International Association for Ontologies and its Applications

Giancarlo GuizzardiMember of the Executive Council

IAOA International Outreach Co-Chair

http://www.iaoa.org/http://www.iaoa.org/http://www.iaoa.org/http://www.iaoa.org/

A unique combination of key aspects

• Interdisciplinarity

• Cooperation between academy, industry, and communities of practice (with an eye on education)

• Scientific authoritativeness

• Openness

• Legal status

• Transparent governance

We have a dream...

Ontologists among us?

• Increasing social demand– There are already ontologists and explicit

search for ontologists (e.g., 42 Objects)– The biggest challenges we have for the next

decade are challenges of Semantic Interoperability

– There are na increasing number of leaders in Industry and Government that know what the problems are (e.g., GIF, E-PING, NCO/NITRD)

Applied Ontology as an Area in its own Right

• In this sense, the goal is not about being interdisciplinary in the long run…it is about creating a new discipline!

• See the history of Psychology, Systems Engineering as well as recent proposals for Web Science, Services Science, Software Engineering…

A bit of history…• 1993: 1st International workshop on Formal Ontology

& Information Systems• 1998: 1st FOIS conference• 2002: Ontolog forum• 2005: Applied Ontology (IOS Press)• 2005: ECOR, NCOR, JCOR...• 2006: First public discussion on an ontology

association at FOIS (Baltimore, USA)• 2008: Public assembly at FOIS (Saarbrucken,

Germany)• 2009: The Association was formally constituted in

Trento, Italy on April 29th 2009• 2010: First Elected Executive Council

Executive Council

• John Bateman, University of Bremen, Germany (Vice President)

• Stefano Borgo, ISTC-CNR, Italy• Michael Gruninger, University of Toronto, Canada• Nicola Guarino, ISTC-CNR, Italy (President)• Giancarlo Guizzardi, Federal University of Espirito Santo,

Vitoria, Brazil • Riichiro Mizoguchi, University of Osaka, Japan• Leo Obrst, MITRE, USA• Laure Vieu, IRIT-CNRS, France (Treasurer)• Peter Yim, Ontolog, USA (Secretary)

Creating the Ontologist of the Future

• The discipline will only mature if it moves from Scientific Venues and Graduate Programs to those in which Practitioners are Educated

Creating the Ontologist of the Future

• We need a well-established Body of Knowledge (akin to the IEEE SWEBOK in Software Engineering) so that:– We can design curricula (and evaluate)

curricula for the discipline– We can reflect on our own knowledge gaps– We can promote and harmonize knowlege in

different regions

Creating the Ontologist of the Future

• We need to build the local presence of the association in difference regions so that we can:– produce literature in local language– Address Region-Specific Challenges

Education Subcommittee

• Chairs: – Leo Orbst, MITRE Corp., USA– Michael Gruninger, Univ. Toronto, Canada– Fabian Neuhaus, NIST, USA– Antony Galton, University of Exeter, UK

• Plan:– Coordinate the development of our BOK– Curriculum Development, Accreditation & Certification – Creation of a Textbook on Ontologies – PhD Consortium– Summer School

Rationale for Scientific Events supported by the Association

• These should address the following goals:– Fill the Knowledge Gaps identified in the BOK

or in the assessment of regional challenges– Knowledge Diffusion and Community Building

IAOA International Outreach Sub-Committee (IOSC)

• The objective is the diffusion of Ontological Research and Education Worldwide with the Establishment of Local Communities

• Chairs:– Giancarlo Guizzardi, Federal University of

Espirito Santo, Vitoria, Brazil – Riichiro Mizoguchi, University of Osaka,

Japan

Community Building Events

– These events at first should not be required to meet the scientific standards of international events supported by the association

– They could be organized with the main goal of community building and, hence, they could be held in local languages, with participation of local community (scholars, students, government, industry), and possibly also devoted to address region-specific issues

Region-Specific Scientific venues

– Aimed at achieving international scientific standards.

– It is possible that Community-Building and Region-Specific Scientific Venues could coexist (in a temporary or permanent basis) and could, for instance, be held in intermittent years (biannual events).

Region-Specific Scientific venues

– In order to establish a stronger link between the scientific mature versions of these local events and the international venues promoted by the association (FOIS, FOMI), the association could financially support the participation of the authors of best papers of these regional venues in their international counterparts.

– region-specific events should be advised to invite as speakers and tutorialists experienced and prominent members of the international community.

Literature in Regional Languages

– In particular, in the medium term, the association could support the creation of a Handbook in regional language.

– These handbooks could address basic topics recognized as important by the IAOA Education Committee.

Region-Specific CoP

– Creating these CoPs as substructures of Ontolog

http://ontolog.cim3.net/http://ontolog.cim3.net/http://ontolog.cim3.net/http://ontolog.cim3.net/

Region-Specific CoP

– Creating these CoPs as substructures of Ontolog

– Such initiatives would amplify the possibilities of fomenting yearlong discussions in local language and addressing region-specific issues.

IAOA Regional Chapters

– The development of the relation between the IOSC and the regional communities could culminate with the creation of regional IAOA chapters.

An Implementation of the IOSC Plan in Brazil

– Support the consolidation of a scientific-focused event as an independent (as opposed to satellite) IAOA supported event

WOMSDE & WONTO

– WOMSDE (Workshop on Ontologies and Metamodels in Software and Data Engineering)

– WONTO (Workshop on Ontologies and Applications)

– SBIA/IBERAMIA 2004 (São Luís)– SBES/SBBD 2006 (Florianópolis)– SBIA/IBERAMIA 2006 (Ribeirão Preto)– SBES/SBBD 2007 (João Pessoa)– SBES/SBBD 2008 (Campinhas)– SBIA/IBERAMIA 2008 (Recife)

WOMSDE & WONTO

– Events which have always been focused on striving at high-quality publications

– Events associated with strong scientific venues

– International Program Committees • With presence of Iberoamerican Researchers

– Associated Journal Special Issues

MOST (Metamodels, Ontologies and Semantic Technologies)

– International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER 2009)

• Together with ONISW

– IEEE International Conference on Enterprise Computing (EDOC 2010)

• Together with VORTE

– In both editions, we have received an interesting number of strong submissions (In 2010, we had 29 submissions from Australia, Brazil, Finland, Germany, Norway, Portugal, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom)

MOST (Metamodels, Ontologies and Semantic Technologies)

– 2009 Edition• 75% of the selected papers were from Brazil

– 2010 Edition• 9 of the selected papers are from Brazil (aprox.

70%)• including the 3 best papers according to the

reviewers!

From MOST to CBOnt (?)

– International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER 2009)

• Together with ONISW

– IEEE International Conference on Enterprise Computing (EDOC 2010)

• Together with VORTE

– We are now in a position of establishing a strong and independent scientific event to serve as forum to publish the best scientific results of the Brazilian Community

http://edoc2010.inf.ufes.br/http://edoc2010.inf.ufes.br/http://edoc2010.inf.ufes.br/http://edoc2010.inf.ufes.br/

From MOST to CBOnt(?)

– International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER 2009)

• Together with ONISW

– IEEE International Conference on Enterprise Computing (EDOC 2010)

• Together with VORTE

– We are now in a position of establishing a strong and independent scientific event to serve as forum to publish the best scientific results of the Brazilian Community

From MOST to CBOnt(?)

– The strong ties with IAOA can increase the visibility of the research produced in the context of that community

– This event can grow out to become South/Latin/Ibero American Events

Regional Events

– The Brazilian AI Community Model• SBIA/IBERAMIA - ENIA

– Community-Building: ONTOBRAS– Scientific-Venue: MOST/SBOnt– Coordinate Both Events with FOIS and with the

IAOA Summer Schools, E.g.

Year International Event

Odd Years (e.g. 2011) IAOA Summer School CBOnto (?)

Brazilian Event

Even Years (e.g. 2012) FOIS Ontobras +

IAOA Summer School

Year International Event

Odd Years (e.g. 2011) IAOA Summer School Ontobras +IAOA Summer School

Brazilian Event

Even Years (e.g. 2012) FOIS in BRAZIL!

http://www.iaoa.org/http://www.iaoa.org/gguizzardi@inf.ufes.brgguizzardi@inf.ufes.br