What use the AstroOntology

[kborne at gmu.edu]

Roy:  I don't expect that "everyone" will be happy, and
certainly not "perfectly happy".  :)  But you do make an
interesting suggestion.

- Kirk


> Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2007 14:49:18 -0800
> From: Roy Williams <roy at cacr.caltech.edu>
> Subject: Re: What use the AstroOntology
> To: kborne at gmu.edu
> Cc: semantics at ivoa.net
> 
> Kirk
> All of what you say about tags and tagging and tag-clouds is true. 
> However, social sites like Flickr and Blogspot use unconstrained tags 
> (i.e. whatever you like), and they have millions of users. So perhaps 
> the Virtual Observatory could save a lot of effort by allowing 
> unconstrained tagging? Thus a VOEvent that is a supernova could be 
> tagged "SN" or "supernova" and everyone would be perfectly happy?
> Roy
> 
> 
> 
> kborne at gmu.edu wrote:
> > In addressing the subject question, I like to think of ontologies
> > as useful for search and discovery (of metadata and data).  The
> > application of ontologies in the social networking sense (i.e.,
> > tagging and folksonomies) allows researchers to tag scientifically
> > useful data (and metadata) by the science application area (e.g.,
> > AGN research, or QSO research) in which they found it to be
> > applicable.  This assertion does not mean that this tag is 
> > correct or universally acceptable, but it means that someone
> > found it useful to describe a particular IVOA resource.  In this
> > context, some future researcher may then search for similarly 
> > tagged items for their own research (which they may accept or reject
> > according to their own scientific needs and/or current understanding).  
> > None of this imputes a greater meaning to the tag than that of 
> > a single term within a larger scientifically meaningful tag cloud.
> > Tag clouds provide validation of the tags through repeated assertions
> > of that tag to describe a particular resource (hence, the tag appears
> > in a larger font presentation than the other tags).  Implementing these
> > assertions and these IVOA resource search & discovery capabilities is 
> > made easier through the AstroOntology (OWL or RDF triplets or whatever).
> >
> > - Kirk Borne
> >   George Mason University
> >   http://classweb.gmu.edu/kborne/
> >
> >
> >   
> >> From: "Tony Linde" <Tony.Linde at leicester.ac.uk>
> >> To: "'IVOA semantics'" <semantics at ivoa.net>
> >> Subject: What use the AstroOntology 
> >> Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2007 11:19:55 -0000
> >>
> >> I won't even attempt to enter the astronomical discussion of QSOs and AGNs,
> >> but do wonder if we're conflating two different approaches here: an
> >> AstroOntology and sets of identification rules. 
> >>
> >> The AstroOntology is a set of terms used in astronomy and the relations
> >> (is-a-type-of, is-a-component-of, ...) between them.
> >>
> >> OTOH there will be numerous sets of identification rules for each of the
> >> terms: such as the ones being discussed here for QSOs and AGNs. The rules
> >> may also be context driven: in context A the rules are this set while in
> >> context B they are another set.
> >>
> >> It seems to be that the ontology changes relatively infrequently while the
> >> rules (at least for terms on the fringe of the ontology) change much more
> >> frequently.
> >>
> >> An ontology would be hideously inefficient at the job of identifying 
objects
> >> from a set of observations. I'm not even sure it would be possible given 
the
> >> limited ability of OWL to contain identification rules to the depth needed
> >> for QSO vs AGN. I think any putative use of an AstroOntology to infer
> >> objects from observations is doomed to fail.
> >>
> >> We have to ask what we want to use an ontology for. Then decide if the
> >> structures of OWL are up to the job. The QSO/AGN discussion seems to show
> >> that any definitions added to the ontology need to be limited and for
> >> guidance only: they cannot serve as identification rules. 
> >>
> >> At least, I don't think they can. Can they?
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Tony.
> >> -- 
> >> Tony Linde
> >> Phone:  +44 (0)116 223 1292    Mobile: +44 (0)785 298 8840
> >> Fax:    +44 (0)116 252 3311    Email:  Tony.Linde at leicester.ac.uk
> >> Post:   Department of Physics & Astronomy,
> >>         University of Leicester
> >>         Leicester, UK   LE1 7RH
> >> Web:    http://www.star.le.ac.uk/~ael
> >>
> >> Project Manager, EuroVO VOTech   http://eurovotech.org 
> >> Programme Manager, AstroGrid     http://www.astrogrid.org 
> >>  
> >>
> >> http://www.Taglocity.com Tags: IVOA, semantics
> >>     


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Kirk D. Borne
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, SSDOO Program Manager, Perot Systems (ex-QSS)
and George Mason University, Associate Research Professor, College of Science
<mailto:kirk.borne at gsfc.nasa.gov>  Tel. +1-301-286-0696  Fax: 301-286-1771
Staff page:      http://rings.gsfc.nasa.gov/
US Virtual Observatory:  http://www.us-vo.org/
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope:  http://www.lssto.org/