[Fwd: Re: [seek-kr-sms] ontology/folder UI design in Kepler]

[Laura L. Downey]

>Shawn writes:
>I think that this is (or at least was) exactly one of the "missions" in 
>SEEK: to get scientists involved in creating and using *formal* ontologies.

Using formal ontologies, yes.  I have definitely seen some excitement when
semantic mediation has been talked about in a way that will make their jobs
easier -- of finding other data sets they would not otherwise have found,
when identifying actors that would be useful to them that they otherwise
might not have identified etc.  And yes, creating the ontologies themselves
too, because they know their domains better than we do, but formally
specifying them so that machines can make use of them? I'm not so sure about
that from what I've seen.  But again, remember I'm new to the project so
bringing an outsider perspective and maybe one that needs to be more
informed.

Is the goal here to figure out a way to allow scientists with no formal
ontology experience to easily specify formal ontologies in a way that
machines can make use of them?  That seems like a daunting task to me -- and
one that would require considerable time and resources.  Didn't I just read
from Mark (in the IRC convo) that the knowledge engineers themselves have
trouble with their own tools like Protégé?  Creating and specifying formal
ontologies is a complex and challenging job even for those trained in it.

I agree that scientists understand their domains better than others, but
that doesn't mean they understand how to formally represent that domain in a
way that can be utilized by a machine.  They user their own experience,
intuition, and knowledge to create ontologies.  They make decisions and
understand possible exceptions.  But that is a different task than formally
specifying that ontology to a rigid set of rules that can be utilized via
machine processing.  I'm thinking that is still a task to be done by a
trained knowledge engineer.

And if we create ways for regular users to provide the appropriate input to
the knowledge engineers so that items are formally specified in such a way
that the system can make use of them to the benefit of the regular users, I
would see that as a definite win and demonstration of the power of semantic
mediation to make scientists jobs easier.

Laura L. Downey
Senior Usability Engineer
LTER Network Office
Department of Biology, MSC03 2020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM  87131-0001
505.277.3157 phone
505.277-2541 fax
ldowney at lternet.edu