[Sigia-l] Re: Question about the use of the term 'ontology'

[IsisInform at aol.com]

Hi Everyone --
 
The best definition of ontology may be from Humpty Dumpty in Through the
Looking Glass, "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to
mean."    
 
Here's the definition provided by Tim Berners-Lee in his Scientific American
article on the Semantic Web (May, 2001).  He first defines the philosophical
ontology as "a theory about the nature of existence, of what types of things
exist."  He then defines the AI use of the word as "a document or file that
formally defines the relations among terms.  The most typical kind of
ontology for the Web has a taxonomy and a set of inference rules.  A
taxonomy defines classes of objects and relations among them."  He uses the
example of geographic location.  If the taxonomy defines Ithaca as being in
the state of New York, then the ontology will define Ithaca as being in the
United States, even if the database doesn't indicate the country.  
 
The advantage becomes evident when different terms are used by
different taxonomies.  His example is zip codes and postal codes.  According
to Berners-Lee, "This kind of confusion can be resolved if ontologies (or
other Web services) provide equivalence relations:  one or both of our
ontologies may contain the information that my zip code is equivalent to
your postal code."  
 
Going a step further, Eric Miller and Ralph Swick, colleagues of Berners-Lee
at the W3C, wrote an article on the Semantic Web for the ASIS&T Bulletin
(April/May, 2003).  They describe the Semantic Web as "a place where
strongly controlled controlled (or centralized) metadata vocabulary
registries can flourish alongside special-purpose, small communty, or even
private vocabularies."  This means that, through this system of ontological
rules, folksonomies, multiple languages, and taxonomies built from the
client's perspective can be equal to the most structured metadata
registries.   
 
So we can truly build our information structures to suit the client's method
of information gathering, rather than some artificial taxonmic ideal.  This
is what I have been saying in my theory of Perspective and Persuasive
Taxonomy.  It's a component of BJ Fogg's book on "Persuasive Technology." 
BJ was the keynote at the recent Montreal IA Summit.  His Principle of
Tailoring states, "Information provided by computing technology will be more
persuasive if it is tailored to the individual's needs, interests,
personality, usage context, or other factors relevant to the individual."  
 
In Through the Looking Glass, Alice responds to Humpty by asking "whether
you can make words mean so many different things."  But Humpty has
the answer, "The question is which is to be master -- that's all." 
Everything, including taxonomy, works better if it fits the user. 
 
Thanks,
 
Katherine
***********************************************************
Katherine Bertolucci
Taxonomy and Information Management Consultant
Isis Information Services
P O Box 627
Phoenix, AZ 85001
602-258-2035
isisinform at aol.com
www.isisinform.com