Session	Planning
Duration	1 hour
Date/Time	30 Nov 2022 17:00 GMT
	9:00am PST/12:00pm EST
	5:00pm GMT/6:00pm CST
Convener	Gary Berg-Cross

Ontology Summit 2023 Planning

Helping scientific researchers make better use of ontologies

Agenda

Gary Berg-Cross and James Overton will present the current plans for the summit theme. Video Recording

Conference Call Information

Date: Wednesday, 30 Nov 2022
Start Time: 9:00am PST / 12:00pm EST / 6:00pm CST / 5:00pm GMT / 1700 UTC
- ref: World Clock
Expected Call Duration: 1 hour
Video Conference URL
- Conference ID: 837 8041 8377
- Passcode: 323309
Chat Room

The unabbreviated URLs are:

Conference URL: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83780418377?pwd=MlRFTHJQclRBd3RhYVl3aG1rTHJOQT09
Chat room: http://webconf.soaphub.org/conf/room/ontology_summit_2023

Attendees

Discussion

Gary: If Science is to use data, then there is a role for rich metadata that ontologies help provide. That is one reason why researchers should be interested in ontologies.

Ram: There are several dimensions to Science, and ontologies can play a role in several of these dimensions. Data is one dimension, but there is also a knowledge structure dimension.

Gary: I agree. The knowledge structure dimension gets us into upper ontology issues. This is valuable, but it is not the whole reason for ontologies.

Gary: How scientists understand the science is our ground, and we do our best to reflect that understanding in a formal way. Of course, it is an approximate understanding of reality.

Ken: Responsibility is not the same as cause. There is an agent that is responsible for the cause.

Gary: Aristotle covered some of that.

Mike: Responsibility is important in finance and business. There is a difference between an agent and an actor. In a model of a business process, an event has a cause is an autonomous entity such as a person that is the actor which is distinct from a business relationship in which one is a party or counter-party or which is a contractual position where commitments have been made. One can also have an agent such as a broker or enabler. These are three different roles and the distinction is important in practice. Unfortunately, ontologies will often not make these distinctions.

Alex: Scientists have theories.

What of these theories are in the ontology?
An ontology should not contradict the theories.
It is a topic for an investigation.

Alex: An example is the ontology for geology.

Ken: What is Science after all? In a general sense, Science occurs in everyday life. One makes observations of reality and formulates an understanding of what one has observed which is necessary for one to make decisions. This is situation awareness. In a way, the theories produced by scientists are a form of situation awareness on a much larger scale.

For reference the following is the definition of the word theory:

A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena.
The branch of a science or art consisting of its explanatory statements, accepted principles, and methods of analysis, as opposed to practice.
A set of theorems that constitute a systematic view of a branch of mathematics.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

Ken: I will be hosting a special session on 7 December 2022. On 14 December 2022, Gary and James Overton will present their final draft for the Ontology Summit 2023.

Gary: We have 80% to 90% of the schedule. We have the topics and the speakers. We need to advertise it properly. We have month to advertise it. It will start on 18 January 2023.

Resources

Video Recording

Previous Meetings

	Session
ConferenceCall 2022 11 09	Planning
ConferenceCall 2022 10 26	Planning
ConferenceCall 2022 10 19	Planning
... further results

Next Meetings

	Session
ConferenceCall 2022 12 07	Data Principles
ConferenceCall 2022 12 14	Planning
ConferenceCall 2023 01 18	Launch
... further results

Ontolog Forum

Contents