CCAT Ontologies NEWS

fritz@rodin.wustl.edu (Fritz Lehmann)
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 94 09:50:32 CDT
From: fritz@rodin.wustl.edu (Fritz Lehmann)
Message-id: <9409131450.AA12363@rodin.wustl.edu>
To: agc@scs.leeds.ac.uk, cg@cs.umn.edu, pdoudna@aol.com, srkb@cs.umbc.edu,
        wille@mathematik.th-darmstadt.de, wisdom@mcs.com
Subject: CCAT Ontologies NEWS
Cc: kennett@u.washington.edu
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CCAT NEWS -- Conceptual Catalogue/Ontologies Group of the
Peirce Project (a cooperative Conceptual Graphs Workbench).
Anyone interested in concept-systems and "ontologies" can join.

           C C A T    interest group so far:

Nicolas Anquetil, Univ. of Montreal  anquetil@IRO.UMontreal.CA
Jaques Bouaud, DIAM, bouaud@biomatch.jussieu.fr
Key-Sun Choi, kschoi@cs.kaist.ac.kr
Gary Berg-Cross, [where? mcl.saic.com ?]
Bill Brayman, Boeing Corp., brayman@zuben.ca.boeing.com
Brandon Buteau, PRC, buteau_brandon@prc.com
Patrick Cassidy, MICRA, cassidy@micra.com
Walling Cyre, Va. Tech, cyre@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu
Richard Fletcher, Xerox, fletcher.mcleancsd@xerox.com
Olivier Gerbe, DMR Montreal, gerbe-o@immedia.ca
Stephen M. Griffin, Univ. of Surrey, UK, s.griffin@mcs.surrey.ac.uk
Patrick Hayes, Univ. of Illinois  phayes@cs.uiuc.edu
Mark Johnson, M.J.Johnson@qmw.ac.uk
Rob Kremer, Univ. of Calgary, kremer@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
Sung Myaeng [where ?]
Nancy Lawler, DoD, [EMAIL?]
Fritz Lehmann, GRANDAI Software, fritz@rodin.wustl.edu
Dickson Lukose, Univ. of New England, Australia [EMAIL?]
Jonathan C. Oh, Univ. of Mo.-K.C.  oh@vax2.cstp.umkc.edu
Heike Petermann, Univ. of Hamburg  peterman@informatik.uni-hamburg.de
Jim Pipher, USAISSC, DoD, pipher@melpar.EMH1.army.mil
Gary Rau, De Paul Univ., grau@falcon.depaul.edu
Bill Rich, IBM, billrich@vnet.ibm.com
Doug Skuce, Univ. of Ottawa, doug@csi.UOttawa.CA
Bill Tepfenhart, ATT, bill@violin.att.com
John Thompson, Boeing, thompson@zuben.boeing.com
Yin-Min Wei, Univ. of Ohio, wei@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu
Mark Willems, Vrije Univ., Neth., willems@cs.vu.nl

  We still need EMAIL addresses for
   NANCY LAWLER, DICKSON LUKOSE, SUNG MYAENG
  Are you out there?

----------------- C C A T   S U B G R O U P S  -----------------

In addition to the CCAT interest group, people may want to specialize
a bit.  At the ICCS-94 Peirce Workshop, the following nine subjects
were identified as intial components needed in the "core ontologies"
for CCAT.  If you are interested in either USING or CREATING or
DONATING or IMPORTING ontologies in any of these subjects, I'll add
your name to that subgroup.  Keep in mind that at this point there is
no need for any mutual exclusion of sources.  NOTE: The lists of
names below are incomplete!  TELL ME WHERE YOU WANT TO BE PUT! (or if
you want to be removed).

1.  ABSTRACT ALGEBRA & DISCRETE MATH  (Graphs, Posets, etc.)
                                Gerard Ellis, Fritz Lehmann
            Comment: These can be got from large existing Principia Math.-
            like systems. LINCOS? Category Theory? See KIF Abstract Algebra

2.  TIME     (base-level, intervals, dates, calendars etc.)
                    Walling Cyre, Patrick Hayes, Fritz Lehmann; Nancy Lawler?
       Comment: Hayes is doing a survey; Cyre's system has relation poset,
           lacks "timestamps". Calendars from Standards. See ARPA/Rome Ontol.

3.  SPACE  (topological, metric, shapes, inclusions, geographic)
           Comment: Try Randell/Cohn topology, STEP for shapes? MAPSEE
               Geog. Info.System standards?  Leyton?  Shape grammars?

4.  PART-WHOLE RELATIONS  (of various kinds; mereology, assemblies)
                         Bill Brayman?  John Thompson?  See ARPA/Rome.

5.  EVENT/OBJECT/PROCESS  (spatiotemporal extents, change, "deep ontology"
                             individual identity, motion, persistance)

6.  DEEP CASE RELATIONS (of participants in events, multilevel)
                         Fritz Lehmann,  John Sowa?  Judith Dick? Mark Willems?

7.  REPRESENTATION   (Peirce's signs, phenom./epistem., models, reference)
                                      Fritz Lehmann

8.  MEASUREMENT UNITS  (various standards, accuracy, measurement theory)
            Comment:  Tom Gruber and Nicholaas Mars have implemented
                     basic systems; Gruber's in Ontolingua.

9.  SITUATIONS  (contexts, spatiotemporal limits, fictional, modality)
                                   John Sowa?  Bill Tepfenhart?

[10. CAUSALITY -- not listed at ICCS meeting.  Should it be in core?]
[Any other suggestions for the core?]
------------------------------------------------------------
NON-CORE SUBJECTS:

GENERAL THESAURUS  (IS-A Hierarchies without formal differentia -- at first)
                     Pat Cassidy, Fritz Lehmann
                    Comment: try integrating Roget with non-LDOCE Pangloss?

NATURAL LANGUAGE VAGARIES  (syntaxes, vocabularies, idioms, lang. families)
                      Mark Willems?

DIGITAL SYSTEMS  (electronic circuits, automata, computers)
                      Walling Cyre

INFORMATION SYSTEMS  (databases, transactions, security, metadata, schemas)
                       Fritz Lehmann, Gary Berg-Cross?
                     Comment: see the IRDS/CSMF standards.

ENTERPRISE MODELS  (business organization and dynamics, enterprise integr.)
                       Fritz Lehmann, Jim Pipher? Gary Berg-Cross?
                       Comment: Lots: Carnot, CIMOSA, IWI, Avoid rubbish.

TRADE ACTIVITIES  (economic relations, Electronic Data Interchange, money)
                      Fritz Lehmann (EDI, relates to MEASUREMENT UNITS, LAW,
                      ENTERPRISE MODELS and ADDRESSES)

ADDRESSES  (addressing envelopes, email, packages, worldwide)
                          Fritz Lehmann

STORIES/HUMAN ACTIVITIES  (going places, doing things, falling in love,
                           fighting, stealing, etc.)  Try: Zarri, Propp,
                           Polti, Stith Thompson, WISDOM email list

EMOTIONS  (feelings, passions, fear, love(s), regret, hunger?)
               Try: Skuce's old Hobbes/Descartes; Ortony, psychol. ?


BIBLIOGRAPHY  (meaning of author, date, publisher, etc.)
              Comment: Tom Gruber has an implemented Ontolingua ontology.

PHYSICS  (real physics, not naive, particles, gravity, quantum etc.)

MATERIALS  (any substance, wood, chemicals, mineralogy, etc.)
             Comment:  Many standards available

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION  (PDES/STEP related, device descriptions)
                      Fritz Lehmann

CIM-INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES  (plant, shop floor, manufacturing, chem. processes)
                     Mark Johnson?

SOFTWARE  (object hierarchies, formal semantics, development process)

MEDICINE  (various levels, anatomy, biochem., diseases, treatments)
         Comment: exploit huge taxonomies, UMLS, etc. Ground it low level.

LAW   (formal theories, descriptive, deontic, multiculture, taxonomies)
         Judith Dick?

[Any suggestions for other outside-the-core CCAT subgroups?]

(Note: The ARPA/Rome Planning Ontology appears to be a sensible  system.
It has TIME, MEASUREMENT, RESOURCES, and PLANS.)


--------------------  FORMAT FOR WORK ----------------------------

As soon as we have the standard for the Conceptual Graphs linear form,
we can use it.  KIF and Ontolingua are usable now for those who want
to start right in with a formal system.  Some definitions will be
strict (necessary and maybe sufficient); many will not.  Many or even
most might be imported from other systems.  Remember, we CCATers are to
be "deep" (that's just a vague principle now, but it eventually means we
deliver fully explained definitions).  Formalization should be delayed
until a definition is well refined.  I tentatively suggest about one
ASCII CCAT page per defined concept, with perhaps the following form
(first draft).  Example:
..............................................................
OFFICIAL LONG CONCEPT/RELATION NAME:  Enclosing Barrier

AUTHOR'S PREFERRED CONCEPT NAME:  EnclBarr

LONG LEGALISTIC ENGLISH DESCRIPTION (Include purpose, overall context
and fine points.)  In common human affairs, a physical inanimate
obstruction projecting up from the ground or between projecting
obstacles (attached to the ground) which because of its physical
arrangement makes it difficult or nearly impossible for a normal living
human being unassisted by other persons, and without any tools, to go
from one side of it to the other side of it, and such that that the
barrier forms a complete topological closed curve in plan, if all holes
and gaps are too small for any living human being to get through are
disregarded.  The purpose or natural effect is to physically prevent a
living human being from getting in or getting out unassisted, by means
of physical obstacle rather than threat of pain or destruction. The
barrier does not otherwise restrain any person, and allows a living
normal person freedom of ambulatory motion on either side of it.

GOOD EXAMPLES: High surrounding walls, tall thick hedges, chain link
fences, building walls, jail cell walls, locked typical rooms without
big open windows.

OTHER EXAMPLES: closely circled wagons, natural circles of close-growing
trees, palisade man-traps, locked cave door, crib, playpen, stair-gate.

NON-EXAMPLES BUT NEAR:  a curb blocking a wheelchair, a circle of
surrounding fire, an electric cattle fence, a circular ditch or chasm,
the edges of a tall building's roof, a necromancer's circle, fish net in
water, circle of persons with linked hands, a tether for a person, a
surrounding cliff wall, cave walls, or a heavy curtain.  A wall with
holes through which a baby can crawl.   Circular minefield.
Straightjacket; Iron Maiden.  A spiral-shaped wall or trap, or a long
wall with two ends.  A police line.

CLEARER NON-EXAMPLES:  a stump, a short freestanding wall, a jail with
its doors open, Stonehenge, a locked vehicle.

BORDERLINE POSSIBILITY: a circuit of medium-height barbed wire;
concertina wire, or a medium height but spiky fence.  Jail with doors
opening freely only from outside.

SUPERCONCEPTS: A B C   OTHER CONCEPTS EXPECTED TO USE THIS ONE: X Y Z

LIKELY RELATIONS AND ROLES:  Height, Length, thickness, plan-shape,
material, strength, Size of person blocked, creator, potential exits,
"doors", keep-in vs. keep-out, purpose, guards, etc.

AUTHOR(S):   DATE:   VERSION:   CHANGE-LOG:   MODULE NAME:   CCAT
SUBGROUP:COMMON_WORLD.   AUTHORIZATIONS AND TESTS PASSED:   IMPORTED-
FROM:   KNOWN-TO-BE-EXPORTED-TO:   LANGUAGE-VARIANT:   SOURCES:
REFERENCES:   COMPATIBILITIES: CORE, STORIES, GENERAL-THESAURUS, LAW.

(Last but not least)FORMAL DEFINITION: Conceptual Graph or, for now, KIF
_________________________________________________________________

     Please send your suggested changes in this form to the
CG@cs.umn.edu list.  Also your suggestions as to how CCAT should proceed
methodically as a group.

     If you have access to any existing machine-format ontology (other
than Gruber's Ontolingua repository), please notify the CG list if you
think it may be generally useful.  Also alert the list to any
potentially relevant proprietary systems.

                          Yours truly,   Fritz Lehmann
GRANDAI Software, 4282 Sandburg Way, Irvine, CA 92715, U.S.A.
Tel:(714)-733-0566  Fax:(714)-733-0506  fritz@rodin.wustl.edu
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