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Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Soft Ontologies and Meaning dimensions of
the CityMauri Kaipainen, PhD
Knowledge Environments Research GroupTallinn University
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
My institution
• Tallinn University, Department of Informatics
• Interactive Media and Knowledge Environments (IMKE) international MA program
• Knowledge Environments Research Group (KERG)
• Tallinn Media Cluster (TMC)
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
My background and approach Backgrounds:• Cognitive science• New Media• Semiotics• Education• Musicology=> Talking about a city as• A medium• An environment of joint sense-making
(semiosis)
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Aim To• Point out the omnipresence of
ontologies• Spatialize and de-textualize the idea of
ontologies• De-cartesianize ontologies of the city=> Propose a hybrid ontological space as
a bridge between textual and spatial ontologies
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
OUTLINE
• About modeling• Ontology and ontologies• Soft ontologies• Multi-perspective media• Taggin’ Tallinn
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
ABOUT MODELS
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
ModelsCan be, e.g.• Miniatures• Visualizations• Spatializations• Dynamic system models• Mathematical models• Algorithmic and generative models• Conceptual models...Big picture: Digital modeling of the whole world
ongoing!
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Models
• Explain objects, processes, activities (and sequences)
• Simplify rather than complicate• Help understanding• Structure ways of managing the
objects of modeling (as in digital systems)
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
ONTOLOGY AND ONTOLOGIES
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Ontologies as conceptual modelsModels of • How a domain is conceived to exist• What a domain is conceived to
consist of• What relationships its constituents
have with each other and the external world
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Ontology in Philosophy
• ”Study of being or existence” (WP)• Discipline of philosophy• Ontologies ”Bad” reputation in
postmodern thinking: Associated with naïve realism
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Ontologies in Computer science• ” Ontology is a data model that
represents a domain and is used to reason about the objects in that domain and the relations between them” (WP)
• ” An ontology is a specification of a conceptualization.” (Gruber)
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Roles of Ontology
Functions of ontology discussed:• Conceptual model of sense-making
within a domain• Spatial model(!)• Backbone of Multidimensional
Database media
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Premise 1: Ontologies are always thereEach message, text, or narrative
assumes an ontology, either• implicit (usually), or• explicitCity as a text (Lotman) or a story.
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Premise 2: Ontologies reflect perspectivesNot neutral but reflect someone’s:• priorities, preferences• values• meaningsof the author or owner of the
medium.
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Premise 3: Ontologies are (typically) hard• Hard = Built into structure or technical
implementation of the medium (here city)
• Typically assumed to represent static ”reality” of the domain
Example: City as a system of coordinates, system of electricity, plumbing, law & order etc.-> Truth?
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Premise 4: Ontologies are monoperspectivalConventional ontologies are • Monoperspectival, representing
the perspective of the author or owner of the medium
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Premise 5: Ontologies are means of power• Means of top-down top-down
media power
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Premise 6: Ontologies are text-based• Text based• Not natively spatial• Not natively visual
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Hard and soft ontologies
• Hard ontologies (conventionally)• Soft ontologies (proposed!)
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Implicit hard ontologies
Embedded in the structure, presentation order or hierarchy
• Language, vocabularies, terminology, concepts
• Stories: cinema, theatre, etc.• Search engines, e.g. Google• City conceptualization and
planning(?)
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Explicit hard ontologies
• Taxonomies: Linnaean botanical taxonomy• Library systems• Database architectures• Metadata systems, often hierarchical:
Semantic Web• Hypertext link structure (flat): web pages,
sites, hypertext• City infrastructure, administrative structure,,
web presence etc. (?)
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Key issues about ontologies of a city• What kind of story do I/you/we/they
want to tell about a city?• Who/what defines a city and for whom?• Can there be a single truth about a city?• Whose own the (conceptualization
of )the city?
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
SOFT ONTOLOGIES
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Soft ontologies
Dynamically multidimensional conceptualizations, by means of...
Open sets of descriptive feature dimensions applicable to all items of the domain.
• explicit• open ended
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Purposes of soft ontology
• To define a domain of information without a single fixed perspective
• Support multiple perspectives to an ontological space
• Allow open (accumulating) conceptualization of a domain
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Implementation of soft ontologies• Numeric: Each item takes a value
between 0 and 1 on each ontological dimension
• => Spatial organization!• Dimensionality open: New features
can be added and existing ones may be ignored at will
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Example of soft ontology as table
Bars & cafeteriaslatitudelongitudealtitudeGood_latteFriendly_serviceSmiley_customersCool_musicWiFi add...Rüütli_Latte 7 3 7 4 1 2 0.5 1Rae_Café 6 8 6 4 0.5 3 0.5 0Toom_Cool 3 2 3 2 0 3 1 0.3SadamAmbient 4 5 5 2 1 3 0.9 0.7Kohvik_City_Cult 1 9 4 0 0 1 0.2 0.9Urban_Legend 6 1 2 4 0 6 0.9 0Basement_Bar 5 6 1 2 0.8 1 0 1add..
Ontological dimension
Ontology
Add data!Add dims!
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Ontological space of a cityDefined by:• Geographical dimensions (latitude, longitude,
altitude)• Dimensions of meaning, experiential dimensions• Searches• Measurement dimensions: statistics, weather,
measurements etc. Dimensionality growing ad infinitum
How can such an ambiguous space be made sense of?
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
MULTI-PERSPECTIVE MEDIA
A concept for future mediaDemand created by two-way
communication
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Multi-Perspective Media
• Media particularly designed to support multiple equally right/true perspectives to a domain
• Media based on multi-dim databases (Manovich)
• Supports interactive exploration of multiple perspectives, established by
• Bottom-up media, public contribution of ontological dimensions (e.g. folksonomies) for Web 2.0
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Exploring multiple perspectivesA sketch for implementation (among
alternatives):• Slider interface to manage
perspectives (can be replaced by other interfaces)
• Realtime projection, e.g. by means of multi-dimensional scaling
• Browser and search functionalities
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Choosing perspective
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
One dimension taken into account
(Trivial case)• Orthogonal display of
data with respect to the viewer
• See the whole distribution with respect to a
dimension
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Two dimensions taken into account
• Two dimensional matrix
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Several dimensions taken into account• Nonlinear projection (here online multi-
dimensional projection)• Analog to cortical projections (color maps,
tonotopies, retinotopies, somatotopies)• Real-time exploration made possible• Challenging visualization Requires active exploration and movement! How to facilitate this by means of design?
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Softness?
Ontological dimensions can be• Taken into account or ignored• Added at will (next example), open
endedness, ∞ - dimensionality• Graded degrees of relevance
allowedImplies spatial organization
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Short course of geo-semiotics
• One case/utilization/example (just a point) does not yet constitute a meaning but
• A meaning dimension is needed to establish a meaning (line)
• A dimension makes sense only from near-orthogonal perspective
• Making sense = projection from multi-perspective ontological space
• Understanding = being able to see multiple perspectives
• Knowledge = sharing perspectives within a community
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
TAGGIN’ TALLINN
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Taggin’ Tallinn
Blending virtual and physical presence in the city
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Partners • Tallinn University• Eesti Kunstiakadeemia• EMT• Urban Mark• Tallinn City(?!)• RAK• more...
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Project nature
Framework and lab of:• locative media & urban presence• public contributions of content,
software and ontologies• social software• new mobile technologies• mobile interfacing
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Spraying graffiti not encouraged
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Add a virtual tag
• MMS + SMS• GPS + Online
connection• Map-click (at
home)
X
Mauri was here!
59°43.7’N 24°74.3’
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Associate content with your tag
X
Via mobile or web
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Establish a new content collection
Tag content not fitting to any existing collection?
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Content communityesEach content community Elaborates a particular dimension of
meaning.Has • community of peers• a moderator• rules of e.g. membership, acceptance,
priorization and evaluation -> game!
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Tags, blogs and communities
Content community & ”game” = ontological dimension of the city
Tag = X was here...•Individual presence•Coordinates•Place•Content link•CommunityB
log = individual track
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Hybrid coordinate system of TallinnBlend:• Geographical coordinates tracked
by GSM, GPS, or manually clicked• Meaning coordinates
Locative media
Community softwareCollaborative environment
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Explore own perspectives to the city
•Multi-perspective view
•Hybrid geo-experiential map
•Mobile and web interfaces
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Community and social software New tags are• distiributedto the
community• peer-evaluated• moderated• accepted/rejected• priorized
(competition)• elaborated jointly
Immediate p2p communication facilitated
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
CONCLUSIONS
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
About Soft Ontologies
• Define domain of information without fixing a single perspective
• Support exploration of multiple perspectives to an ontological space
• Allow open (accumulating) conceptualization of a domain
=>Native of Web 2.0!
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Multi-perspective Media:
• Presentations of information in such a way that allow a number of alternative perspectives
• No priorized perspective or truth• Native to bottom-up content• Allow cool stuff!
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
What is multiperspective media good for?• Modeling individual sense-making
in ambiguous spaces• Modeling community sense-making• Visualization of similarity-
dissimilarity• Search and match functionalities
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
More application areas• Narrative spaces: Obsession enactive
cinema project• Politics: Political maps• Ethics• Education: Knowledge building by joint
MPM exploration• Graphical search engines• Matchmaking (partners, cars, homes...)
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
What is Taggin’ Tallinn about?• Multidisciplinare researc
framework• Collaborative meaning-building• Locative and explorative media• Soft ontology as a backbone
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Workshop
• Constituting meaning dimensions of the city
• Collaboratively• Non-verbally with imagesMore in the evening. Instructions in
http://lin2.tlu.ee/~mkaipain/presentations/urban.html
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Papers on soft ontologies
• Aviles Collao, Jazmin; Diaz-Kommonen, L.; Kaipainen, M.; Pietarila, J. (2003). Soft Ontologies and Similarity Cluster Tools to facilitate Exploration and Discovery of Cultural Heritage Resources. IEEE Computer Society Digital Library. Proc. DEXA 2003. September 1.-5.2003, Prague Czech Republic.
• Kaipainen, M.; Niglas, K.; Laanpere, M.; Kikkas, K.; Normak, P.; Sillaots, M. (2006). Knowledge environments with soft ontologies and multiperspective explorability. Interactive Learning Environments (submitted).
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Locative media projects
• Positium Tallinn project• Katumuisti (Street memory)• Yellow Arrow• Visby Under• Merkitys - Meaning• many more...
Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007
Thank you!
mauri.kaipainen@tlu.eehttp://www.tlu.ee/~mkaipain/
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