RE: [Fwd: SDForum Ontology vs. Folksonomy]

Jeff,

Nice presentation. This is an issue I sometimes find myself having to address. I tend to present Web2.0 and OWL-based (say) ontologies as at 2 ends of a continuum, with taxonomies in the middle and thesauri, term lists, etc at different places on the line.

In my view there is no mutual exclusivity here - in one recent exchange to try and get this point across I said: 

"Some things (flickr) will have a folksonomy and no interest or requirement in moving to an ontology or other more formal structure. Some things (healthcare apps) will use a formal logic-based ontology and would kill people (in the case of health) if they relied on clinician's inputting semi-random tags. Some things (some semantic wiki apps, for example) will benefit from marrying Web 2.0 and semantic technology."

Regards,
John.
PS What is the protocol for "borrowing" and adapting some of your slides?!


-----Original Message-----
From: public-sweo-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:public-sweo-ig-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Pollock
Sent: 16 March 2007 15:37
To: 'Ivan Herman'
Cc: 'W3C SWEO IG'
Subject: RE: [Fwd: SDForum Ontology vs. Folksonomy]


Ivan-

Audience reaction was mixed. Some of the Web 2.0 advocates were rightfully defending the utility of tag library implementations at del.icio.us and amazon.com et al. It took some explanation to communicate the idea that these tag libraries, community developed or not, do nothing to aid data interop at a machine level. In the end, we all agreed that there are different use cases for Web 2.0 and Semantic Web (but I did make the point that semweb languages could subsume the existing approaches to Web 2.0 implementation). Another part of the audience still had trouble with the notion of inference. Word on the street about "ontology" is just that they are for classifying, as if all it is, is a way of defining buckets, that you would then tag things with. Lost to the Web 2.0 masses is the distinction between a "told" ontology vs. an "inferred" ontology (eg: materialized graphs)...we spent some time with examples of these.

The controversy IMHO is manufactured, but useful to turn out crowds of web developers.  But I guess it is sort of like talking to HTML coders about UML back in 1997.  (there's only so far you can go with it)

Best, -Jeff-


-----Original Message-----
From: Ivan Herman [mailto:ivan@w3.org]
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 1:50 AM
To: Jeff Pollock
Cc: W3C SWEO IG
Subject: Re: [Fwd: SDForum Ontology vs. Folksonomy]

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Thanks for these slides Jeff. What was the reaction in the audience, b.t.w.?

Actually... what you say is interesting at one point: "The organizers intent was to drive some controversy in the audience". I feel like public figures being manipulated by journalists. Of course, it is good for the organizers if there is controversy, that is their bread and butter, but it is manipulation nevertheless...

Thanks again

Ivan

Ivan Herman wrote:
> Jeff's original attachment was too large for the mailing list, so I 
> added the file to our web site on the following URI:
> 
> http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/public/2007/Pollock.SDForum.Ontology-vs

> -Folksonomy.small.ppt
> 
> Ivan
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:  [Moderator Action (size limit exceeded)] SDForum Ontology vs.
> Folksonomy
> Date:  Thu, 15 Mar 2007 20:13:51 +0000
> From:  Jeff Pollock <jeff.pollock@oracle.com>
> Reply-To:  <jeff.pollock@oracle.com>
> Organization:  Oracle
> To:  <semantic-tech_us@oracle.com>, "'W3C SWEO IG'" <public-sweo-ig@w3.org>
> 
> 
> 
> Oracle SemTech and W3C SWEO-
> 
> 
> 
> I gave a short panel talk in Palo Alto last night on the topic of 
> SOntology vs. Folksonomy, Tortoise and the Hare.⬝  The organizers 
> intent was to drive some controversy in the audience and I took the 
> opportunity to try and accomplish some Myth-Busting about the Semantic 
> Web⬦slides are attached.
> 
> 
> 
> Regards, -Jeff-
> 
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
> 
> 
> Oracle
> 
>  
> 
> Jeff T. Pollock
> Senior Director
> Fusion Middleware
> 
> Main:   800-ORACLE1
> 
> Fax:    801-607-6504
> 
> Web:    www.oracle.com <http://www.oracle.com>
> 
>  
> 
> Direct: 650-506-4700
> 
> Mobile: 415-971-2223
> 
> Email:  jeff.pollock@oracle.com <mailto:jeff.pollock@oracle.com>
> 
> 
> 
> 

- --

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

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Received on Friday, 16 March 2007 16:48:55 UTC