees (~10 min.)
 * 2) Introduction of the Invited Speaker by PeterYim
 * 3) Presentation by the invited speaker (80 min.)
 * 4) Part-2: we'll skip introductions and move straight into the continuation of the pressentation  (45~60 min.)
 * 5) Q & A and Open discussion (~30 min.)


 * Bio of Dr. Leo Obrst:


 * Leo Obrst is a principal artificial intelligence scientist at MITREs (http://www.mitre.org) Center for Innovative Computing and Informatics, where he leads the Information Semantics group (semantics, ontological engineering, knowledge representation and management), and has been involved in projects on Semantic Web rule/ontology interaction, context-based semantic interoperability, ontology-based knowledge management, conceptual information retrieval, metadata and thesaurus construction for community knowledge sharing, intelligent agent technology, and ontology-based modeling of complex decision-making, He was recently Director of Ontological Engineering at VerticalNet.com, a department he formed to create ontologies in the product and service space to support Business-to-Business e-commerce. Leo's PhD is in theoretical linguistics with a concentration in formal semantics from the University of Texas-Austin. He has worked over 20 years in computational linguistics, knowledge representation, and in the past nine years in ontological engineering. Leo is a member of the Executive Committee of the National Center for Ontological Research (NCOR, http://ncor.us/), and the chair of the NCOR Technical Committee. He was a member of the W3C Web Ontology Working Group (http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/WebOnt/) that developed the Web Ontology Language OWL. He is a member of the IEEE Standard Upper Ontology working group (http://suo.ieee.org/), the Semantic Web Services Initiative (http://www.swsi.org/), the Ontolog community (http://ontolog.cim3.net, which he co-founded and which focuses on the promotion of  ontological engineering and semantic technologies), and  the W3C Rule Interoperability group. He is a member of AAAI, ACL, LSA, and ACM. His research interests include semantic interoperability/integration, formalization of context for ontology mapping and merging, and formal upper ontologies, Semantic Web rules, and the application of formal ontology and formal semantics to ontological engineering.


 * Dr. Leo Obrst's prepared slides can be accessed by pointing your web browsers to:
 * http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/resource/presentation/LeoObrst_20060112/OntologySpectrumSemanticModels--LeoObrst_20060112.ppt
 * links to additional relevant resources:
 * reference to the updated MITRE paper: "Towards the Use of an Upper Ontology" that Dr. Obrst referred to during the 2006.01.19 Part-2 talk - see: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum//ontolog-forum/2005-12/msg00008.html
 * (please post any additional resources here)
 * Further to Leo's earlier message regarding the definition of the terms, the Ontolog community has now adopted the definitions, as presented by Dr. Obrst in this set of slides as our reference definition for "taxonomy" and "ontology". (ref: statement starting at the 99:15 min. time point of the 2006.01.12 audio archive).
 * Any material outside of the prepared presentation, if they are called up during the session, may be shared under the VNC session detailed above


 * If you have questions for the presenter, we appreciate your posting them here: (please identify yourself)
 * ...(insert content here) ...
 *  ... (post you questions here, the speaker will be fielding them during the open discussion session) ...


 * For those who have further questions for LeoObrst, please [mailto:ontolog-forum@ontolog.cim3.net post] them to the ontolog forum so that we can all benefit from the discourse.
 * For those who have further questions for LeoObrst, please [mailto:ontolog-forum@ontolog.cim3.net post] them to the ontolog forum so that we can all benefit from the discourse.


 * Session ended 2006-01-12 12:25 pm PST

Session Recording of the LeoObrst Talk
(Thanks to KurtConrad, BobSmith and PeterYim for their help with getting the session recorded. -ppy)


 * To download each of the audio recording of the talk, click on one of the links here: Part-1 ... Part-2
 * the playback of the audio files require the proper setup, and an MP3 compatible player on your computer.
 * suggestion: best that you listen to the session while having the presentation slides opened in front of you. You'll be prompted to advance slides by the speaker.
 * Part-1: audio recording of the (Part-1) presentation
 * Conference Date and Time:	Jan. 12, 2006 10:40am~12:25pm Pacific Standard Time
 * Duration of Recording:	1 Hour 40 Minutes
 * Recording File Size:	       23.4 MB (in mp3 format)
 * Telephone Playback Expiration Date: Jan. 22, 2006 11:41 AM Pacific Standard Time
 * Prior to the above Expiration Date, one can call-in and hear the telephone playback of the session.
 * Playback Dial-in Number:	1-805-620-4002 (Ventura, CA)
 * Playback Access Code:	874999#
 * the session starts with introductions of the session and the participants; if you want to go straight to the presentation, start at 16 min 49 seconds from the beginning of the MP3 file.
 * Part-2: audio recording of the (Part-2) presentation
 * Conference Date and Time:	Jan. 12, 2006 10:36am~12:20pm Pacific Standard Time
 * Duration of Recording:	1 Hour 42 Minutes
 * Recording File Size:	       23.9 MB (in mp3 format)
 * Telephone Playback Expiration Date: Jan. 29, 2006 11:41 AM Pacific Standard Time
 * Prior to the above Expiration Date, one can call-in and hear the telephone playback of the session.
 * Playback Dial-in Number:	1-805-620-4002 (Ventura, CA)
 * Playback Access Code:	401969#