[seek] Re: [seek-kr-sms] SEEK successes in ontology research

Bertram Ludaescher ludaesch at sdsc.edu
Sun Oct 3 21:55:42 PDT 2004


Thanks Joseph for the detailed report!

Bertram


>>>>> "JG" == Joseph Goguen <goguen at cs.ucsd.edu> writes:
JG> 
JG> Dear Colleagues,
JG> I am just back from an "ontology tour of Germany," in which i visited Bremen,
JG> Schloss Dagstuhl (the German computer science meeting center) and Leipzig, in
JG> each case presenting some work done for SEEK, which seems to have aroused a
JG> good deal of interest.  Mainly, I presented work in the paper "Data, Schema,
JG> and Ontology Integration," available at
JG> 
JG>    http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/~goguen/pps/lisbon04.pdf
JG> 
JG> which was first presented at CombLog04 in Lisbon in August.  It introduces
JG> what i called the "integration stack," consisting of data, schema, ontology,
JG> and ontology language, each of which requires translation for some cases of
JG> integration; it also summarizes work on our SCIA matching tool, and on the
JG> mathematical machinery behind the integration stack and the tool, including
JG> a general theory of matching schemas of different kinds (spreadsheets,
JG> relational, XML, ...) and ontologies of different kinds (OWL, RDF, KIF, ...).
JG> 
JG> The result of the visit to Bremen is that I will be invited to spend a month
JG> there next summer, helping with their project to integrate ontologies over
JG> multiple logics to support navigation for a voice activated wheelchair.  The
JG> result at Dagstuhl is that one of the official recommendations from the
JG> workshop on "Semantic Interoperability and Integration" will be to study
JG> foundations of information integration using the theory of institutions which
JG> I developed (with Burstall) to formalize the notions of logic, theory over a
JG> logic, and translations of theories and logics.
JG> 
JG> A description of the institutional approach to ontology integration is given
JG> in the paper "Information Integration in Institutions," available at
JG> 
JG>    http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/~goguen/papers/IF.html
JG> 
JG> This paper shows how the information flow and channel algebra of Barwise and
JG> Seligman and the Formal Concept Analysis of Ganter and Wille can be done over
JG> any logical system, in a much more general way, and it also shows how many
JG> proposed notions of information integration are special cases of the category
JG> theoretic notion of co-relation, and gives some theorems about co-relations
JG> and integration.
JG> 
JG> It was discussed quite a lot at Dagstuhl, and the IEEE Standard Upper
JG> Ontology project has also decided to adopt this approach as a basis for
JG> future work; see
JG> 
JG>   http://suo.ieee.org/IFF/metalevel/lower/metatheory/environment/version20041010.html
JG> 
JG> At Leipzig, Prof Rahm and i discussed database integration, using schemas and
JG> ontologies at some length, and he decided to adopt some ideas from our SCIA
JG> tool for the next generation of his COMA schema matching tool (called
JG> COMA++), especially our idea of critical points.  (Rahm is one of the leaders
JG> in tool building for database schema integration.)
JG> 
JG> Another outcome of this trip is that I will (subject to approvals by some
JG> other committee members) be invited to be keynote speaker at the next ICCA
JG> (Int Conference on Concept Analysis, which focuses on work of both John Sowa
JG> and Ganter & Wille).
JG> 
JG> I should also mention that in November, I will give a keynote address at the
JG> workshop on integration of spatial information at FOIS 04 (Formal Ontology
JG> and Information Systems) in Turin, and also will debate Barry Smith on the
JG> philosophy of ontologies; my paper on the first topic is not yet done but the
JG> paper on the second topic, entitled "Ontology, Society and Ontotheology," is
JG> available at
JG> 
JG>    http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/~goguen/pps/fois04.pdf
JG> 
JG> The workshop talk will focus on the relevance of recent work in cognitive
JG> linguistics to the construction of user-friendly ontologies, especially for
JG> spatial applications.  I will also give the philosophy lecture at the Italian
JG> National Research Center in Naples next month, along with a more technical
JG> talk on SCIA, and will give the "Data, Schema and Ontology Integration" talk
JG> to Lenzerini's group in Rome (Lenzerini is another leading researcher in
JG> database theory, I think the URL for one of his tutorials on data integration
JG> was sent to SEEK lists a while ago).
JG> 
JG> So I think the work that Jenny Wang and I have been doing for SEEK has been a
JG> big success, or at least, it can be described as such in reports to NSF.  It
JG> is just seems a pity that our SEEK group leader has informed us that we are
JG> almost out of funding and will have to stop working soon.
JG> 
JG> With all best regards,
JG> 
JG>    joseph
JG> 
JG> 
JG> ************************************************************************
JG>  Joseph Goguen, Dept. Computer Science & Engineering, University of
JG>  California at San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla CA 92093-0114 USA
JG>  email: jgoguen at ucsd.edu
JG>  www:  http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/users/goguen/
JG>  phone: (858) 534-4197 [my office]; -1246 [dept office];
JG>  -7029 [dept fax]; (858) 822-0702 [secy]
JG>  office: 3131 Applied Physics and Math Building
JG>  J Consciousness Studies: http://www.imprint-academic.com/jcs/
JG> ************************************************************************
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