ConferenceCall 2007 06 21/SurveySummary

= Draft of Ontolog Summit 2007 Artifacts Summary =

The current version of this summary is at OntologySummit2007_Survey/ArtifactSummary

There is a spreadsheet for the evaluated artifacts at http://spreadsheets2.google.com/ccc?key=p9rmhfgnHSlkyaat5UOrsKg


 * Basic Formal Ontology (BFO)
 * Expressiveness FOL
 * Structure Formal
 * Granularity low, limited, but axioms
 * Automated Reasoning yes
 * Prescriptive/descriptive strict/prescriptive
 * References http://www.ifomis.uni-saarland.de/bfo
 * Assessed by: PatCassidy, LeoObrst, MichaelGruninger, ArturoSanchez, JoeKopena
 * CMC Controlled Vocabularies
 * used in automatic indexing to describe content, then used to generate navigation between related content. We would like to add more advanced semantic relationships so we can 'type' the relationships KarenLoasby
 * References none public
 * CMC model
 * CMC content model is built in Protege, hence the increased likelihood of being called an ontology. Main issues are around over-complexity given the business needs and creation of multiple overlapping models that are inconsistent with each other. KarenLoasby
 * References none public
 * Common Semantic Model (COSMO)
 * Expressiveness OWL + SWRL
 * Structure FORMAL Both structured (5) (rules-based) plus natural language
 * Granularity low
 * Intended Use Semantic integration/interoperability, and natural language understanding
 * Automated Reasoning Yes
 * Prescriptive/descriptive No, promiscuous, loose/descriptive
 * Assessed by: PatCassidy, LeoObrst, MichaelGruninger, ArturoSanchez, JoeKopena
 * Construction Specifications Institute (CSI)
 * Specifying by performance requirements was developed in California in the 70s because the state needed A LOT of schools to be built quickly and cheaply. The government defined what they required by a school, local architects and contractors were hired and schools were built in every shape, size, color you can imagine. We need performance requirements for the semantic web. DeborahMacPherson
 * References http://www.csinet.org/s_csi/sec_forums.asp
 * Controlled Health Thesaurus
 * Originally developed to tag CDC web pages to improve search and retrieval. CDC changed web search strategies and the thesaurus is being used by some in CDC to tag internal documents.  The structure was changed from a MeSH model to an IS-A taxonomy with the intent to grow to an ontology.  Funding was cut.  CDC is putting efforts into building 'value sets'.  The thesaurus has the potential to be the glue to link the value sets as well as assist with discovery and decision support - if it were funded. KathyLesh
 * References http://www.cdc.gov/PhinVSBrowser/StrutsController.do
 * Current Procedural Terminology (CPT)
 * American Medical Association EdDodds
 * References http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/3113.html http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/3882.html
 * del.icio.us folksonomy
 * Often - for defining interfaces for portals or collaboration spaces - it is said that we need to enable folksonomies rather than create controlled vocabularies like 'ontologies' LisaColvin
 * Expressiveness One relation
 * Structure informal
 * Granularity course
 * Intended Use bookmarking
 * Automated Reasoning automated search by various criteria
 * Prescriptive/descriptive neither prescriptive nor descriptive
 * References del.icio.us
 * Assessed by: TomGruber ThomasVanderWal
 * DOLCE - D & S
 * DOLCE - Description & Situation extensions PeterYim
 * References http://www.loa-cnr.it/Papers/ODBASE-CONTEXT.pdf
 * DOLCE
 * DOLCE: a Descriptive Ontology for Linguistic and Cognitive Engineering PeterYim
 * References http://www.loa-cnr.it/DOLCE.html
 * Dublin Core
 * Metadata elements for describing documents. It is widely used to describe digital materials such as video, sound, image, text, and composite media like web pages. KenBaclawski
 * Expressiveness low
 * Structure informal
 * Granularity very coarse
 * Intended Use bibliographic entries
 * Automated Reasoning no
 * Prescriptive/descriptive prescriptive
 * References http://dublincore.org/
 * Assessed by: TomGruber ThomasVanderWal
 * ebXML Core Components
 * Core Component sue a simple ontology to establish names for business objects. TimMcGrath
 * ebXML Registry Profile for Web Ontology
 * The Specialized Object definition is part of an institutionally managed open source specification that has a very specific context. Use of the 'contextual prefix method' to state the specialization of a very generic term is essential to convey some meaning. CarlMattocks
 * References http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/19037/regrep-owl-profile-1.5-July4.pdf
 * Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) Distribution Element
 * This is a set of terms within the XML Schema complexType 'targetArea' RexBrooks
 * References http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/index.php#edxlde-v1.0
 * Engineering Math
 * Expressiveness FOL
 * Structure formal
 * Granularity high
 * Intended Use reason about engr. Math.
 * Automated Reasoning yes
 * Prescriptive/descriptive strict/prescriptive
 * Assessed by: PatCassidy, LeoObrst, MichaelGruninger, ArturoSanchez, JoeKopena
 * Enterprise Topic Classification Scheme
 * Topic maps are typically the products of dynamic statistical clustering. This is actually a rule-based topic classification scheme which we use to programmatically classify content.  This is used in either search or browsing.  Can also be used to support syndication. DeniseBedford
 * References http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=633473&pagePK=64165395&piPK=64165418&theSitePK=469372
 * Environmental Data Coding Specification
 * Expressiveness 3
 * Structure 4
 * Granularity Coarse Granularity
 * Intended Use Neutral Translation
 * Automated Reasoning Some Complex Reasoning
 * Prescriptive/descriptive Prescriptive
 * Assessed by: CharlesTurnitsa, DougHolmes
 * ER Model
 * References Data Model Patterns: Conventions of Thought by David Hay
 * FLOWS
 * References http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2005_10_20
 * Friend-of-a-Friend (FOAF)
 * FOAF is both a project for Web social networks and a vocabulary for social networking KenBaclawski
 * References http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/
 * Gene Ontology (GO)
 * The GO project has developed three structured controlled vocabularies (ontologies) that describe gene products in terms of their associated biological processes, cellular components and molecular functions in a species-independent manner. There are three separate aspects to this effort: first, the development and maintenance of the ontologies themselves; second, the annotation of gene products, which entails making associations between the ontologies and the genes and gene products in the collaborating databases; and third, development of tools that facilitate the creation, maintenance and use of ontologies. KenBaclawski
 * References http://archive.geneontology.org/latest-termdb/go_daily-termdb.rdf-xml.gz http://www.geneontology.org/GO.downloads.ontology.shtml
 * Generalized Upper Model (GUM)
 * References http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/ontology/onto-downloads.htm
 * Geospatial ML Ontology
 * Expressiveness 4
 * Structure 4
 * Granularity Fine Granularity
 * Intended Use Integration of Data Sets/Models
 * Automated Reasoning Can support Complex Reasoning
 * Prescriptive/descriptive Descriptive
 * Assessed by: CharlesTurnitsa, DougHolmes
 * ICD-9
 * The International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) is based on the World Health Organization's Ninth Revision, International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9). ICD-9-CM is the official system of assigning codes to diagnoses and procedures associated with hospital utilization in the United States. The ICD-9 is used to code and classify mortality data from death certificates. The ICD-9-CM consists of: a tabular list containing a numerical list of the disease code numbers in tabular form; an alphabetical index to the disease entries; and a classification system for surgical, diagnostic, and therapeutic procedures (alphabetic index and tabular list). EdDodds
 * References http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/otheract/icd9/abticd9.htm
 * International Classification of Diseases Version 10 (ICD-10)
 * The ICD has become the international standard diagnostic classification for all general epidemiological and many health management purposes. These include the analysis of the general health situation of population groups and monitoring of the incidence and prevalence of diseases and other health problems in relation to other variables such as the characteristics and circumstances of the individuals affected. It is used to classify diseases and other health problems recorded on many types of health and vital records including death certificates and hospital records. In addition to enabling the storage and retrieval of diagnostic information for clinical and epidemiological purposes, these records also provide the basis for the compilation of national mortality and morbidity statistics by WHO Member States. KenBaclawski
 * References http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/
 * iPlayer model
 * CMC content model is built in Protege, hence the increased likelihood of being called an ontology. Main issues are around over-complexity given the business needs and creation of multiple overlapping models that are inconsistent with each other. KarenLoasby
 * References none public
 * ISO 10303 (STEP)
 * ISO 15926-2
 * Entity relationship models have roughly the same expressivity as Description Logics. Entity Relationship models are ontologies, but many practitioners are not aware that what they are really doing is ontology, and as a result many of them are not very good ontologies. But a bad ontology is still an ontology. This sort of ontology is easily the most widespread, and has the biggest impact on business and commerce since SQL databases run the worlds economy. MatthewWest
 * References http://www.tc184-sc4.org/wg3ndocs/wg3n1328/lifecycle_integration_schema.html
 * ISO 15926-2
 * ISO/FDIS 15926-2 - Lifecycle integration of process plant data including oil and gas production facilities PeterYim
 * References http://www.tc184-sc4.org/wg3ndocs/wg3n1328/lifecycle_integration_schema.html
 * ISO Country Names
 * Ontologists may argue about country names, currency names, etc. but the groups that maintain these lists would rarely consider them to be an ontology or even a component of an ontology. DeniseBedford
 * References http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/list-en1.html
 * ISO/IEC 11179 - Metadata registries
 * This standard specifies a framework for recording and managing the semantics of data. DanGillman
 * References http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink/fetch/2000/2489/Ittf_Home/ITTF.htm
 * ISO/IEC 15944-4 FDIS
 * Expressiveness Logically defined in Prolog
 * Structure Highly structured
 * Granularity relatively coarse
 * Intended Use Several intended uses included education
 * Prescriptive/descriptive prescriptive
 * Governance normative standard
 * Assessed by: BillMcCarthy
 * ISO/IEEE 11073-10101
 * Cited as a medical device interoperability standard (ISO/IEEE 11073), the nomenclature section is touted by the developers as the key to semantic interoperability. The standard has not been widely implemented and is not in any format that is computable. KathyLesh
 * ISO Languages
 * Ontologists may argue about country names, currency names, etc. but the groups that maintain these lists would rarely consider them to be an ontology or even a component of an ontology. DeniseBedford
 * References http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/list-en1.html
 * Joint Warfare Simulation Object Library
 * Provides a strong taxonomical structure (based on a heirarchy divided up into broad conceptual areas of agent, physical, and event entities). Lacks a method for formally capturing 'meaning' of entities, and is very limited in scope in that it only addresses elements of specific interest to the domain of Joint Warfare simulation, and only from a U.S.-centric perspective.  Atomic concepts required for such a simulation are missing, as are other perspectives relative to the domain. CharlesTurnitsa
 * References Conwell, C.L. Joint Warfare Simulation Object Library, U.S. Navy Research and Development Technical Document TD2808, Washington, DC, June 1995
 * Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
 * The MeSH thesaurus is used by NLM for indexing articles from 4,800 of the world's leading biomedical journals for the MEDLINE/PubMED database. It is also used for the NLM-produced database that includes cataloging of books, documents, and audiovisuals acquired by the Library. Each bibliographic reference is associated with a set of MeSH terms that describe the content of the item. Similarly, search queries use MeSH vocabulary to find items on a desired topic. KenBaclawski
 * References http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/termscon.html
 * Multi-Entity Bayesian Network (MEBN)
 * References http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2007_03_29
 * National Agricultural Library Thesaurus (NALT)
 * Online vocabulary look-up tool for agricultural and biological terms KenBaclawski
 * References http://agclass.nal.usda.gov/agt/download.shtml
 * National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Taxonomy Scheme
 * References http://schema.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=353310
 * OpenCYC
 * References http://www.cyc.com/cyc/opencyc/overview
 * OWL-S
 * References http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2005_10_20
 * PIPs model
 * CMC content model is built in Protege, hence the increased likelihood of being called an ontology. Main issues are around over-complexity given the business needs and creation of multiple overlapping models that are inconsistent with each other. KarenLoasby
 * References none public
 * Pizza Ontology
 * standard tutorial DougHolmes
 * References http://www.co-ode.org/ontologies/pizza/pizza_20041007.owl
 * PreAct (development tool)
 * PreAct is a modern, commercial KB system development that has roots in the DARPA Pilot's Associate System. It is used to develop systems that include, reason about and operate on a 'knowledge base' DougHolmes
 * References http://asinc.com/technology_overview.php
 * Process Specification Language (PSL)
 * PSL is a formal ontology axiomatized in Common Logic. It is applied to support semantic integration among process-related software applications, and it is also applied to support automated reasoning (such as verification of the consistency of business processes and web service discovery) MichaelGruninger
 * Expressiveness FOL
 * Structure formal
 * Granularity medium
 * Intended Use KB semantic integration/interoperablity,manufacturing process interoperability
 * Automated Reasoning yes
 * References http://www.mel.nist.gov/psl/
 * Assessed by: PatCassidy, LeoObrst, MichaelGruninger, ArturoSanchez, JoeKopena
 * Reference Data Library (RDL)
 * Until now we have focussed on the taxonomy. Once that is in a good shape, we will add so-called Object Information Models by means of ISO 15926-7 templates. HansTeijgeler
 * References http://www.posccaesar.com/ select 'POSC Caesar Core RDL based on IS-model'
 * Relation Ontology (RO)
 * Semantic MediaWiki
 * References http://wiki.ontoworld.org/index.php/Semantic_MediaWiki http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2006_08_17
 * Sequence Ontology (SO)
 * The Sequence Ontology Project (SO) is a joint effort by genome annotation centres, including: WormBase, the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project, FlyBase, the Mouse Genome Informatics group, and the Sanger Institute. They are a part of the Gene Ontology Project and their aim is to develop an ontology suitable for describing biological sequences. KenBaclawski
 * References http://song.cvs.sourceforge.net/song
 * Service Modeling Language (SML)
 * Term is found in the Terminology section of the public specification. Term is widely used by the target community (system architects) to describe other things. CarlMattocks
 * References http://www.serviceml.org/
 * SNOMED-CT
 * Although SNOMED CT is built using description logics, I do not consider it a 'true' ontology. It has too many compound (precoordinated) concepts.  It does not have natural language text definitions.  It is inconsistently modeled.  SNOMED CT is trying to be too many things to too many people/groups. KathyLesh
 * References http://www.snomed.org/snomedct/index.html
 * SUMO
 * SUMO - Suggested Upper Merged Ontology PeterYim
 * Expressiveness FOL
 * Structure formal
 * Granularity medium
 * Intended Use KB semantic integration/interoperablity
 * Automated Reasoning yes
 * Prescriptive/descriptive strict/prescriptive
 * References http://www.ontologyportal.org/
 * Assessed by: PatCassidy, LeoObrst, MichaelGruninger, ArturoSanchez, JoeKopena
 * SWSF
 * References http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2005_10_20
 * Tag Ontology
 * Expressiveness TBD but probably OWL
 * Structure unstructured
 * Granularity coarse
 * Intended Use 8 use cases have been specified
 * Automated Reasoning Intended for automated reasoning about tag sources
 * Prescriptive/descriptive descriptive
 * Assessed by: TomGruber ThomasVanderWal
 * Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus
 * The Metathesaurus is a very large, multi-purpose, and multi-lingual vocabulary database that contains information about biomedical and health related concepts, their various names, and the relationships among them. Designed for use by system developers, the Metathesaurus is built from the electronic versions of various thesauri, classifications, code sets, and lists of controlled terms used in patient care, health services billing, public health statistics, indexing and cataloging biomedical literature, and/or basic, clinical, and health services research. These are referred to as the 'source vocabularies' of the Metathesaurus. KenBaclawski
 * References http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/access.html
 * Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Semantic Network
 * The purpose of the Semantic Network is to provide a consistent categorization of all concepts represented in the UMLS Metathesaurus and to provide a set of useful relationships between these concepts. KenBaclawski
 * References http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/access.html
 * Universal Decimal Classification; Colon Classification
 * Faceted classification is nearer to the concept of ontologies. Faceted classification scheme is designed to express the basic structure of the thought content of a document in standard way, instead of just enumerating a group of subject classes. NabonitaGuha
 * Web Service Modeling Language (WSML)
 * Term is an invention of the public specification (subject matter is clearly ontological). Essentially is a compound term that requires full understanding of each component term. The use of the 'dash' seems to break rules for making ontological statements. CarlMattocks
 * References http://www.w3.org/Submission/WSML/
 * Wordnet
 * Expressiveness none by itself
 * Structure low structure
 * Granularity moderately coarse
 * Intended Use computational linguistics
 * Automated Reasoning no
 * References http://wordnet.princeton.edu/
 * Assessed by: TomGruber ThomasVanderWal
 * World Bank Core Metadata Strategy
 * What people sometimes refer to as 'faceted' structures when properly formed is actually a metadata scheme, each facet of which may have its own distinct behavior and structures. There is a need to bring together the people who talk about 'metadata' and the people who talk about 'faceted search'. They using different terms but meaning the same thing. There are discrepancies in business rules applied to each one, though. DeniseBedford
 * World Bank currency names
 * Ontologists may argue about country names, currency names, etc. but the groups that maintain these lists would rarely consider them to be an ontology or even a component of an ontology. DeniseBedford
 * References http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/list-en1.html
 * World Bank MetaThesaurus
 * Leveraged in topic classification, used to support search (equivalent terms for synonym expansion), other relationships for suggesting other search terms. DeniseBedford
 * References http://www.multites.com/wb/
 * WSDL-S
 * References http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2005_10_20
 * WSMO
 * References http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2005_10_20