ConferenceCall 2012 06 21

= Exploring Joint EarthCube-Ontolog Activities - Thu 2012_06_21 =

Suggestions have been received from various individuals who straddle both the EarthCube community and the Ontolog community to prompt us to call this meeting. We have invited some of those people to this meeting with an aim to explore the possibility of a Joint EarthCube-Ontolog mini-series of virtual sessions (or possibly even other related activities.) We will try to find out who can help organize these activities, who else should we enlist. Most importantly, we will try to align objectives, goals and expectations of those who are involved.

Topic: "Planning a mini-series at the Ontolog Forum on EarthCube related topics"

Session Co-chairs: LeoObrst (Ontolog; MITRE) & KrishnaSinha (EarthCube; Virginia Tech)

Conference Call Details:

 * Date: Thursday, 21-Jun-2012
 * Start Time: 9:30am PDT / 12:30am EDT / 16:30 UTC
 * ref: World Clock
 * Expected Call Duration: 1.0~1.5 hours


 * Dial-in:
 * Phone (US): +1 (206) 402-0100  (long distance cost may apply) 
 * ... [ backup nbr: (415) 671-4335 ]
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 * when prompted enter PIN: 141184#


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 * view-only password: "ontolog"
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 * In-session chat-room url: http://webconf.soaphub.org/conf/room/ontolog_20120621


 * RSVP  to [mailto:peter.yim@cim3.com peter.yim@cim3.com] appreciated, ... or simply just by adding yourself to the "Expected Attendee" list below (if you are a member of the team.)


 * 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_2012_06_21


 * Please note that this session may be recorded, and if so, the audio archive is expected to be made available as open content, along with the proceedings of the call to our community membership and the public at-large under our prevailing open IPR policy.

Attendees

 * Attended:
 * LeoObrst (co-chair)
 * KrishnaSinha (co-chair)
 * GaryBergCross
 * PascalHitzler
 * KrzysztofJanowicz
 * NaicongLi
 * DaliaVaranka
 * PeterYim


 * Expecting:


 * Regrets:
 * NancyWiegand
 * MikeDean
 * MarkSchildhauer

Agenda Ideas:
please insert any additional items below (along with your name for follow-up purposes)


 * discussion: Is an Ontolog Forum styled "mini-series" the right vehicle?
 * what are the goals, objectives, expectations?
 * who can help organize? what? ... who else?
 * when?
 * what comes next?

Agenda & Proceedings
Archives:


 * audio recording of the session [ 1:01:36 ; mp3 ; 7.05 MB ]
 * chat-transcript of this session

1. Meeting called to order:


 * LeoObrst & KrishnaSinha take the chair and welcome everyone
 * PeterYim volunteered to take notes
 * review and adopt agenda

2. Roll Call:


 * see above
 * welcome and quick self-intro

3. Key items for review and discussion today:


 * Chairs openings - Leo & Krishna


 * discussion: Is an Ontolog Forum styled "mini-series" the right vehicle?


 * what are the goals, objectives, expectations?


 * who can help organize? what? ... who else?


 * when?


 * what comes next?

4. Action Plans:


 * LeoObrst, KrishnaSinha, GaryBergCross, PascalHitzler, KrzysztofJanowicz, NaicongLi, DaliaVaranka, PeterYim, NancyWiegand, MikeDean and MarkSchildhauer (i.e. the 8 of us at this call, plus the 3 who sent their regrets) will be the initial members of the organizing committee for this upcoming mini-series
 * [action-Peter] Peter to start a mailing list, and a mini-series "home page" on the wiki for this effort
 * [action-All] we will continue the planning work on the mailing list and wiki

5. Schedule Next Meeting & Adjourn:


 * Next Meetings:
 * we will continue the planning work on the [mini-series-org] mailing list
 * reserving the Thu 2012.08.09 date for the first Joint EarthCube-Ontolog mini-series session - topic for this virtual session will be: "Value Proposition of Ontology and Semantic Technology for the Earth Science Community"


 * Call adjourned at: 10:38 am PDT

IM Chat Transcript captured during the session:
see raw transcript here.

(for better clarity, the version below is a re-organized and lightly edited chat-transcript.) Participants are welcome to make light edits to their own contributions as they see fit.

-- begin in-session chat-transcript --

[09:30] PeterYim: PeterYim: Welcome to the

= Planning a mini-series at the Ontolog Forum on EarthCube related topics =

Date/Time: Thu 2012.06.21 - starting 12:30pm EDT / 9:30am PDT Duration: a 1.0 to 1.5-hour telecon

Dial-in: Phone (US): +1 (206) 402-0100 ... PIN: 141184# Skype: joinconference ... PIN: 141184# (for Skype users: the Skype Dial pad can be found under the "Call" dropdown menu as "Show Dial pad")

session page: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2012_06_21

Attendees: LeoObrst (co-chair), KrishnaSinha (co-chair), GaryBergCross, PascalHitzler, KrzysztofJanowicz, NaicongLi, DaliaVaranka & PeterYim (scribe). Regrets:  NancyWiegand, MikeDean, MarkSchildhauer

Proceedings:
anonymous morphed into PascalHitzler

anonymous morphed into NaicongLi

anonymous morphed into KrzysztofJanowicz

GaryBergCross: For the record, I proposed a mini series in email to Peter.

PascalHitzler: Let me ask some simple questions - sorry for not being on the page. What does ontolog usually do? What are the people usually reached through ontolog?

PeterYim: @PascalHitzler & All - ONTOLOG in one slide - see: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/work/presentation/ONTOLOG-intro--PeterYim-LeoObrst-KurtConrad_Oct-2008.pdf

PascalHitzler: thanks a lot, I'm getting a picture now. I have no idea how I missed this so far Apologies for holding up the discussion ...

GaryBergCross: I think that we should have a mini series (4-5 sessions) like you did for SemanticWiki from Nov 2011 to March 2012.

KrishnaSinha: Semantics should make it very easy to share data so that downstream activities are easy to implement

GaryBergCross: I would go beyond KrishnaSinha 2 areas or say that they can be addressed within a series that includes a discussion of issues such as methodologies that would provide benefits. PascalHitzler and KrzysztofJanowicz's recent posting addresses some of the issues.

GaryBergCross: One thing that raised this idea was what we captured in the "manifesto" - enough EarthCube people misunderstood what semantics is, that we need time to explicate it and this takes more time than the Charrette allowed.

PascalHitzler: So for a joint activity, the key question to ask first is, perhaps, what is the target group?

PascalHitzler: Perhaps EarthCube'rs who are looking for further insights into semantic technologies?

PascalHitzler: So we would be looking at a set of tutorials?

GaryBergCross: An example of what we didn't have adequate time to discuss at the Charrette were such things as what it takes to develop an adequate vocabulary for a domain science. We could have a 2 hour virtual session on this, perhaps a panel of 2-3 people giving examples of their work followed by discussion.

GaryBergCross: PascalHitzler see something like http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2009_03_05 as an example.

NaicongLi: One of the EarthCube initiatives is to facilitate sharing of resources such as data, models and tools. Ontologies can help address the need of resource organization, discovery and access, interoperability among the resources. This could be one of the themes in the mini series.

GaryBergCross: We might combine Naicong's suggestion with an interoperability topic.

GaryBergCross: Two goals I would suggest for the series is to clarify the issues and help formulate early steps to help manage overall risk.

GaryBergCross: Another goal that I was thinking of was to EXPAND the community of semantic researchers/ontologists that participate in the EC discussion.

KrishnaSinha: how much of the IBM Watson's capability was semantically enabled? ... maybe we can leverage on some label like "Geo Watson"

PascalHitzler: concerning "geo-watson" - we discussed this in http://knoesis.wright.edu/faculty/PascalHitzler/pub/DEKE.pdf

PascalHitzler: The Digital Earth as Knowledge Engine. KrzysztofJanowicz, PascalHitzler Semantic Web journal. To appear.

KrzysztofJanowicz: I agree that Geo-Watson is an analogy

KrzysztofJanowicz: There are good reasons not to use it

GaryBergCross: Geo-watson is OK for some big vision, but I prefer balancing it with a firm base that would afford progress towards the vision.

PascalHitzler: the danger of using the phrase "geo-watson" is that it may hype expectations

KrzysztofJanowicz: we should use the term knowledge engine, not "watson"

GaryBergCross: For starting we need to consider use cases and maybe a Geo-Watson gets folded into that session.

KrzysztofJanowicz: (we also talk here about a geo-watson: http://geog.ucsb.edu/~KrzysztofJanowicz/RESTfulSOS.pdf in 2011)

GaryBergCross: I would contrast the general use of speech recognition, which we can leverage, with Earth Science Domain vocabulary development such as assisted by text mining...Need the vocabularies first...concentrate there.

KrishnaSinha: identify semantic capabilities for geoscientists

KrzysztofJanowicz: WE have exactly this

KrzysztofJanowicz: http://earthcube.ning.com/profiles/blogs/semantics-and-ontologies-in-earthcube

PascalHitzler: The "Elevator Talk" post: http://earthcube.ning.com/group/semantics-and-ontologies/forum/topics/key-ingredients-for-your-next-semantics-elevator-talk?xg_source=activity - see also http://knoesis.wright.edu/faculty/PascalHitzler/pub/elevator12.pdf for direct link

PascalHitzler: Agree with Krzysztof: A first session about the value proposition makes a lot of sense.

PascalHitzler: Perhaps follow-up could then discuss how to "get there" - i.e. towards a *technical* roadmap.

KrzysztofJanowicz: yes

KrzysztofJanowicz: [consensus] First session August 9th, 2012 on the value proposition of semantics for the EarthCube community (highlighting the immediate added value without technical detail or technical language)

PeterYim: [decision] the 8 of us at this call, plus NancyWiegand, MikeDean and MarkSchildhauer, will form the organizing committee for this upcoming mini-series

PeterYim: [action-Peter] Peter to start a mailing list, and a mini-series "home page" on the wiki for this effort

PeterYim: [action-All] we will continue the planning work on the mailing list and wiki

PeterYim: -- session ended: 10:38am PDT --

-- end of in-session chat-transcript --


 * Further Planning - please post them to the [ mini-series-org ] listserv with an appropriate "subject line."

Additional Resources:

 * EarthScienceOntolog mini-series homepage
 * Mini-series organizing committee workpage - EarthScienceOntolog/GettingOrganized


 * EarthCube Project Homepage - http://earthcube.ning.com/
 * EarthCube "Semantics and Ontologies" workgroup - http://earthcube.ning.com/group/semantics-and-ontologies
 * EarthCube "Semantics and Ontologies" Mailing List - [Sem-cg]: msg-archives ; listinfo

-- notes taken by: PeterYim / 2012.06.21 (updated: ppy/2012.07.03) All participants, please review and edit to enhance accuracy and granularity of the documented proceedings.