Ontology Working Group Conference Call
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Convenor and Scribe: Vipul Kashyap
Attendees: John Madden, xiaoshu Wang, Michael Miller, Banu Gopal

1. Xiaoshu suggested that definitions of what is an ontology from an engineering and pragmatic perspective should be
   provided. Exemplars of "ontology-like" artifacts should be enumerated for the HCLS community.

2. Xiaoshu suggested that the approach to blindly convert data sets into RDF may not be a good idea.
   It is better to identify why the conversion is happening and for what purpose. Also, the value addition
   in terms of what "new" semantics or knowledge is being added in the conversion should be explicated.

3. Michael Miller proposed that the role of ontologies is crucial in standardizing the annotations of experimental
   Data Sets. There are currently various ontologies such as MAGE-ML and OM and it is important to standardize
   the concepts that might be used to annotate these data sets.

4. Banu Gopal suggested that it is important to figure out how to map ontologies describing different things to
   each other, for instance mapping concepts in ontologies describing genomic knowledge to concepts in ontologies
   describing proteomics knowledge.

5. John Madden suggested that we create wiki pages for different tasks we are taking up in working group. 

6. Vipul suggested that we should focus on one or two use cases that span the Bench to Bedside spectrum and use
   that as a framework to guide our efforts. Use case coordination with the Bio RDF group with Alan Ruttenberg
   was also discussed.

7. There was a discussion on whether Banu and Michael could participate in the activities of the working group.
   Michael's organization is a member of W3C I believe. Banu will work on getting her organization to join W3C and
   in the meanwhile we will see if she can participate as an invited expert.

Action Items
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1. John Madden will set up the following pages on the Wiki
   - a Bio Ontologies Wiki
   - A use Case Repository Wiki
   - Collaborative Ontology Building Wiki

2. John will figure out ways to upload files into the wiki. May need to send e-mail to Eric Miller.

3. John/Vipul will coordinate with Duncan Hull and Alan Ruttenberg to collect the use cases

4. Next teleconference: Have a discussion on the collection of use cases we go after.

5. Xiaoshu will start working on the ontology definitions document (draft) and upload it to the wiki.

6. Banu will start working on an ontology mapping document and upload it to the wiki.

7. Next Teleconference: John Madden will be the convenor and scribe.