Re: Emergency Management Ontology

Dear all,

[apologies for cross posting]

It was great to meet a few of you face to face in Amsterdam and Delft
earlier this week - as opposed to just email and teleconferences -I am sorry
for those I missed (next time)

The lack of  common, open and transparent conceptual and semantic frameworks
is inhibiting not only the interoperability potential of different emergency
management projects, but also slowing down internal  progress (both at
policy and technology level)  of individual projects where development is
distributed and unstructured (such as open source emergency mangement
modules), as it is difficult for the various contributors to synchronize and
coordinate effort without a common language and representation.

  After working with related workgroups for a few years, I started some
research with the aim to 1-define the domain and attempt to map some of the
complexities 2- put the item on the public agenda

a preliminary summary can be found here

http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/TOWARDS_AN_OPEN_ONTOLOGY_FOR_ER.pdf

Nothing public and 'official' appears to have  been started in that
direction yet, although I would be grateful if anyone who has links to
share, and I have been encouraged by peers from various teams to pursue this
project.

 Many of you have embraced this 'mission' and expressed interest and support
Whatever work we start, it should aim to be developed under the W3C
umbrella  Recently such a suggestion  was taken up by Tim and Ivan with a
wiki page and a mailing list, and many of you have expressed an interest in
participating in this effort
(please join those of you who haven't done so yet)


WIKI
 http://esw.w3.org/topic/DisasterManagement<http://www.mail2web.com/cgi-bin/redir.asp?lid=0&newsite=http://esw.w3.org/topic/DisasterManagement>

MAILING LIST
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-disaster-management-ont/


(We are discussing the moderation policy and terminology that should be
adopted for these collaborative resources and your input is welcome.)


<http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:PnUPFg_0-YAJ:www.slideshare.net/PaolaDIM/foaf-expertfinder-epr-poster-session/+expertfinder+emergency&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5>
Although there are 'nay sayers' and skeptics who think 'there will never be
one single ontology'  (which is going to be a matter of lenghty debates),
most of us agree that advances in Interoperability of systems and
transparency of operations in this sector depend on the emergence of a
common reference framework (call it as you like it) and common protocols
that need to be accepted and adopted by public bodies and institutions,
especially global, large scale organizations

Many of us are already working on related efforts, and it would be good to
team up where if we can find some commonalities in our respective projects.

Just to recap on the work done so far, and the work ahead:

1) The need for an overall Ontology for Emergency Management that can be
referenced
unambiguously by different agents has been identified
It is believed that advances in Interoperability of systems and transparency
of operations in this sector depend on the emergence of such an ontology

2)  Debates are ongoing as to whether a common ontological frameworks for
emergency management *is possible*, and how should it be called, and why
(Emergency Management and Disaster Management are possible  candidate, and
various alternatives should be discussed)


ACTIONS TAKEN
--------------------------

1. A Mailing list has been set up

2. A wiki has been started
(moderation and naming discussions ongoing)

3. Interested peers have been invited to contribute to the above resources
with their inputs


ACTIONS PROPOSED

1. To put the item on the agenda working with selected journals and
conferences
2.  To work collaboratively with interested parties in setting up an agenda
and an action list
3. To create knowledge and define the domain
4. To create working tools and references that can be adopted and followed
during implementations
5. To create a SIG or similar special interest group in support of
collaborative projects


TO DO NEXT
-------------------

1.   Invite interested parties to participate in this workgroup
2.  Decide priorities and actions to be taken
3.  Make your contribution by listing details of your project on the wiki,
detailing what problems and issues you are facing and how a community would
help you (would like to test a standard, or need to develop a schema? shall
we do this together?)
4.  Enter on the wiki any item you think should be on this workgroup agenda



DISCUSSIONS
----------------------

Emergency Management of Disaster Management?

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-disaster-management-ont/2007MayJun/0006.html



Look forward to your participation

Paola Di Maio
{ please re-destribute this message]


> --
>
> Ivan Herman, W3C Semantic Web Activity Lead
> URL: http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/
> PGP Key: http://www.cwi.nl/%7Eivan/AboutMe/pgpkey.html
> FOAF: http://www.ivan-herman.net/foaf.rdf
>
>