ConferenceCall 2009 06 18

= IAOA Panel Session - "International Association for Ontology and its Application (IAOA)" - Thu 18-Jun-2009  =

Subject: Introduction to the "International Association for Ontology and its Application (IAOA)"

 * Session Chair: NicolaGuarino (LOA-ISTC-CNR)


 * On the Panel will be members of the IAOA Executive Council:
 * NicolaGuarino, ISTC-CNR [President]
 * JohnBateman, University of Bremen
 * StefanoBorgo, ISTC-CNR [Secretary] (in absentia)
 * PaulBuitelaar, DERI - National University of Ireland, Galway
 * AntonyGalton, University of Exeter
 * MichaelGruninger, University of Toronto
 * RiichiroMizoguchi, Osaka University (in absentia)
 * MarkMusen, Stanford University (in absentia)
 * LeoObrst, MITRE
 * LaureVieu, IRIT-CNRS and ISTC-CNR [Treasurer]
 * PeterYim, Ontolog

Resources & Archives

 * IAOA website - http://www.iaoa.org
 * Slides - http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/resource/presentation/IAOA_20090618/IAOA-presentation_20090618.pdf
 * slide segments (in pdf and ppt formats) from the individual panelists are accessible at the work-in-progress subdirectory in case people want them
 * [ Audio Recording of the session ] (mp3)
 * [ Transcript of the online chat session ] during the panel discussion

Conference Call Details

 * Date: Thursday, June 18, 2009 
 * Start Time: 10:30am PDT / 1:30pm EDT / 7:30pm CEST / 6:30pm BST / 17:30 UTC
 * see world clock for other time zones
 * Expected Call Duration: 1.5~2.0 hours
 * Dial-in Number:
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 * Shared-screen support (VNC session), if applicable, will be started 5 minutes before the call at: http://vnc2.cim3.net:5800/
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 * people behind corporate firewalls may have difficulty accessing this. If that is the case, please download the slides above and running them locally. The speaker(s) will prompt you to advance the slides during the talk.


 * Discussions and Q & A:
 * (Unless the conference host has already muted everyone) Please mute your phone, by pressing "*2" on your phone keypad, when a presentation is in progress. To un-mute, press "*3"
 * You can type in your questions or comments through the browser based  chat session by:
 * pointing a separate browser tab (or window) to http://webconf.soaphub.org/conf/room and enter: Room="ontolog_20090618" and My Name="Your Own Name" (e.g. "JaneDoe")
 * or point your browser to: http://webconf.soaphub.org/conf/room/ontolog_20090618
 * instructions: once you got access to the page, click on the "settings" button, and identify yourself (by modifying the Name field). You can indicate that you want to ask a question verbally by clicking on the "hand" button, and wait for the moderator to call on you; or, type and send your question into the chat window at the bottom of the screen.
 * (when everyone is muted) If you want to speak or have questions or remarks to make, 'please "raise your hand (virtually)" by click on the "hand button" (lower right) on the chat session page. You may speak when acknowledged by the speaker or the session moderator (again, press "*3" on your phone to unmute). Test your voice and introduce yourself first before proceeding with your remarks, please.'' (Please remember to click on the "hand button" again (to lower your hand) and press "*2" on your phone to mute yourself after you are done speaking.)
 * thanks to the soaphub.org folks, one can now use a jabber/xmpp client (e.g. gtalk) to join this chatroom. Just add the room as a buddy - (in our case here) ontolog_20090618@soaphub.org ... Handy for mobile devices!


 * For those who cannot participate today, please check our the session archives and consider joining us


 * Please review our Virtual Session Tips and Ground Rules - see: VirtualSpeakerSessionTips


 * RSVP to [mailto:peter.yim@cim3.com peter.yim@cim3.com] appreciated.


 * 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_2009_06_18


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

Attendees

 * Attended:
 * NicolaGuarino (chair)
 * PeterYim
 * Terry Longstreth (Lockheed Martin)
 * JohnBateman
 * BillAndersen
 * Giancarlo Guizzardi (Brazil)
 * PaulBuitelaar
 * AntonyGalton
 * PaulKoch
 * Richard Detsch (US Army R&D, NH)
 * JoelBender
 * Chris Vanbuskirk (Vandebuilt U))
 * FabianNeuhaus
 * LeoObrst
 * LaureVieu
 * JeffreySchiffel
 * TillMossakowski
 * Willa Pickering (Lockheed Martin)
 * Terri Zimmer (R.V. Anderson Associates)
 * KenBaclawski
 * AliHashemi
 * DougHolmes
 * MichaelGruninger
 * PatCassidy
 * BartGajderowicz
 * KathleenEllis
 * YanHeras
 * StuartTurner
 * BillMcCarthy
 * Joanne Luciano (Harvard Medical School)
 * GaryBergCross
 * Tim Lowry (Medical College of Wisconsin)
 * PavithraKenjige
 * FrankOlken
 * Ming Guo (Stanford)
 * GeraldRadack
 * MustafaJarrar
 * MikeBennett
 * Christina Engelbart (DougEngelbart Institute)
 * Ed Kenschaft (Institute for Defense Analyses)
 * JohnSowa
 * MariaLuizaCampos
 * StuartTurner
 * PatHayes


 * Expecting:
 * KurtConrad
 * DavidButler
 * DoraiThodla
 * Kevin Hannon (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu)
 * ThomasBrunner
 * ... if you are coming to the session, please add your name above (please include your affiliation, if you aren't already a member of the community); or e-mail  so that we can reserve enough resources to support everyone's participation. ...
 * ... if you are coming to the session, please add your name above (please include your affiliation, if you aren't already a member of the community); or e-mail  so that we can reserve enough resources to support everyone's participation. ...


 * Regrets:
 * RiichiroMizoguchi
 * MarkMusen
 * StefanoBorgo
 * MatthewWest (will be at the yacht race)

A Message from the IAOA President

 * Dear colleagues,


 * I have the pleasure to announce that the International Association for Ontology and its Applications (IAOA) has been born.


 * Formally established in Trento, Italy in April 2009, after an open meeting at the FOIS 2008 conference, IAOA is a non-profit, open association with the purpose of promoting interdisciplinary research and international collaboration at the intersection of philosophical ontology, linguistics, logic, cognitive science, and computer science, as well as in the applications of ontological analysis to conceptual modeling, knowledge engineering, knowledge management, information systems development, library and information science, scientific research and semantic technologies in general.


 * IAOA is open to all individuals and institutions who share its goals.


 * For the statute, list of activities, membership benefits, mailing list and other information, please visit http://www.iaoa.org.


 * To present this initiative, which enjoys the friendly cooperation with the Ontolog Forum, the IAOA Executive Council has organized this public Ontolog virtual panel session.


 * Looking forward to virtually meet the Ontolog community,


 * Nicola Guarino


 * on behalf of the IAOA (provisional) Executive Council

source: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-invitation/2009-06/msg00000.html

Agenda
1. Opening and "Introduction to IAOA" (NicolaGuarino)

2 Some remarks from the Panel


 * PeterYim: Community, Collaboration, and Collective IQ
 * AntonyGalton and LaureVieu: IAOA and Education
 * LeoObrst: Ontologies and Communities of Interest
 * MichaelGruninger: IAOA, Ontologies, and Standards
 * PaulBuitelaar: Ontologies and Natural Language Processing
 * JohnBateman: Some Burning Issues for Ontology Initiatives

3. Q & A and Open Discussion

4. Closing remarks (NicolaGuarino)

Proceedings

 * please refer to the archives above - coming! ... please check back after the session.

Q & A and Open Discussion:

 * please refer to process above

IM Chat Transcript captured during the session: (lightly edited for clarity)

VNC2: Welcome to the IAOA Panel Session - "International Association for Ontology and its Application (IAOA)" - Thu 18-Jun-2009

VNC2: please refer to session page at: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2009_06_18

VNC2: Link to slides: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/resource/presentation/IAOA_20090618/IAOA-presentation_20090618.pdf

VNC2: To mute your phone: *3 ... to put it back on mute: *2

anonymous morphed into Giancarlo Guizzardi

anonymous morphed into BillAndersen

anonymous1 morphed into AntonyGalton

anonymous1 morphed into Giancarlo Guizzardi

PeterYim: will the "anonymous" participants please morph into your WikiWord name (so we know who you are) ... the "Settings" button at the top center will allow you to do it

anonymous1 morphed into JoelBender

anonymous1 morphed into PaulKoch

anonymous2 morphed into Joanne Luciano

anonymous2 morphed into Chris vanBuskirk

anonymous morphed into Tim Lowry

anonymous4 morphed into StuartTurner

anonymous7 morphed into Yan Heras

anonymous4 morphed into Richard Detsch

anonymous5 morphed into Jeff Schiffel

anonymous4 morphed into Christina Engelbart

anonymous3 morphed into Ed Kenschaft

anonymous morphed into FrankOlken

anonymous2 morphed into KathyEllis

anonymous5 morphed into NicolaGuarino

Chris vanBuskirk: The dark ages of technology.

Tim Lowry: press *2 to mute your individual line...

MikeBennett: Folks, I'm at the Sem Tech conf and the next session is about to start but I'd like to strongly register my interest in this initiative.

PeterYim: thank you, Mike!

anonymous morphed into Ed Kenschaft

GaryBergCross: Is there any ongoing work regarding the action "reports concerning the status and the strategic perspectives of applied ontological research, aiming at influencing concrete policy choices"? worldwide

NicolaGuarino: (answering to Gary): Not yet, this is just one point in the future agenda

MikeBennett: One theme that's come out of a lot of conversations and sessions at SemTech has been the use of consensus domain-independent standard ontologies. Like DC and FOAF, but there are potentially more, and a few of us have discussed what it would take to arrive at an industry consensus view on standard ontologies to use, in the same way as FOAF/DC are now. Would this fit in with this community of practice?

GaryBergCross: Will events like the Ontology Summit held at NIST be co-sponsored by IAOA?

Joanne Luciano: On a different note - as a ontology practioner (BioPAX, InfluenzO, BioPathways and W3C HCLSIG) I'm very interested in continuing to work and contribute in this area. I've recently become highly available and am looking to apply my multidisciplinary knowledge in science and technology with ontologies, so if you know anyone with a need in the area of ontologies, especially in the area of health care / life science, translational medicine, please let me know or pass along my name/email to them. jluciano at gmail.com

MikeBennett: Also standardisation of the use of meta-data around OWL using e.g. the new annotation extensions in OWL2 - stuff that's out of the scope of OWL but ripe for standardisation - for example for provenance of terms, archetypes and so on.

GaryBergCross: Shouldn't the creation of curriculia on ontologies also include epistemological and its issues since the two become related since the latter concerns methods by which we may go about inquiring about and making sense of ontological models?

StuartTurner: @MikeBennett - At the National (United States) Cancer Institute's Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) effort, we have established a process to evaluate vocabularies/ontologies. Although this is often referred to as evaluating ontologies as a caBIG standard, this is more closely a certification process. Criteria are based on best practices (e.g. largely developed by Jim Cimino and his Desiderata for Terminologies), it is essentially evaluating how an ontology under review "fits" within caBIG's metadata (ISO 11179) environment which demands textual definitions for all terms. Its a good process, but often quite subjective. Very interested in ideas to improve how to capture ontology metadata using these principles for a repository - including contextual information (fitness for a particular domain, competing ontologies).

MikeBennett: @StuartTurner -I'm just watching a thing about things like evaluation and alignment of ontologies, I think there are a few things happening in this area, e.g. trust / proof, though I think some of these are more aimed at individuals within an instance-rich ontology. Also mapping tools and so on.

StuartTurner: @MikeBennett - yes - we've talked about similar things. I think we need both a consistent metadata framework to capture ontology metadata (similar to FOAF or DOAP), but then also bound to a community that can provide 1) Use cases (how someone has used a given ontology) 2) Case studies 3) Feedback on fitness for purpose 4) Challenges, etc.

MikeBennett: @StuartTurner - that's a conversation I've had several times here at Sem Tech, I've been trying to think how to take it forward.

StuartTurner: @MikeBennett Excellent. And great examples just mentioned (e.g. Bioportal). NCI has also developed a Terminology Metadata model (lead by Tom Johnson at Mayo), but done specifically for caBIG and extensibility outside of this domain may be limited

MikeBennett: @StuartTurner - thanks. Sorry I haven't been on sound here (presentation clash)

Giancarlo Guizzardi: Regarding Educational Activities under IAOA...a very interesting initiative that I think is worth taking a look (to be considered in analogy) is the so-called "Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge" promoted by IEEE. The idea there is to provided a characterization of the several subdisciplines comprising software engineering, together with the description of learning objectives, recommended material, etc... The website can be found in:

GaryBergCross: Antony you mentioned a Japanese site that contain ontological (curiculum?) information. It wasn't in the slides and I wonder if you could provide it.

PaulKoch: Perhaps of interest: the British Journal of Educational Technology, May 2006, Volume 7, Number 3 was dedicated to "Semantic Web for e-Learning".

KenBaclawski: When I teach ontologies, it is always in the context of some other course. So far there isn't enough demand for devoting a whole course devoted to ontologies. It would be helpful to have modules that could be used in other courses.

Nicola Guarino: I can bearly hear the lady who is speaking right now

PeterYim: @Nicola - that was Laure ... I can hear her well ... maybe it is your phone

Nicola Guarino: OK. Can I answer to Pat Hayes?

PeterYim: please

PeterYim: @Nicola ... we cannot hear you

Richard Detsch: Thanks to all the speakers. Parting suggestion: What intro materials are currently available (video, e-learninge, etc). Perhaps these could be posted.

MikeBennett: I would be happy to put some effort into this.

Joanne Luciano: My comment: I like the idea of a core curriculum. It is important in education to expose students to different approaches, it helps them think and keeps the discussion alive. My personal ontology learning experience: I was able to get support from NSF to go to Manchester to be educated in ontologies and OWL. They have been teaching Ontology Engineering for several years, many materials and resources available on their web. Also important to include material on the applications of ontologies, such as annotating genomic data, NLP, data integration/aggregation, etc. to teach useful and practical skills to students. Utility for a given application is of practical importance to students and teaching guidelines for what is level of ontological complexity is needed for the range of applications, and how to sort that out.

JohnBateman: Possible activities: modularization and structuring principles for ontologies... if there is sufficient interest, perhaps there could be a satellite workshop at FOIS next year? Open call for statements of interest....

LaureVieu: @Joanne: thanks!

KenBaclawski: @Joanne I like the idea of a core curriculum also, but other than a few major centers, there isn't enough demand for a whole course devoted to ontology engineering. This is why I suggested taking a more modular approach, where the modules are much smaller than a whole course.

BillAndersen: Need to go folks. Thanks. Very good presentation.

PeterYim: thanks for being here, Bill

NicolaGuarino: Bye Bill!

Giancarlo Guizzardi: Bye everyone. Thanks a lot for the speakers and organizers for this initiative!

GaryBergCross: Will the Ontolog forum accept some of these questions for now?

PeterYim: @Gary - yes ... Ontolog will accept any and all "good conversations relating to ontologies" (in the mean time)

GaryBergCross: Thanks Peter

PeterYim: Bye everyone ... thank you for your participation!

To join IAOA, please refer to details on the IAOA website at: http://iaoa.org/iaoa-joining.htm


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Audio Recording of this Session

 * To download the recording of the session, click here
 * the playback of the audio files require the proper setup, and an MP3 compatible player on your computer.
 * Conference Date and Time:	18-Jun-2009 10:50am~12:30pm PDT
 * Duration of Recording:	1 Hour 33 Minutes
 * Recording File Size:	       10.7 MB (in mp3 format)
 * suggestions:
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 * Take a look, also, at the rich body of knowledge that this community has built together, over the years, by going through the archives of noteworthy past Ontolog events. (References on how to subscribe to our podcast can also be found there.)

For the record ...

How To Join (while the session is in progress)

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