Actions

Ontolog Forum

Ontology in Knowledge Management and Decision Support (OKMDS) - Project Home Page

OKMDS -- a Joint NASA-Ontolog-KMWG Initiative

What Transpired: ( 9 wonderful virtual sessions! )

  • 2008_05_29 - Thursday: OKMDS mini-series Concluding Event - "Connecting People Through Semantics, and OKDMS Series Summary" - Chair/Speakers: Jeanne Holm and Andrew Schain - ConferenceCall_2008_05_29   
  • 2008_05_08 - Thursday: OKMDS - Invited Speaker: Yochai Benkler on "Cooperation, Human Systems Design, and Peer Production" - ConferenceCall_2008_05_08   
  • 2008_02_21 - Thursday: OKMDS - Discussion: "How KM Supports Decision Making in the (US) Federal Government" - Giora Hadar & Michael Kull - ConferenceCall_2008_02_21   
  • 2007_11_08 - Thursday: NASA-Ontolog-KMWG: Ontology in Knowledge Management & Decision Support (OKMDS) mini-series - Launch Event - ConferenceCall_2007_11_08   
  • 2007_10_25 - Thursday: Pre-OKMDS Virtual World (Second Life) Tutorial - Jeanne Holm & Charles White / NASA - ConferenceCall_2007_10_25   

Objective & Plan

Title: Ontology in Knowledge Management and Decision Support (OKMDS): Making Better Decisions

Format: a 7-month mini-series comprising Talks, Panel Discussions and Online Discourse; with the virtual events being offered in both 'real world' (augmented conference calls) and 'virtual world' (Second Life) settings.

This virtual mini-series will open up dialogue and discovery at the promising intersection of Ontology and Knowledge Development and the role of both in decision support.

The NASA Mission of "Space Exploration" applied in its most expansive form, serves as the inspiration for this series. The need to effectively administer "knowledge space" to yield meaningful connections that are scalable and sustainable is a strategic challenge of all institutions, whether that knowledge resides primarily within, outside, or across an institution's span of control. Furthermore, the knowledge space must be integrated with institutional processes for policy making and development so that their effect on decisions is fundamental rather than incidental.

As the famed architect, Louis Kahn noted, "Architecture is the thoughtful making of space."

In this series, we'll explore how Enterprise Architecture (using Ontology and Knowledge Management) is the thoughtful making of space...a space with the tensile integrity needed by disparate institutions to create conducive conditions for emergence of the collective scientific and engineering knowledge needed for future space... where all humanity can thrive.

We'll explore how Ontology and Knowledge Management, working in concert, "make space" to accommodate difference at multiple levels and contexts. In this emerging space, both individuals and institutions can more easily distill knowledge from complexity and make policies and decisions using knowledge based processes.

In addition, we'll explore how to combine at least three scaffolding approaches for the integrated and agile "build-out" of knowledge needed: community (structured bottom-up), folksonomy (unstructured bottom-up) and ontology (structured top-down).

The virtual seminar and panel discussion events will be offered concurrently in a real world "space" as augmented conference calls and a virtual world "space", Second Life. NASA will provide orientation to Second Life as the mini-series gets underway.

Our online discourse will be cross-posted to [ontolog-forum] and [kmgov] (or dedicated sublists of them, if the traffic warrants it.)

Among the questions we might want to explore, are:

  • 1. How can we explore the intersection of Ontology and Knowledge Management and Decision Support to define promising collaborations among them?
  • 2. How do we help people working with our organizations to discover useful knowledge?
  • 3. How can we structure information for decision support (both known and serendipitious inquiry)? Conversely, how can we structure decision making processes to take maximum advantage of knowledge?
  • 4. What are the ontologies to prioritize for scientific exchange?
  • 5. How does the use of semantic technologies draw these fields closer and support better knowledge discovery and better decision and policy making?
  • 6. How could "simulation-scripting" exercises in virtual worlds accelerate the development and sustained use of ontologies in the real world?
  • 7. How might these "simulation-scaffold" ontologies, in turn, improve the pace and complexity of learning associated with large-scale "modeling event" scenarios and mission-rehearsals that are anticipated in virtual world settings?
and,
  • 8. How can we leverage ontologies to help improve knowledge management, and in so doing, allow organizations to make better decisions?

The Team

Organizing Committee

Invited Speakers & Panelists

You are cordially invited to join us, as a convener !

  • Like all activities Ontolog has been hosting, this is open to everyone.
    • Do join us (and be subscribed as a "convener" of this initiative) if you concur with the objective of this endeavor and would like to contribute to, participate in, or track the progress of the discourse and dialog.
  • specific individuals who may be interested include (but not limit to):
    • anyone interested in exploring the intersection of ontology, knowledge management and decision support
    • those who are applying ontologies in knowledge management or decision support system
    • knowledge management practitioners exploring the use of ontology and semantic technologies
    • those who value "Better Decision Making" through augmentation and use of semantic technologies
    • ontology-based application developers and implementors
    • potential users and those from user organizations
    • representatives from International Standards Bodies
    • potential funders of research and development work in this space
    • thought leaders and active contributors of the ontology, knowledge management and decision support communities
    • ... i.e. anyone in academia, research, industry and standards development organizations working on ontology, semantic interoperability, decision support, knowledge management, knowledge sharing, knowledge development, knowledge representation, artificial intelligence ... and those who are engaged in the research, development, engineering and implementation of these subject matters
  • We cordially invite you to join us in the "OKMDS: Making Better Decisions" virtual discourse (as one of the coveners of this initiative),
    • If you are already an Ontolog Member:
      • to participate in the "OKMDS: Making Better Decisions" virtual discourse, please subscribe to the [okmds-convene] forum (the convener's mailing list), by sending an empty (no message body is needed) message to: okmds-convene-join [at] ontolog.cim3.net
        • the discussion will be cross-posted to the [KMgov] mailing list - <kmgov [at] list.jpl.nasa.gov>
      • to browse the forum archives, see: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/okmds-convene/
      • if you run into any problem, please send your subscription request directly to <peter.yim@cim3.com>
    • If you are not already an Ontolog Member or a [KMgov] list subscriber:
      • and if your work is related to the US government knowledge management space, you may choose to subscribe to the [KMgov] list by emailing Jeanne Holm at <jeanne.holm [at] jpl.nasa.gov>
      • alternatively, please take a look at the details in our "Membership" section and (if you like what you see) join us.
        • then subscribe yourself to the [okmds-convene] forum (the convener's mailing list) as described above.
      • (alternatively) if you run into any problem, please send your request directly to <peter.yim@cim3.com>

Discussion Archives & Shared-File Workspace

Conference Call, Meeting & Workshop

Open Sessions

  • 2008_05_29 - Thursday: OKMDS mini-series Concluding Event - "Connecting People Through Semantics, and OKDMS Series Summary" - Chair/Speakers: Jeanne Holm and Andrew Schain - ConferenceCall_2008_05_29   
  • 2008_05_08 - Thursday: OKMDS - Invited Speaker: Yochai Benkler on "Cooperation, Human Systems Design, and Peer Production" - ConferenceCall_2008_05_08   
  • 2008_02_21 - Thursday: OKMDS - Discussion: "How KM Supports Decision Making in the (US) Federal Government" - Giora Hadar & Michael Kull - ConferenceCall_2008_02_21   
  • 2007_11_08 - Thursday: NASA-Ontolog-KMWG: Ontology in Knowledge Management & Decision Support (OKMDS) mini-series - Launch Event - ConferenceCall_2007_11_08   
  • 2007_10_25 - Thursday: Pre-OKMDS Virtual World (Second Life) Tutorial - Jeanne Holm & Charles White / NASA - ConferenceCall_2007_10_25   

Organizing Committee Sessions

Additional Resources