Ontology, Bumblebee haircuts, and

the Internet

by Jeannie Reynard

Sometimes in the growth of computers and the internet, it is necessary to step back from the console long enough to learn something that will really have an impact on your world. In this respect, it is time to catch up with some of the latest and greatest endeavors taking place today. To understand some of the work that is sprouting so many social networking sites, interactive games, and mash-ups, it is important to learn a few things about ontology and tags.

In the database world, ontology is a specification of the data instructions that commits to a conceptualization and allows collaboration based on that framework. Whew! That sounds confusing. In 1992, Tom Gruber of Stanford University wrote about the use of ontology as related to data. He stated that, “We use common ontologies to describe ontological commitments for a set of agents so that they can communicate about a domain of discourse without necessarily operating on a globally shared theory. We say that an agent commits to an ontology if its observable actions are consistent with the definitions in the ontology” (http://tinyurl.com/Gruber-1992).

In 2007, following the work of T. Berners-Lee’s (and others) and the creation of the Semantic Web, Gruber wrote more clearly about the use of ontology and simplified its purpose. In terms of data modeling and application, Gruber said, “The key role of ontologies with respect to database systems is to specify a data modeling representation at a level of abstraction above specific database designs (logical or physical), so that data can be exported, translated, queried, and unified across independently developed systems and services. Successful applications to date include database interoperability, cross database search, and the integration of web services” (http://tinyurl.com/Gruber-2008). I am grateful to the extra fifteen years that Gruber spent refining this concept! I think it all boils down to stipulating what you mean for the words to mean before you say what you say. That way the next person can count on what you meant and “commit” to meaning the same thing when he uses the same words. Write your programs that way and put them out there for others to work theirs with yours so that everybody’s programs can collaborate!

Now consider that when you put data into a database it is possible to tag this data and pull the tag into use in other interesting ways. Tagging is now a collaborative effort to find a way to share huge amounts of data with tags that can interplay. Simply put to use, these grand gestures of intellectual giants brings to your web and mine the applications that build and share on these foundations. Let us say that you want to look at a Google map and determine who has the cheapest gasoline in town… ontology was there first to build that foundation. Perhaps you want to reach across a database or three and pull data together to research bumblebees, aprons, and haircuts. Google may not have ran into this type search before, but with ontology and tagging working together, you can potentially get to something relevant to your search. Now consider this across the entire World Wide Web, connecting a million databases and all that data communicating with usable little tags. This is mining data and allowing collaboration that is surely going to generate a quantum leap in knowledge, medicine, and even bumblebee haircuts.

The time has come for the average web surfer to spend a little time gaining an understanding of this type of effort. Although it is not my nature to search out the complex, I do want to be a participant in this new way of learning and sharing knowledge. It sounds more difficult than it really is. You might have an interest in this grand new scheme and may be able to sort out some of the problems that are not yet resolved.

Take a few minutes becoming acquainted with ontology and meta-tags at the links below. Your handy search-engine will take you to a host of sites that describe in better detail what applications and resources are growing around this new field. Whether you understand it all at once or in little bites, this technology is going to have a major impact on your world tomorrow.

Gruber, Tom, Ling Liu, and M. Tamer Özsu. "Ontology (Computer Science) - definition in Encyclopedia of Database Systems." Tom Gruber. 17 June 2009 . (http://tomgruber.org/writing/ontology-definition-2007.htm)

Gruber, Tom. "Ontology (Computer Science) - definition in Encyclopedia of Database Systems." Tom Gruber. 17 June 2009 .
(http://tomgruber.org/writing/ontology-definition-2007.htm)%22Tag

(metadata) -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 June 2009 .
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_(metadata))