Ontologies and Tagging discussion moderated by Dr. Nicolas Rouquette (NASA/JPL) on 04/28/2005

* Discussion topic Ontologies and Tagging (aka: elaborating a hybrid ontology with bits and pieces from here and there) * Moderator Dr. Nicolas Rouquette - NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory / California Institute of Technology * Attendees Peter Yim Kurt Conrad Bob Smith James Douma Adam Pease Jayne Dutra (NASA/JPL) Nicolas Rouquette Pat Cassidy * ONTOLOG forum Wiki page details http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2005_04_28 * Postground AdamPease pointed out to several incorrect statements made about SUMO, particularly with respect to the modularity of SUMO itself. The notes below should be read with the understanding that they may represent incorrect views about SUMO or about other ontologies. (NicolasRouquette) * Background The popularity of the andquot;semantic webandquot; and furious pace of andquot;ontologyandquot; development in particular have created a very exciting bubble of research and development activity. From a pragmatic perspective, bleeding edge research has the potential to simplify and improve application-specific ontology development. Bleeding-edge technology has a strong risk stigma associated to it. However, ontology-based development is perhaps a unique kind of bleeding-edge technology where the risk of using it has turned into a fuzzy, bleeding-edge concept of its own. * Goals Assemble a panel of practitioners and experts with a pulse the bleeding edge to review new developments and advances in the field that pertain to the adoption of recommended practices, particularly, modular ontology development and the role of annotation tags in this process.