Ontology: The Need for International Coordination NCOR Inaugural Oct 27, 2005

ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research

Ontology:The Need for

International Coordination

NCOR Inaugural Oct 27, 2005

Dr. W. CeustersEuropean Centre for Ontological Research

Saarland University, Saarbrücken - Germany

ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research European Centre for

Ontological Research


ECOR’s members & partners

Local members

Externalmembers

Partners

Status Oct 2, 2005

http://www.ifomis.org/

http://www.uni-saarland.de/fak3/fr31/html/ins_pro_the.htm


Goals and objectives• sustained and coordinated collaboration with institutions

with proven track record of excellence in ontological research and in the application of ontology to solve concrete problems.

• interdisciplinary approach based on philosophical rigour • exchange of research personnel for short research visits• participation in joint projects, • joint supervision of doctoral research, • joint production of software and authorship of research

papers • collaborate in seeking funding at national and

international levels for ontology-related research and development activities

ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Similar Centers

• Created:– Interdisciplinary Ontology

forum Japan

– NCOR

• Considered:– Canadian Centre for Ontological Research– Australasian Ontology Center


Europe: cross-bordercoordination is in our genes

• Flanders: a wealth of dialects– About 850 for a population of 6,000,000

• Belgium: population: 10,000,000– 3 communities: French, Flemish, German– 3 regions: Flanders, Wallony, Brussels– 6 governments

• Europe: – 25 countries– Many more regions, some cross-national

• Flanders, Basque country, Occitania, ...

ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research European Member States

ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Permanent cross-border

awareness• Variations in legislation:

– What is forbidden in one jurisdiction, might be allowed in a second one, and mandatory in a third one.

• Variations in culture and habits• Biggest incentive:

– No cross-border issue, no money !• Biggest source of (research) funding: EU• Requirement for EU-funding

– Europe-wide problem– Problem cannot be solved by one Member State


Reasons for coordination in general

• Avoid waste of financial resources and efforts– Pro:

• Division of labor• Roadmap for future developments

– Contra:• Additional overhead

• Sharing of resources– But: competition is a good driver for quality

• Benchmarking, quality assurance


Coordination needs and opportunities for Ontology

• Horizontal– Ontology languages

• We asked for one, but did we ask for OWL ?

– Terminologies, concept systems, ontologies– The Syntactic Web– Ontology-based applications

• Vertical– Healthcare & Life Sciences– Finance– Legal– Globalisation


Current US GOV eHealth goals & strategies

• G1: Inform Clinical Practice:– S1. Provide incentives for EHR adoption. – S2. Reduce risk of EHR investment. – S3. Promote EHR diffusion in rural and underserved areas.

• G2: Interconnect Clinicians. – S1. Regional collaborations. – S2. Develop a national health information network. – S3. Coordinate federal health information systems.

• Goal 3: Personalize Care. – S1. Encourage use of Personal Health Records. – S2. Enhance informed consumer choice. – S3. Promote use of telehealth systems.

• Goal 4: Improve Population Health. – S1. Unify public health surveillance architectures. – S2. Streamline quality and health status monitoring. – S3. Accelerate research and dissemination of evidence.

US Department of Health and Human Services July 21, 2004


UMLS Semantic Network

ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Main problems with eHealth

‘ontologies’

• Internal and external (in)consistency• What do the terms in a terminology stand

for ?• ‘meaning is context’• The biggest defenders are

– Those who build them– Those who never studied them

• Lobbying for mandatory use


Terminologies, concept systems, ontologies

universals

particulars

terms concepts

ideas in people’s minds

ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Current mainstream thinking

datainformation

knowledgewisdom

- representation- representation

- representation

(- representation)

Questions not often enough asked:• What part of our data corresponds with

something out there in reality ?• What part of reality is not captured by our

data, but should because it is relevant ?

RealityWhat is there on the side of the concrete, real entities


The ultimate eHealth scenario

#IUI-1 ‘affects’ #IUI-2#IUI-3 ‘affects’ #IUI-2#IUI-1 ‘causes’ #IUI-3

Referent TrackingDatabase

EHRCAG repeat

Juvenile HD

persondisorder

continuantOntology


International Virtual Observatory Alliance

• development and deployment of technology to enable international utilization of astronomical archives

• Created 2002• By January 2005: funded participation from 15

countries ($20 million)• Collaborative efforts in:

XML data format standards VO Resource RegistriesVO Resource Metadata VO Query LanguageUniversal Content Descriptions Space-Time Coordinate Metadataunified Data Access Layer standards for spectra and images,unified astronomical Data ModelsWeb Service technologies for the VO.


International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions

• 1998: Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records– Delineates the functions performed by the

bibliographic record wrt various media, applications, and user needs.

– Provides a clear precisely stated, and commonly shared understanding of what it is that the bibliographic record aims to provide information about, and what it is that we expect the record to achieve in terms of answering user needs.

• May 2005 meeting of the FRBR Review Group:– It is accepted that the FRBR model would benefit from an

ontology, and it is acknowledged by the FRBR Review Group that the FRBR/CRM Harmonization Group is going in that direction.


IFLA-FRBR entities• Group 1 entities: user interests in intellectual or artistic

products– Work: a distinct intellectual or artistic creation– Expression: its intellectual or artistic realization– Manifestation: the physical embodiment of an expression of a work– Item: a single exemplar of a manifestation

• Group 2 entities: are responsible for content, production, ..., of group 1 entities. – Person: an individual– Corporate body: an organization or group of individuals and/or

organizations

• Group 3 entities: serve as the subjects of works. – Concept: an abstract notion or idea– Object: a material thing– Event: an action or occurrence– Place: a location


Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

• Established ‘ontologies’:– AGROVOC– Food Safety and Animal Health Ontology– Fishery ontology– Ontology for indexing FAO’s Food, Nutrition

and Agriculture (FNA) journal • Many other topics still untouched• Practical implementations of the above not

yet realised

ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Fisheries Global

Information System


FIGIS budget issues

Programme2004-05

Programme of Work

ZRG Programme

Change

ZRG 2006-07 Programme

of Work

RG Programme

Change

RG 2006-07 Programme

of Work

231 Fisheries Information

7,573 0 7,573 300 7,873

232 Fisheries Resources and Aquaculture

12,358 41 12,399 500 12,899

233 Fisheries Exploitation and Utilisation

9,882 -131 9,751 760 10,511

234 Fisheries Policy

11,406 -742 10,664 500 11,164

239 Programme Management

6,003 3 6,006 0 6,006

47,223 -829 46,394 2,06 48,454-3,11

43,284

(all amounts in US$ 000)

TotalZNG ImpactTotal

FAO Council, Rome, 20 - 25 June 2005. Summary Programme of Work and Budget 2006-07


Recommendations of Committee I of the 11th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and

Criminal Justice on money laundering (April 2005)

• Establish mechanisms at national, regional and international level to improve data collection on economic and financial crimes;

• Improve the global legal framework to counter economic and financial crimes;

• Provide effective technical assistance to developing countries to improve their capacity to confront the problem;

• Agree on measures to improve cooperation between government and private sector in preventing such crimes;

• Identify effective measures to curb money-laundering in countries where participation in the "formal" financial system is low, including in the areas of research, training, skills development, technical assistance programmes and regional and international cooperation.

ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Other topics

• Internet (financial) fraud detection and prevention– Electronic payments

• V.A.T. in international transactions• Freight and transport• (Bio-)terrorism• ‘Future Force’• Economic development:

• The High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, a new independent global initiative, announced it will fight global poverty by focusing on the connection between poverty and the lack of legal protections.

ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Non-technical aspects

• International legal framework for ontology-– development: IPR– use:

• responsability in case of mistakes• national security

• Public involvement• Market driven versus social or cultural well-being

• Funding: – combining sources

• Cross-nation governmental: national funding for participation in global initiative

• Mixed governmental / industry: InnoMed


Tasks in international coordination

• Identify relevant national contact points• Identify relevant international cross-sectorial

organisations • Organise planning meetings for

– Common research agenda– Promotion

• Identify waste of resources by lack of ontology• Identify success cases

• Collection and dissemination of information– Policy on what should be disseminated

• Provide support for – technical and (pre-)investment studies– Pilot projects implementations

• Monitoring of its own functioning

ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research But overall: bring clarity !

This is truly ... “a silver car”an image of

Documents

Ontology: The Need for International Coordination NCOR Inaugural Oct 27, 2005