1

Report on the ODISSEE Workshop for the 2011 Ontology Summit

Brand NiemannDirector and Senior Data Scientist

Semantic CommunityApril 14, 2011

http://semanticommunity.info

2

Ontology Driven Implementation of Semantic Services for the Enterprise Environment (ODISSEE) Workshop

• Alion Science and Technology and the National Center for Ontological Research (NCOR, University at Buffalo) hosted a two-day "Ontology Driven Implementation of Semantic Services for the Enterprise Environment (ODISSEE)" Workshop, April 13-24, 2011.

• ODISSEE aims to foster awareness of and collaboration between disparate information-sharing efforts across the US Government.

• The workshop will feature individual presentations on information-sharing development, as well as panel sessions on ontology and data vocabulary.

• This workshop supports the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) information sharing initiatives. Information sharing is at the heart of the transformation from the current state of the National Airspace System (NAS) to NextGen capabilities in 2025 in areas such as unmanned aircraft systems, integrated surveillance and weather.

http://ncor.buffalo.edu/ODISSEE/

3

Ontology Driven Implementation of Semantic Services for the Enterprise Environment (ODISSEE) Workshop

• Conference Objectives:– Identify and catalogue the various semantic technology efforts across the Federal

government.– Identify, evaluate, and catalogue standard information-exchange models, such as

Universal Core (UCore) and National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and semantic models of common domains, including time, geography, and events.

– Explore the use of ontologies to enable information exchanges within a service-oriented architecture (SOA), improve discoverability of services, and align disparate data standards and message models.

– Coordinate ontology development across diverse Communities of Interest (COIs) to ensure extensibility, interoperability, and reusability.

• Who Should Attend?:– Ontologists– Data Vocabulary Specialists– Information Architects– Service Developers– Other Information Technology Practitioners

Source: http://www.jpdo.gov/eventsArticle.asp?id=22Agenda: http://www.jpdo.gov/library/20110323_ODISSEE_Agenda_v1.8.pdf

4

Ontology Driven Implementation of Semantic Services for the Enterprise Environment (ODISSEE) Workshop

• Keynotes:– Barry Smith, National Center for Ontological Research

(University at Buffalo)• Coordinated Development of Ontologies Across Diverse

Communities of Interest.– Mark Maybury, US Air Force Chief Scientist

• Metadata Matters: Ontology and Autonomy.– Mr. Dennis Wisnosky, Chief Architect & Chief Technical

Officer, Business Mission Area, Office of the Deputy Chief Management Officer, US Department of Defense• Technology, Engineering & Innovation in the U.S. Department of

Defense ? (SemTech 2011).

5

ODISSEE Workshop in a Broader Context

http://semanticommunity.info/Build_TOGAF_in_the_Cloud

See Tweets and Emails!

Semantic Enterprise Architecture

6

Knowledge Management:The Future is Yours

• Most of Us Will be Knowledge Workers• Using Knowledge-Centric Systems– Not IT-Centric Systems, But Systems the Know, Learn,

and Reason• Like Some Best Practice Examples:– Semantic Insights Reader Assistant (SIRA) and Be

Informed• Used by the Semantic Community Along with:– MindTouch Technical Communication Suite and TIBCO

Spotfire Self-Service Business Intelligence and AnalyticsKM 2011, Tysons Corner, Virginia. May 4th Tutorial. See Knowledge Management.

7

The Semantic Community

• A Linked Data community of practice that meets the following criteria:– Has occasional face-to-face meetings as well as an

online presence.– Is practitioner-focused but connected to the

developer community.– Includes multiple applications areas, such as

libraries, government agencies, publishing, and knowledge-intensive businesses.

Source: Jean Graef, Montague Institute, April 8, 2011, Review Article in ProcessOf Our Linked Data Collaboration.

8

Barry SmithNational Center for Ontological Research • Coordinated Development of Ontologies Across Diverse

Communities of Interest:– Too many ontologies have created “semantic silos”. We need to

reduce to one because we cannot afford more.– The attitudes of Tim Berners-Lee, which are in favour of freedom and

anarchy, and creativity, and all those nice things, mitigate against the coordination which is necessary to make good scientific ontology work - in a way good science works. See Where is the knowledge we have lost in data?

– The Gene Ontology Community is the principal contributor of data to the Semantic Web. See The OBO Foundary.

– Ralph Hodgson doing the most to create good linking ontologies. See next slide.

Source: Barry Smith

9

Ralph HodgsonTopQuadrant

• Valuing the Role of Semantic Web Technologies – A Ten Year Personal Reflection:– Asked Many Questions (one example):

• What has to happen in an organization for semantic web technologies to be put to work effectively?

– History:• Since 2002 we have worked on the use of semantic technologies for NASA in

support of the Manned Space Missions.• In 2003, we created the Federal Enterprise Architecture Reference Model

Ontologies for GSA.• In 2009 we used semantic technology approach to making XML Schemas

compliant with UN/CEFACT Core Component Technical Specifications the for the Netherlands Ministry of Justice.

• In 2010, I launched the oeGov.us project to ontologize the structure of the US Government. Data Independence Day!

http://www.topquadrant.com

10

Lowell VizenorAlion Science and Technology

• Putting NextGen Ontologies to Work:– The Net-Centric Operations Division of the Joint Planning and Development

Office (JPDO) is using Ontology and Semantic Web Technology to enhance service discovery.

– The NextGen ontologies will be used to specify a precise and reusable terminology that facilitates information sharing through the precise description of the intended meaning of service.

• UCore-SL: An Overview and Some Suggested Improvements:– UCore is a central element of the U.S. National Information Sharing Strategy– The goal of UCore is to foster information sharing by means of an XML schema

based on consensus representations of who, what, when, and where.– UCore Semantic Layer is a project to create an ontology-based supporting layer

for UCore.– My Note: Ucore-SL is not an ontology!

• See http://semanticommunity.info/Universal_Core_Semantic_Layer

11

Universal Core Semantic Layer

http://semanticommunity.info/Universal_Core_Semantic_Layerhttp://semanticommunity.info/National_Information_Exchange_Model

12

Mark MayburyUS Air Force Chief Scientist

• Metadata Matters: Ontology and Autonomy:– Computational linguist that has contributed to 10 books and had 60

publications.– Blue Force Tracking:

• Only three metadata elements: Who, what, and where– DoD Net-Centric Data Strategy (2003):

• Visible, accessible, understandable, trusted, interoperable, and responsive.– Information Access Automation:

• Focus on analytic/operational impact– Multiple Levels of Collaboration:

• Awareness• Shared information• Coordination• Joint work• Shared intent

Biography

13

Air Force OneSource

http://semanticommunity.info/Air_Force_OneSource

14

Interoperability InterfacesGeneral Web Site Best Content -

CentralizedBest Content - Distributed

US Federal Government (1)

Community Sandbox (2)

Annual Statistical Abstract (3) and EPA Report on the Environment (4)

FedStats.net (5)

TOGAF (6) EA Principals, Inc. (7)

Training Materials (8)

Ecosystem of Frameworks (9)

SEMIC.EU (10) Web Site (11) EuroStats (12) and European Environment State and Outlook (13)

Global Data Catalog and Data Services (14)

Key: See next slide.

Source: http://semanticommunity.info/Build_SEMIC.EU_in_the_Cloud

15

Interoperability Interfaces• Key:

1. http://usa.gov2. http://semanticommunity.net 3. http://semanticommunity.info/2010_Annual_Statistical_Abstract 4. http://semanticommunity.info/EPA/EPA_Ontology 5. No longer operational – see http://www.sdi.gov6. The Open Group Architecture Framework -

http://pubs.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf9-doc/arch/index.html 7. http://eaprincipals.com/index.htm 8. http://semanticommunity.info/Build_TOGAF_in_the_Cloud 9. http://semanticommunity.info/Build_TOGAF_in_the_Cloud#Alternative_enterprise_architecture_fr

ameworks

10. Semantic Interoperability Centre Europe 11. http://www.semic.eu/12. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat 13. http://eea.europa.eu 14. http://semanticommunity.info/Data.gov/An_Open_Data_Public_Dataset_Catalogs_Faceted_Browse

r http://semanticommunity.info/Build_SEMIC.EU_in_the_Cloud

16

FedStats.Net: Federated Content Network and Search

http://www.sdi.gov

Content nodes were on differentservers - federation and searchmade it appear as though on one. Search of content gave

highlighted text and tables.

17

Global Data Catalog and Data Services

http://semanticommunity.info/Air_Force_OneSource

MindTouch and Spotfire provide multiple vocabularieswith well-defined URLs in a faceted search browser.

18

Some Suggestions• From recent 11th SOA for E-Gov Conference:

– Captain Mike Ryan: SOA for the Coast Guard, First Fed 100 Winner for SOA, 80 services that are interoperable through ‘principled leadership’ and not coercion and mandates!

– To Sumeet Vij, Group Chief IT Engineer, Alion Science and Technology: I look forward to further discussions about getting to Semantic Interoperability.

– My Reply: I also look forward to cooperating and furthering the ideas of Semantic Interoperability.

• From this workshop:– From Mark Maybury: OneSource is currently being used by many COI's to do

their data analysis, before they put their final product into the DoD MDR.– My Reply: I would welcome the opportunity to do more work with AF and

DoD data sources and help foster competitions for innovations.