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Ontology Summit 2010: Getting Organized

Theme: Creating the Ontologists of the Future

This is a scratch workspace for the organization, coordination and planning of OntologySummit2010.


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2010.03.23

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ] ( 0:56:43 ; mp3 ; 6.5 MB)

  • Postmortem on the OntologySummit2010_Symposium
    • What worked well: overall went really well, logistics went well,
    • what needs improvement: Steve: not much
    • how would we do it differently next time?
      • Amanda: opportunity to improve on remote participation; chat-screen integration & projection; projecting twitter; simulcast;
      • we could have assigned someone else (other than Fabian, who had to do the communique editing) to run the chat-screen ... someone needs to be assigned to run the side-screen
      • Fabian: chat maybe distracting ... but he finds it distracting even in a virtual setting (and that represents some, and surely not all)
      • Amanda: sidebar and references can be pushed to the side-screen too; some even put that screen up front
  • Postmortem on the OntologySummit2010_Communique
    • What worked well: much better this year; good going in; surprising in the consensus
      • Peter: best communique we've had in terms of preparation, structure and content
      • Mark Musen: this is the communique that is going to make an impact
    • what needs improvement:
    • how would we do it differently next time?
      • Fabian: to many comments to keep track of (especially for one person to manage) ...
      • Steve: we are still looking forward to get media coverage
      • Amanda: haven't seen much buzz ... people are surprisingly quiet about this
      • Peter / Michael: IAOA executive council members will be endorsing, and helping circulate the solicitation for endorsement through its mailing list channels
      • Steve: each of us should go about to spread the word ... get people to blog about it, etc.
  • Postmortem on the Ontology Summit 2010 overall
    • What worked well, what needs improvement & how would we do it differently next time, for ...
    • Topic -
      • Michael: topic was not controversial; and more matured;
    • the co-organizers -
    • the Organizing Committee -
    • the Partitioning (how we framed the issues) -
    • the virtual sessions -
    • email discussion -
      • Fabian - less this year, maybe due to less controversy
      • Peter: some threads did start well ... we might engage people who started those threads to join the organizing committee and help moderate the discussion
    • the surveys/studies -
      • Fabian: good, keep in mind for the future
      • Amanda & Arturo: gained experience in developing surveys, would improve if done again
    • the Advisory Committee -
      • a strategic move ... even if it would have been better if we can engage our Advisors a little more (right now, we actually tell them their is no expectation or commitment).
    • the co-sponsors -
    • the participation (conveners at virtual sessions and F2F) -
      • needs to improve ... but getting the word out earlier and wider
    • the nominal process (3 months virtual, 2 days F2F, etc.) -
    • anything else?
      • Peter: the post-symposium session on "Sharing and Integrating Ontologies" was a delight ... brought in a critical next step for the UpperOntologySummit (2006) and Ontology Summit 2008 - and invoked the new SIO Initiative!
  • a vote of THANKS to everyone on this committee
    • hope everyone is invigorated (rather than exhausted!)
  • Post summit follow-ups
    • Fabian: AOJ submission - Fabian & Barry with others who are interested to join the list of co-authors
    • Michael: FOIS - education workshop - panel (Barry / Fabian)
    • Elizabeth - will publish an article on "Future of Ontologists" in the next Millennium-Project "State of the Future Report" (an annual publication that is circulated among many policy makers on a global basis) and also include the full text of the Communique on the accompanying CD of that report. Need to reference Fabian's AOJ article (please keep me informed.)
    • presentation at the Semantic Technology Conference - Amanda + Steve + Peter
    • scheduling our community post-mortem for Ontology Summit 2010 and ideas for Ontology Summit 2011
      • candidate dates Thu 2010.04.08 or 2010.04.15 - confirmed: Apr-15
    • btw, what about Ontology Summit 2011
      • Steve & Peter: to send a proposal to NIST-ITL on next year's summit
  • Any other Business:
    • we [Steve] promised to do another post-OntologySummit2009 project follow-up session "in a few months" (and that was said at session: ConferenceCall_2009_10_08 )
  • Action Items:

-- call ended 9:31 am PDT --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2010.03.09

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ] ( 0:36:19 ; mp3 ; 4.2MB)

  • Postmortem on Panel Session-5: "Syntheses on Community Input" - ConferenceCall_2010_03_04
    • Chair: Steve Ray
    • Title: "Syntheses on Community Input"
    • Panelists: (i) Arturo / Antony, (ii) Amanda & (iii) Elizabeth / Peter ... we will drop item (iv) Fabian / Barry (and defer the communique draft coordination to email & Mar-11)
    • goal & plan: ultimate goal is that session will help us produce the two content document ... and possibly one consolidated document
    • general comments:
    • What worked: we collected valuable input, and that would provide us good ammunition to make our case
    • what needs improvement: Antony and others - we might need to be clearer to the respondents, maybe, make the survey smarter, so that if the particular survey does not apply to them.
  • Finalize on the last (pre-Symposium) virtual community session: "Review and Alignment of Draft Deliverables and Final sync-up prior to the symposium" - ConferenceCall_2010_03_11
    • Chair: Barry Smith
    • Panelists / Speakers: (possibly all track champions)
    • goal & plan: nailing down the communique ... plus any logistic question for the F2F
    • format: ... Barry & Fabian will advise
    • draft communique to be posted prior to the session - Fabian thinking of having it available by our next Tuesday's organizing committee call.
  • status review on the surveys: ref. OntologySummit2010_Survey
    • Peter to notify people on a one week extension to the surveys closer to Feb-15 and set the new deadline for responses to Feb-22
    • Steve will solicit Advisors' involvement in responding to the surveys and get engaged in the RTDelphi study ... Peter warns that, if not, the collected views will only represent those of the few people who responded --Steve: done!
    • Fabian will try getting the community to respond to the surveys and engage in the RTDelphi study during the Feb-11 panel session too --Fabian & Barry: done!
    • Review of actually number of respondents:
      • Education-Survey-1: 48/107 (as of 2010.02.23);
      • Requirements-Survey-2: 51 (as of 2010.02.23);
      • Future-RTDelphi-3: 24/30 (as of 2010.02.23);
    • Arturo & Antony: survey-1 - http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontology-summit/2010-01/msg00007.html
    • All 3 surveys now re-opened until end-of-day 2010.03.11 (for next snapshot, results of which are to be presented at the symposium)
      • time permitting the champions will try to update one more time before presenting at the F2F
      • what next?
        • decision - we all close end-of-day 2010.03.11 EST
        • Antony & Arturo: interested in continuing to build on the survey, and the ontology we can develop out of it
        • Amanda: tweak it for a open survey with a semantic backend, for say Ontolog, or IAOA members, etc.
        • Fabian: a potential repository for education material
        • champions to make recommendation and propose action items after the Mar-4 session, and tackle them at the F2F
          • Steve: could possibly fit some discussion on the education material into the Mar-17 (F2F) 9~12am slot
            • Fabian will draft that into the communique
  • Rosters: Organizing Committee, Advisory Committee & Co-sponsors
    • organizing committee - 15 members
    • advisory committee - 103 members now; advisors still trickling in - [Steve]
    • co-sponsors - 59 now - [Stevey]
      • Steve to solicit on the [ontology-summit] list - done!
        • suggest we will re-list all last year's co-sponsors unless they opt out
        • solicit more co-sponsors to endorse our message
      • put the invitation to co-sponsor at the end of survey-2 too - done!
  • Mar. 15-16 F2F logistics and planning
    • need to start working up the details
    • Resitration is now open, see:
    • Interim review on registration status
    • Need from NIST:
      • on-site registration website
      • contact person (ref. registration and attendance issues)
      • two projectors
      • at least two cabled ethernet connection on the DMZ
      • audio recording
    • Media:
      • Steve: I have just emailed Joab Jackson who had been to our summits symposia and wrote us up before.
      • please write me about other media contacts anyone may have
      • Steve to try getting NIST PR folks involved
      • Amanda: try leveraging tweeter and more visual pages
    • Interoperability banquet? - Steve: guess not
      • if not - Summit no-host dinner on Monday Mar-16 evening - Yes
        • champion: Steve - candidate: Dogfish Alehouse
      • coffee sponsor?
  • Mar. 15-16 F2F program planning
    • developing agenda: OntologySummit2010_Symposium
    • Barry: suggest every session should have a speaker and three ordained respondents
    • Amanda / Fabian: suggesting - 1/3: to present a synthesis of what has transpired, possibly already reduced to writing as an input to the communique; 2/3: open issues to be discussed (breakout?) ... with the discussion leader reducing a summary of it to writing as an input to the communique too; 3/3: presenting the conclusions and the communique
      • it is important that the writing of the communique does *not* distract the discussion
      • the outcome of the discussion should be minutes and slides (and not a communique segment)
    • goals to achieve
    • Barry and Steve will work up a draft agenda by the next call. (we need an agenda when we announce the event officially, and ask people to register anyway) - see (developing) agenda at: OntologySummit2010_Symposium
    • Ideas & suggestions:
      • no breakout group
      • people don't start new discussions unless they brought it up on the mailing list prior to the F2F
      • new points needs to be "seconded" to go into the agenda
      • tight control of a speaker's allowed time (2 minutes?)
      • discussion session chair to make sure "noise" is down
      • Fabian will summarize his thoughts and email that to Steve, Barry and the organizing committee (in a post to the [ontology-summit-org] list)
    • still awaiting Steve and Barry to respond to Fabian's suggestions
    • Peter also suggests more granular blocks (and possibly more time, depending on how we allot the Mar-4 virtual session) for the report back on the survey findings
    • Steve plans to adopt Fabian's proposed ground rules for the F2F
    • action items:
      • will start an "Agenda Idea" section on the wiki for people to register what they want to talk about - deadline for input (end of day Fri Mar-12)
  • Post Symposium summit follow-up session(s)
    • (as proposed by John F. Sowa et al.) adding on a "FO-OOR" (Foundation Ontology on OOR) Summit Follow-up session -- a follow-up from two previous year (2006 & 2008) Summits -- on Tue Mar-16, after the conclusion of the Ontology Summit 2010 symposium.
      • Confirmed slot: Tue 2010.03.16 - 3:45~5:15pm EST
    • we'll offer this slot as ex-summit follow-up breakout session, if others want to do something too.
    • Steve: no other session has been proposed by other individuals
  • Any other Business:
    • Steve will be talking to NIST folks about the Summit for next (and future) year
  • Action Items:
  • Next Meeting: this Thursday - ConferenceCall_2010_03_11, and then, of course, the OntologySummit2010_Symposium ... see you all there!
    • Next Organizing Committee Meeting: Summit post-mortem and follow-up action planning meeting - Tuesday 2010.03.23 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UT
    • a regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:21 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2010.03.02

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ] ( 0:56:02 ; mp3 ; 6.4MB )

  • Finalize Planning on Panel Session-5: "Syntheses on Community Input" - ConferenceCall_2010_03_04
    • Chair: Steve Ray (Barry, regrets, traveling)
    • Title: "Syntheses on Community Input"
      • Speaker presentation titles: placeholders on session page now ... speakers to update (thanks. =ppy)
    • Abstract: we will get a first-hand report on the input collected from the 3 surveys/studies, make a synthesis on what has transpired, and discuss how that could be incorporated into the proposed curricula content and the communique
    • Panelists: (i) Arturo / Antony, (ii) Amanda & (iii) Elizabeth / Peter ... we will drop item (iv) Fabian / Barry
    • goal & plan: ultimate goal is that session will help us produce the two content document ... and possibly one consolidated document
      • survey designers make their first cut syntheses of the results, and, in particular, identify specific input that might impact what we produce as our consolidated "training content" document
    • format: 3 presentations then Communique outline, then discussion
    • discussion from last meeting:
      • we will use this Mar-4 session mainly to present the survey results and their syntheses
      • we *must* release a draft version of the communique by Mar-11 and spend a portion of that session to discuss it if people want to
    • survey designers: please make all survey results accessible from the web
      • raw data in excel or csv files
        • full data-set to be mailed to the [ontology-summit-org] list by Feb-27
        • we will drop some of the personal data before exposing the survey results to the web (we can talk about it more at the next organizing committee meeting)
      • a synthesis/writeup from the 3 survey designers is also expected
      • update/2010.3.02 - Fabian / Barry will not be presenting their plans toward getting us the Communique
  • Planning on the last (pre-Symposium) virtual community session: "Review and Alignment of Draft Deliverables and Final sync-up prior to the symposium" - ConferenceCall_2010_03_11
    • Chair: Barry Smith
    • Panelists / Speakers: (possibly all track champions)
    • goal & plan: nailing down the communique ... plus any logistic question for the F2F
    • format: ... Barry & Fabian will advise
    • draft communique to be posted prior to the session - Fabian thinking of having it available by our next Tuesday's organizing committee call.
  • status review on the surveys: ref. OntologySummit2010_Survey
    • Peter to notify people on a one week extension to the surveys closer to Feb-15 and set the new deadline for responses to Feb-22
    • Steve will solicit Advisors' involvement in responding to the surveys and get engaged in the RTDelphi study ... Peter warns that, if not, the collected views will only represent those of the few people who responded --Steve: done!
    • Fabian will try getting the community to respond to the surveys and engage in the RTDelphi study during the Feb-11 panel session too --Fabian & Barry: done!
    • Review of actually number of respondents:
      • Education-Survey-1: 48/107 (as of 2010.02.23);
      • Requirements-Survey-2: 51 (as of 2010.02.23);
      • Future-RTDelphi-3: 24/30 (as of 2010.02.23);
    • Arturo & Antony: survey-1 - http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontology-summit/2010-01/msg00007.html
    • All 3 surveys now re-opened until end-of-day 2010.03.11 (for next snapshot, results of which are to be presented at the symposium)
      • time permitting the champions will try to update one more time before presenting at the F2F
      • what next?
        • decision - we all close end-of-day 2010.03.11 EST
        • Antony & Arturo: interested in continuing to build on the survey, and the ontology we can develop out of it
        • Amanda: tweak it for a open survey with a semantic backend, for say Ontolog, or IAOA members, etc.
        • Fabian: a potential repository for education material
        • champions to make recommendation and propose action items after the Mar-4 session, and tackle them at the F2F
          • Steve: could possibly fit some discussion on the education material into the Mar-17 (F2F) 9~12am slot
            • Fabian will draft that into the communique
  • Rosters: Organizing Committee, Advisory Committee & Co-sponsors
    • organizing committee - should very busy individuals just stay in our advisory committee (as there is not time commitment requirements for that)
      • agreed that Steve will contact Ralph to invite him to retire from the organizing committee and contribute as a member of the Advisory Committee
    • advisory committee - status of invitations ... second round of prompting to all invitees who haven't responded - [Steve]
    • co-sponsors - status of solicitation - [Steve, Barry]
      • Steve to solicit on the [ontology-summit] list
        • suggest we will re-list all last year's co-sponsors unless they opt out
        • solicit more co-sponsors to endorse our message
      • put the invitation to co-sponsor at the end of survey-2 too
  • status review on the online discussion & community input, and syntheses by the champions ... defer to next call
    • Arturo & Antony:
    • Leo & Michael:
    • Barry & Fabian:
    • Amanda & Ralph:
    • Elizabeth & Peter:
    • Peter: things are on-track, given the four channels for the community to provide input (mailing list, wiki, panel-session+chat & survey). Champions can try starting threads on the mailing list on specifics they want to see discussed. Champions to use their respective synthesis page as a workspace to get input and ideas organized
    • Steve: encouraging all track champions to jot down their thoughts on their respective "synthesis" pages.
  • Mar. 15-16 F2F logistics and planning
  • Mar. 15-16 F2F program planning
    • developing agenda: OntologySummit2010_Symposium
    • Barry: suggest every session should have a speaker and three ordained respondents
    • Amanda / Fabian: suggesting - 1/3: to present a synthesis of what has transpired, possibly already reduced to writing as an input to the communique; 2/3: open issues to be discussed (breakout?) ... with the discussion leader reducing a summary of it to writing as an input to the communique too; 3/3: presenting the conclusions and the communique
      • it is important that the writing of the communique does *not* distract the discussion
      • the outcome of the discussion should be minutes and slides (and not a communique segment)
    • goals to achieve
    • Barry and Steve will work up a draft agenda by the next call. (we need an agenda when we announce the event officially, and ask people to register anyway) - see (developing) agenda at: OntologySummit2010_Symposium
    • Ideas & suggestions:
      • no breakout group
      • people don't start new discussions unless they brought it up on the mailing list prior to the F2F
      • new points needs to be "seconded" to go into the agenda
      • tight control of a speaker's allowed time (2 minutes?)
      • discussion session chair to make sure "noise" is down
      • Fabian will summarize his thoughts and email that to Steve, Barry and the organizing committee (in a post to the [ontology-summit-org] list)
    • still awaiting Steve and Barry to respond to Fabian's suggestions
    • Peter also suggests more granular blocks (and possibly more time, depending on how we allot the Mar-4 virtual session) for the report back on the survey findings
    • Steve plans to adopt Fabian's proposed ground rules for the F2F
  • getting started to think about the summit communique
    • naming the editor(s):
      • Barry and Fabian will be co-lead-editors
      • all track champions will be enlisted as co-editors of the communique
    • Fabian and Barry will consider providing all co-editors with their tasks to prepare something for Mar-5 review
    • Fabian ... some thoughts:
      • not two-pages, unfortunately, more like 15 pages
      • Barry and Fabian writes opening paragraph(s)
      • then ... education program, career paths, how to meet the needs ... what makes good ontologists
    • we will release a draft version of the communique by the time of the Mar-11 community session
  • Any other Business:
    • (as proposed by John F. Sowa et al.) adding on a "FO-OOR" (Foundation Ontology on OOR) Summit Follow-up session -- a follow-up from two previous year (2006 & 2008) Summits -- on Tue Mar-16, after the conclusion of the Ontology Summit 2010 symposium.
      • Confirmed slot: Tue 2010.03.16 - 3:45~5:15pm EST
    • we'll offer this slot as post-summit follow-up session, if others want to do something too.
      • Peter to reply John F. Sowa publicly and let people know that the slot is available if they want to organize some breakout meeting to take advantage of the co-location.
      • Other proposals of this nature (regarding follow-ups on previous summit topics) should contact Steve Ray to work out the details.
  • Action Items:
  • Next Meeting: Tuesday 2010.03.09 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • a regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:38 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2010.02.23

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ] (0:50:43 ; mp3 ; 5.8 MB)

  • Planning on Panel Session-5: "Syntheses on Community Input" - ConferenceCall_2010_03_04
    • co-chair: Steve Ray (Barry, regrets, traveling)
    • Title: "Syntheses on Community Input"
    • Abstract: we will get a first-hand report on the input collected from the 3 surveys/studies, make a synthesis on what has transpired, and discuss how that could be incorporated into the proposed curricula content and the communique
    • Panelists: (i) Arturo / Antony, (ii) Amanda & (iii) Elizabeth / Peter (iv) Fabian / Barry
    • goal & plan: ultimate goal is that session will help us produce the two content document ... and possibly one consolidated document
      • survey designers make their first cut syntheses, and identify specific input that might impact what we produce as our consolidated "training content" document
    • format: 3 presentations then Communique outline, then discussion
    • discussion from last meeting:
      • Peter: do we go through findings and syntheses of the surveys/studies on Mar-4 (virtual) or Mar-15 (F2F)?
      • we will use this Mar-4 session mainly to present the survey results and their syntheses
      • we *must* release a draft version of the communique by Mar-11 and spend a portion of that session to discuss it if people want to
    • survey designers: please make all survey results accessible from the web
      • raw data in excel or csv files
        • full data-set to be mailed to the [ontology-summit-org] list by Feb-27
        • we will drop some of the personal data before exposing the survey results to the web (we can talk about it more at the next organizing committee meeting)
      • a synthesis/writeup from the 3 survey designers is also expected
  • start planning on the last (pre-Symposium) virtual community session: "Review and Alignment of Draft Deliverables and Final sync-up prior to the symposium" - ConferenceCall_2010_03_11
    • chair: Barry Smith
    • Panelists / Speakers: (possibly all track champions)
    • goal & plan: nailing down the communique ... plus any logistic question for the F2F
    • format: ... Barry & Fabian will advise
    • draft communique to be posted prior to the session
  • status review on the surveys: ref. OntologySummit2010_Survey
    • Peter to notify people on a one week extension to the surveys closer to Feb-15 and set the new deadline for responses to Feb-22
    • Steve will solicit Advisors' involvement in responding to the surveys and get engaged in the RTDelphi study ... Peter warns that, if not, the collected views will only represent those of the few people who responded --Steve: done!
    • Fabian will try getting the community to respond to the surveys and engage in the RTDelphi study during the Feb-11 panel session too --Fabian & Barry: done!
    • Review of actually names of respondents:
      • Education-Survey-1:
      • Requirements-Survey-2:
      • Future-RTDelphi-3:
    • Arturo & Antony: survey-1 - http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontology-summit/2010-01/msg00007.html
      • Antony agreed to extend the survey for one more week.
      • Current status - 92 have started, now gone up to 107, only about 33 have completed, possibly 48
    • Amanda, with Fabian: survey-2 - now online at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OntologySummit2010_Survey-2
      • Amanda: might consider launching the survey on Feb-4 too (maybe before that, of course)
      • Peter: 51 responses received so far
    • Elizabeth & Peter: RTDelphi-3 - http://interop.cim3.net/forum//ontology-summit-org/2010-01/msg00038.html
      • Elizabeth: 24 (30-6) respondents so far
    • survey mailing list: [ontology-summit], [ontolog-invitation], [iaoa-general], ... suggested: twitter, nsf, iswc, ...
    • target to close inputs to all surveys by Feb-15 (or thereabout) to allow time for synthesis and write-up on the findings
    • ALL: we will need to discuss this asynchronously on the [ontology-summit-org] list within the next few days
  • Rosters: Organizing Committee, Advisory Committee & Co-sponsors ... defer to next call
    • organizing committee - should very busy individuals just stay in our advisory committee (as there is not time commitment requirements for that)
      • agreed that Steve will contact Ralph to invite him to retire from the organizing committee and contribute as a member of the Advisory Committee
    • advisory committee - status of invitations ... second round of prompting to all invitees who haven't responded - [Steve]
    • co-sponsors - status of solicitation - [Steve, Barry]
      • Steve to solicit on the [ontology-summit] list
        • suggest we will re-list all last year's co-sponsors unless they opt out
        • solicit more co-sponsors to endorse our message
      • put the invitation to co-sponsor at the end of survey-2 too
  • status review on the online discussion & community input, and syntheses by the champions ... defer to next call
    • Arturo & Antony:
    • Leo & Michael:
    • Barry & Fabian:
    • Amanda & Ralph:
    • Elizabeth & Peter:
    • Peter: things are on-track, given the four channels for the community to provide input (mailing list, wiki, panel-session+chat & survey). Champions can try starting threads on the mailing list on specifics they want to see discussed. Champions to use their respective synthesis page as a workspace to get input and ideas organized
    • Steve: encouraging all track champions to jot down their thoughts on their respective "synthesis" pages.
  • Mar. 15-16 F2F program planning
    • developing agenda: OntologySummit2010_Symposium
    • Barry: suggest every session should have a speaker and three ordained respondents
    • Amanda / Fabian: suggesting - 1/3: to present a synthesis of what has transpired, possibly already reduced to writing as an input to the communique; 2/3: open issues to be discussed (breakout?) ... with the discussion leader reducing a summary of it to writing as an input to the communique too; 3/3: presenting the conclusions and the communique
      • it is important that the writing of the communique does *not* distract the discussion
      • the outcome of the discussion should be minutes and slides (and not a communique segment)
    • goals to achieve
    • Barry and Steve will work up a draft agenda by the next call. (we need an agenda when we announce the event officially, and ask people to register anyway) - see (developing) agenda at: OntologySummit2010_Symposium
    • Ideas & suggestions:
      • no breakout group
      • people don't start new discussions unless they brought it up on the mailing list prior to the F2F
      • new points needs to be "seconded" to go into the agenda
      • tight control of a speaker's allowed time (2 minutes?)
      • discussion session chair to make sure "noise" is down
      • Fabian will summarize his thoughts and email that to Steve, Barry and the organizing committee (in a post to the [ontology-summit-org] list)
    • still awaiting Steve and Barry to respond to Fabian's suggestions
    • Peter also suggests more granular blocks (and possibly more time, depending on how we allot the Mar-4 virtual session) for the report back on the survey findings
  • getting started to think about the summit communique
    • naming the editor(s):
      • Barry and Fabian will be co-lead-editors
      • all track champions will be enlisted as co-editors of the communique
    • Fabian and Barry will consider providing all co-editors with their tasks to prepare something for Mar-5 review
    • Fabian ... some thoughts:
      • not two-pages, unfortunately, more like 15 pages
      • Barry and Fabian writes opening paragraph(s)
      • then ... education program, career paths, how to meet the needs ... what makes good ontologists
    • we will release a draft version of the communique by the time of the Mar-11 community session
  • Any other Business:
  • Action Items:
  • Next Meeting: Tuesday 2010.03.02 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • a regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:23 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2010.02.16

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ] (1:02:41 ; mp3 ; 7.2MB)

  • postmortem on the "Quality" Panel Session-4 - ConferenceCall_2010_02_11
    • co-chair: Barry & Fabian
    • Title: Template for Ontology Training Programs
    • Abstract: We will present sample specifications of the skills and content which should be included in ontologist training programs. Features addressed will include: a common core of theoretical content and practical expertise, electives, the role of interdisciplinarity, and human-directed and software-directed elements.
    • Panelists: Dagobert Soergel, Bill Andersen, Nicola Guarino & Michael Grüninger
    • goal & plan: propose a strawman, and have panelists critique it, and then open up to general discussion
      • format similar to the "Content" panel
    • Assessment: all agreed it was excellent; the diversity of the views presented was just wonderful
      • Arturo: our toning down on setting up certification and accreditation as quality criteria should be emphasized at the symposium ... although, Leo still thinks the "certification" should still be addressed, we may be ignoring it at our own peril if we are not careful ... Peter: at least that is one crucial issue we can discuss at the symposium
  • status review on the surveys: ref. OntologySummit2010_Survey
    • Peter to notify people on a one week extension to the surveys closer to Feb-15 and set the new deadline for responses to Feb-22
    • Steve will solicit Advisors' involvement in responding to the surveys and get engaged in the RTDelphi study ... Peter warns that, if not, the collected views will only represent those of the few people who responded --Steve: done!
    • Fabian will try getting the community to respond to the surveys and engage in the RTDelphi study during the Feb-11 panel session too --Fabian & Barry: done!
    • Review of actually names of respondents:
      • Education-Survey-1:
      • Requirements-Survey-2:
      • Future-RTDelphi-3:
    • Arturo & Antony: survey-1 - http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontology-summit/2010-01/msg00007.html
      • Antony agreed to extend the survey for one more week.
      • Current status - 92 have started, only about 33 have completed
    • Amanda, with Fabian: survey-2 - now online at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OntologySummit2010_Survey-2
      • Amanda: might consider launching the survey on Feb-4 too (maybe before that, of course)
      • Peter: 39 (37+2) responses received so far
    • Elizabeth & Peter: RTDelphi-3 - http://interop.cim3.net/forum//ontology-summit-org/2010-01/msg00038.html
      • Elizabeth: 21 (23-2) respondents so far
    • survey mailing list: [ontology-summit], [ontolog-invitation], [iaoa-general], ... suggested: twitter, nsf, iswc, ...
    • target to close inputs to all surveys by Feb-15 (or thereabout) to allow time for synthesis and write-up on the findings
    • ALL: we will need to discuss this asynchronously on the [ontology-summit-org] list within the next few days
  • Rosters: Organizing Committee, Advisory Committee & Co-sponsors ... defer to next call
    • organizing committee - should very busy individuals just stay in our advisory committee (as there is not time commitment requirements for that)
      • agreed that Steve will contact Ralph to invite him to retire from the organizing committee and contribute as a member of the Advisory Committee
    • advisory committee - status of invitations ... second round of prompting to all invitees who haven't responded - [Steve]
    • co-sponsors - status of solicitation - [Steve, Barry]
      • Steve to solicit on the [ontology-summit] list
        • suggest we will re-list all last year's co-sponsors unless they opt out
        • solicit more co-sponsors to endorse our message
      • put the invitation to co-sponsor at the end of survey-2 too
  • status review on the online discussion & community input, and syntheses by the champions ... defer to next call
    • Arturo & Antony:
    • Leo & Michael:
    • Barry & Fabian:
    • Amanda & Ralph:
    • Elizabeth & Peter:
    • Peter: things are on-track, given the four channels for the community to provide input (mailing list, wiki, panel-session+chat & survey). Champions can try starting threads on the mailing list on specifics they want to see discussed. Champions to use their respective synthesis page as a workspace to get input and ideas organized
    • Steve: encouraging all track champions to jot down their thoughts on their respective "synthesis" pages.
  • Mar. 15-16 F2F logistics and planning
    • need to start working up the details
    • we will target to start registration within the first week in Feb
      • Steve will work with NIST on their registration page
      • also we should start regular logistics meetings/calls with NIST now that it is closer
    • Steve: NIST will not have a designated hotel for the event
    • Peter/2010.02.15: Symposium session and registration pages are now up - see:
    • Need from NIST:
      • on-site registration website
      • contact person (ref. registration and attendance issues)
      • two projectors
      • at least two cabled ethernet connection on the DMZ
      • audio recording
    • Fabian will help contact Mark Carlisle, and prompt that he calls a logistics meeting
  • Mar. 15-16 F2F program planning
    • developing agenda: OntologySummit2010_Symposium
    • Barry: suggest every session should have a speaker and three ordained respondents
    • Amanda / Fabian: suggesting - 1/3: to present a synthesis of what has transpired, possibly already reduced to writing as an input to the communique; 2/3: open issues to be discussed (breakout?) ... with the discussion leader reducing a summary of it to writing as an input to the communique too; 3/3: presenting the conclusions and the communique
      • it is important that the writing of the communique does *not* distract the discussion
      • the outcome of the discussion should be minutes and slides (and not a communique segment)
    • goals to achieve
    • Barry and Steve will work up a draft agenda by the next call. (we need an agenda when we announce the event officially, and ask people to register anyway) - see (developing) agenda at: OntologySummit2010_Symposium
    • Ideas & suggestions:
      • no breakout group
      • people don't start new discussions unless they brought it up on the mailing list prior to the F2F
      • new points needs to be "seconded" to go into the agenda
      • tight control of a speaker's allowed time (2 minutes?)
      • discussion session chair to make sure "noise" is down
      • Fabian will summarize his thoughts and email that to Steve, Barry and the organizing committee (in a post to the [ontology-summit-org] list)
    • still awaiting Steve and Barry to respond to Fabian's suggestions
    • Peter also suggests more granular blocks (and possibly more time, depending on how we allot the Mar-4 virtual session) for the report back on the survey findings
  • getting started to think about the summit communique ... defer to next call
    • naming the editor(s)
      • Steve suggesting Barry as lead editor (will need to confirm with him)
        • Barry suggesting that he and Fabian jointly take up the co-lead-editors' role
      • all track champions will be enlisted as co-editors of the communique
    • Fabian and Barry will consider providing all co-editors with their tasks to prepare something for Mar-5 review
    • Fabian ... some thoughts:
      • not two-pages, unfortunately, more like 15 pages
      • Barry and Fabian writes opening paragraph(s)
      • then ... education program, career paths, how to meet the needs ... what makes good ontologists
    • we will release a draft version of the communique by the time of the Mar-11 community session
  • Start planning on the Mar-4 Community session - "draft deliverables review and alignment"
    • Peter: do we go through findings and syntheses of the surveys/studies on Mar-4 (virtual) or Mar-15 (F2F)?
    • we will use this Mar-4 session mainly to present the survey results and their syntheses
    • we *must* release a draft version of the communique by Mar-11 and spend a portion of that session to discuss it if people want to
  • Any other Business:
  • Action Items:
  • Next Meeting: Tuesday 2010.02.23 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • a regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:41 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2010.02.09

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ] (1:01:20 ; mp3 ; 4.0MB)

  • postmortem on the "Requirements" Panel Session-3 - ConferenceCall_2010_02_04
    • Chair: Amanda Vizedom
    • panelist: Denise Bedford, Mike Uschold, Mike Bennett and John F. Sowa panelist
    • it went real well ... private comments to Amanda indicated that the session was very successful in bridging between the academic/theoretical view with the enterprise/industrial view
    • Michael: Fabian & Barry's upcoming panel will probably cover some of the "applied" skills needs too, and could well be a synthesis of the last two panels
    • Amanda: I'll try to pull some of those needs ... will put onto the [ontology-summit] list
  • Finalize preparation on the "Quality" Panel Session-4 - ConferenceCall_2010_02_11
    • co-chair: Barry & Fabian
    • Title: Template for Ontology Training Programs
    • Abstract: We will present sample specifications of the skills and content which should be included in ontologist training programs. Features addressed will include: a common core of theoretical content and practical expertise, electives, the role of interdisciplinarity, and human-directed and software-directed elements.
    • Panelists: Dagobert Soergel, Bill Andersen, Nicola Guarino & Michael Grüninger
    • goal & plan: propose a strawman, and have panelists critique it, and then open up to general discussion
      • format similar to the "Content" panel
  • status review on the surveys: ref. OntologySummit2010_Survey
    • Peter to notify people on a one week extension to the surveys closer to Feb-15 and set the new deadline for responses to Feb-22
    • Steve will solicit Advisors' involvement in responding to the surveys and get engaged in the RTDelphi study ... Peter warns that, if not, the collected views will only represent those of the few people who responded
    • Fabian will try getting the community to respond to the surveys and engage in the RTDelphi study during the Feb-11 panel session too.
    • Arturo & Antony: survey-1 - http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontology-summit/2010-01/msg00007.html
      • Antony agreed to extend the survey for one more week.
    • Amanda, with Fabian: survey-2 - now online at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OntologySummit2010_Survey-2
      • Amanda: might consider launching the survey on Feb-4 too (maybe before that, of course)
      • Peter: 19 reesponses received so far
    • Elizabeth & Peter: RTDelphi-3 - http://interop.cim3.net/forum//ontology-summit-org/2010-01/msg00038.html
      • Elizabeth: 7 respondents so far, but only 4 have significant input
    • survey mailing list: [ontology-summit], [ontolog-invitation], [iaoa-general], ... suggested: twitter, nsf, iswc, ...
    • target to close inputs to all surveys by Feb-15 (or thereabout) to allow time for synthesis and write-up on the findings
  • Rosters: Organizing Committee, Advisory Committee & Co-sponsors
    • organizing committee - should very busy individuals just stay in our advisory committee (as there is not time commitment requirements for that)
      • agreed that Steve will contact Ralph to invite him to retire from the organizing committee and contribute as a member of the Advisory Committee
    • advisory committee - status of invitations ... second round of prompting to all invitees who haven't responded - [Steve]
    • co-sponsors - status of solicitation - [Steve, Barry]
      • Steve to solicit on the [ontology-summit] list
        • suggest we will re-list all last year's co-sponsors unless they opt out
        • solicit more co-sponsors to endorse our message
      • put the invitation to co-sponsor at the end of survey-2 too
  • status review on the online discussion & community input, and syntheses by the champions
    • Arturo & Antony:
    • Leo & Michael:
    • Barry & Fabian:
    • Amanda & Ralph:
    • Elizabeth & Peter:
    • Peter: things are on-track, given the four channels for the community to provide input (mailing list, wiki, panel-session+chat & survey). Champions can try starting threads on the mailing list on specifics they want to see discussed. Champions to use their respective synthesis page as a workspace to get input and ideas organized
    • Steve: encouraging all track champions to jot down their thougths on their respective "synthesis" pages.
  • Mar. 15-16 F2F logistics and planning
    • need to start working up the details
    • we will target to start registration within the first week in Feb
      • Steve will work with NIST on their registration page
      • also we should start regualr logitics meetings/calls with NIST now that it is closer
    • Barry: recommended hotel for the on-site event, and if so will there be a special discount rate?
      • Steve: NIST will not have a designated hotel for the event
  • Mar. 15-16 F2F program planning
    • developing agenda: OntologySummit2010_Symposium
    • Barry: suggest every session should have a speaker and three ordained respondents
    • Amanda / Fabian: suggesting - 1/3: to present a synthesis of what has transpired, possibly already reduced to writing as an input to the communique; 2/3: open issues to be discussed (breakout?) ... with the discussion leader reducing a summary of it to writing as an input to the communique too; 3/3: presenting the conclusions and the communique
      • it is important that the writing of the communique does *not* distract the discussion
      • the outcome of the discussion should be minutes and slides (and not a communique segment)
    • goals to achieve
    • Barry and Steve will work up a draft agenda by the next call. (we need an agenda when we announce the event officially, and ask people to register anyway) - see (developing) agenda at: OntologySummit2010_Symposium
    • Ideas & suggestions:
      • no breakout group
      • people don't start new discussions unless they brought it up on the mailing list prior to the F2F
      • new points needs to be "seconded" to go into the agenda
      • tight control of a speaker's allowed time (2 minutes?)
      • discussion session chair to make sure "noise" is down
      • Fabian will summarize his thoughts and email that to Steve, Barry and the organizing commmittee (in a post to the [ontology-summit-org] list)
  • getting started to think about the summit communique
    • naming the editor(s)
      • Steve suggesting Barry as lead editor (will need to confirm with him)
      • all track champions will be enlisted as co-editors of the communique
  • Any other Business:
  • Action Items:
  • Next Meeting: Tuesday 2010.02.16 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • a regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:38 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2010.02.02

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ] (0:52:54 ; mp3 ; 5.0MB)

  • preparation on the "Quality" Panel Session-4 - ConferenceCall_2010_02_11
    • co-chair: Barry & Fabian (possibly Nicola?)
    • Title: Sample Short Course and Masters Program in Ontology
    • Abstract: We will present for critique sample syllabi and associated regulations for a 10-day short course and 30 credit hour (generally 2 year) Masters program in ontology. Features addressed will include: modularity, interdisciplinarity, common core of theoretical content and practical expertise.
    • Panelists: Fabian & Barry will supply by end the week
    • goal & plan: Barry: at Buffalo ... already has a Masters Program ... will use that as a strawman, and have participants critique it. Additionally, a strawman proposal for a 10-day ontologist training program ... and make it available beforehand for review, and critique during the session
      • will be inviting panelists ... will advise roster later (possibly after the weekend)
  • Rosters: Organizing Committee, Advisory Committee & Co-sponsors
    • organizing committee - should very busy individuals just stay in our advisory committee (as there is not time commitment requirements for that)
    • advisory committee - status of invitations ... second round of prompting to all invitees who haven't responded - [Steve]
    • co-sponsors - status of solicitation - [Steve, Barry]
      • Steve to solicit on the [ontology-summit] list
        • suggest we will re-list all last year's co-sponsors unless they opt out
        • solicit more co-sponsors to endorse our message
      • put the invitation to co-sponsor at the end of survey-2 too
  • status review on the online discussion & community input, and syntheses by the champions
    • Arturo & Antony:
    • Leo & Michael:
    • Barry & Fabian:
    • Amanda & Ralph:
    • Elizabeth & Peter:
    • Peter: things are on-track, given the four channels for the community to provide input (mailing list, wiki, panel-session+chat & survey). Champions can try starting threads on the mailing list on specifics they want to see discussed. Champions to use their respective synthesis page as a workspace to get input and ideas organized
  • Mar. 15-16 F2F logistics and planning
    • need to start working up the details
    • we will target to start registration within the first week in Feb
      • Peter will be working on that later this week
    • Barry: recommended hotel for the on-site event, and if so will there be a special discount rate?
  • Mar. 15-16 F2F program planning
    • draft agenda
    • inviting a keynote speaker?
      • Barry: don't think we want one (because this is not an institution, and no one is authority)
    • Barry: suggest every session should have a speaker and three ordained respondents
    • Amanda / Fabian: suggesting - 1/3: to present a synthesis of what has transpired, possibly already reduced to writing as an input to the communique; 2/3: open issues to be discussed (breakout?) ... with the discussion leader reducing a summary of it to writing as an input to the communique too; 3/3: presenting the conclusions and the communique
      • it is important that the writing of the communique does *not* distract the discussion
      • the outcome of the discussion should be minutes and slides (and not a communique segment)
    • goals to achieve
    • Barry and Steve will work up a draft agenda by the next call. (we need an agenda when we announce the event officially, and ask people to register anyway)
  • getting started to think about the summit communique
    • Barry: day-2 of the symposium should *not* be devoted to wordsmithing the communique
    • naming the editor(s) -- deferred
    • ...
  • Any other Business:
  • Action Items:
  • Next Meeting: Tuesday 2010.02.09 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • a regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:30 am PST --

UPDATED preparation for the "Requirements" Panel Session-3 - ConferenceCall_2010_02_04

  • Chair/co-chair: Amanda Vizedom & TBD
  • Title: "What Are We Training For?"
  • Abstract: The "Content" and "Quality" tracks of this Summit focus, respectively, on identifying the subject matter that might form the content of ontologist training and on means of delivery that maximize quality in both the training itself and the ontologists it produces. For either of these discussions to be effective, however, we need to have a sense of the target: what is the training supposed to accomplish?
    • We will begin with remarks from our panelists, each of whom embodies one or more end-user (or "consumer") perspectives: those who hire ontologists and need a reliable way to identify qualified candidates; those looking for training that will adequately prepare them for careers as working ontologists; those who hire, manage, or evalute ontologists and have insight into the value of various elements of preparation; those who need supplemental training for themselves or staff to meet changing work needs. We will also look at the forthcoming Requirements survey, though we will not walk through all of it, or ask people to complete it, during this session. Questions, Answers, and Open Discussion will follow, with the aim of further developing our community understanding of the needs to which ontologist training ought to be addressed.
    • The session plan is to have each panelist speak for 10 minutes, assuming a small number of panelists. Default topic for each is the set of general questions to which the Requirements Track and this Session are addressed:
      • What are we training for?
      • What do working ontologists need to know?
      • What do ontologists need to be able to do?
    • Individual Panelists are free, however, to focus more specifically on particular points they see as worthy of emphasis: lessons learned, experiences, points that stand out as commonly overlooked or over-emphasized, and so on.
  • Panelists: Denise Bedford has accepted. Mike Uschold, John F. Sowa, and Jennifer Williams have also been invited, but no response recieved. Amanda is continuing to work this and exploring alternatives, with preference for people not already on the organizing committee (on grounds that they can be counted on to contribute informally, and it would be better to include more voices not already being heard in this discussion).
  • Goal: The Ontology Summit community is in general agreement that the most valuable and urgently needed training will be informed not only by theoretical considerations but also, and centrally, by the needs of ontologists seeking employment and employers seeking quality, useful ontologists. Our understanding of those needs, however, is scattered and divergent. This Panel session, and the "Requirements" track generally, are aimed at developing a richer and more clear picture of the requirements of employability (those trained are well-prepared for the available jobs) and deployability (those who hire trained ontologists find them ready and able to perform the needed work). The goal is not necessarily to maximize coverage within this session; the surveys, wiki, forum discussion, and other activities all the way up to the March face-to-face will each play a role in such maximization. Rather, the goal is to bring a strong "end-user" voice to the discussion, and to stimulate thinking and discussion across the Summit community as a whole.

Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2010.01.26

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ] (0:59:39 ; mp3 ; 6.8MB)

  • preparation on the "Requirements" Panel Session-3 - ConferenceCall_2010_02_04
    • chair/co-chair: Amanda Vizedom & possibly Stefano Bertolo
    • Title: "What Are We Training For?"
    • Abstract: Amanda will supply asap
    • Panelists: suggested candidates (final decision on who to invite, as well as the invitation, which needs to happen within the next 2~3 days, to be made by the session chair: Dean Allemang, Mike Uschold, Denise Bedford, Stefano Bertolo, Leo Obrst, John F. Sowa, ... Nicola Guarino (further proposed by Peter, after the call), Jenifer Williams
    • goal: a sampling of "consumer" viewpoints; summary of what has come up so far (especially from the first week responses of the requirements "survey"); input from people who hire or evaluate; cluster of relationship among requirement; context; "what are the right competencies?"; "what are some of the task that needs done by the ontologists?"; figuring out how people with the right skillset can get placed and how can the openings not be filled by the wrong candidates;
      • Leo: 3 perspectives (i) from the end-user, (ii) what ontologies and the models enable (and hence requirements that are not obvious today), (iii) what employers should be looking for
  • preparation on the "Quality" Panel Session-4 - ConferenceCall_2010_02_11 ... discussion deferred to the -org list and our meeting next week
    • co-chair: Fabian / Nicola / Barry will supply asap
    • Title: Fabian / Nicola / Barry will supply asap
    • Abstract: Fabian / Nicola / Barry will supply asap
    • Panelists: Fabian / Nicola / Barry to advise the format of the session and start inviting panelists (if a panel session is the format of choice)
    • goal: Fabian / Nicola / Barry will supply asap
      • Steve / Michael / Nicola: is a "certification program" even the right deliverable at this time? ... are we there yet?
      • Michael: one could start by framing the session questions
      • Steve will start a thread on the -org list and try to get the planning going within this week
  • Rosters: Organizing Committee, Advisory Committee & Co-sponsors
    • organizing committee - should very busy individuals just stay in our advisory committee (as there is not time commitment requirements for that)
    • advisory committee - status of invitations ... second round of prompting to all invitees who haven't responded - [Steve]
    • co-sponsors - status of solicitation - [Steve, Barry]
      • Steve to solicit on the [ontology-summit] list
        • suggest we will re-list all last year's co-sponsors unless they opt out
        • solicit more co-sponsors to endorse our message
      • put the invitation to co-sponsor at the end of survey-2 too
  • status review on the online discussion & community input, and syntheses by the champions
    • Arturo & Antony:
    • Leo & Michael:
    • Barry & Fabian:
    • Amanda & Ralph:
    • Elizabeth & Peter:
    • Peter: things are on-track, given the four channels for the community to provide input (mailing list, wiki, panel-session+chat & survey). Champions can try starting threads on the mailing list on specifics they want to see discussed. Champions to use their respective synthesis page as a workspace to get input and ideas organized
  • Mar. 15-16 F2F logistics and planning
    • need to start working up the details
    • we will target to start registration within the first week in Feb
    • Barry: recommended hotel for the on-site event, and if so will there be a special discount rate?
  • Any other Business:
  • Action Items:
  • Next Meeting: Tuesday 2010.02.02 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • Steve: I may not be able to join the Feb-2 meeting next week
    • a regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:33 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2010.01.19

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ] (1:00:02 ; mp3 ; 6.9MB)

  • postmortem on the "Content" Panel Session-2 - ConferenceCall_2010_01_14
    • great session - chat-transcript is now online; audio recording will be up soon (hopefully later today)
    • noting debate around: (i) formal vs. informal; (ii) ontology as a science vs. as engineering; (iii) core ontology training vs. peripeheral (need-to-know) education
    • Leo: maybe a pedagogical tree or graph view with dependencies may help elucidate the situation
  • preparation on the "Requirements" Panel Session-3 - ConferenceCall_2010_02_04
    • chair/co-chair: Amanda Vizedom (unless Amanda has another co-chair she would like to bring in)
    • Title: Amanda will supply asap
    • Abstract: Amanda will supply asap
    • Panelists: suggested candidates (final decision on who to invite, as well as the invitation, which needs to happen within the next 2~3 days, to be made by the session chair: Dean Allemang, Mike Uschold, Denise Bedford, Stefano Bertolo, Leo Obrst, John F. Sowa, ... Nicola Guarino (further proposed by Peter, after the call)
    • goal: a sampling of "consumer" viewpoints; summary of what has come up so far (especially from the first week responses of the requirements "survey"); input from people who hire or evaluate; cluster of relationship among requirement; context; "what are the right competencies?"; "what are some of the task that needs done by the ontologists?"; figuring out how people with the right skillset can get placed and how can the openings not be filled by the wrong candidates;
      • Leo: 3 perspectives (i) from the end-user, (ii) what ontologies and the models enable (and hence requirements that are not obvious today), (iii) what employers should be looking for
  • preparation on the "Quality" Panel Session-4 - ConferenceCall_2010_02_11 ... (defer discussion to next week)
    • co-chair:
    • Title:
    • Abstract:
    • Panelists:
    • goal:
  • Rosters: Organizing Committee, Advisory Committee & Co-sponsors ... (defer discussion to next week)
    • organizing committee - should very busy individuals just stay in our advisory committee (as there is not time commitment requirements for that)
    • advisory committee - status of invitations - [Steve]
    • co-sponsors - status of solicitation - [Steve, Barry ... Amanda]
  • Any other Business:
  • Action Items:
    • see above
  • Next Meeting: Tuesday 2010.01.26 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • a regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:39 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2010.01.12

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ]

  • finalizing the "Content" Panel (Session-2) preparation - ConferenceCall_2010_01_14
  • status review on the survey preparation
    • Arturo & Antony - Arturo: version 2 of the Contents+Quality-Present survey is available from this link. Committee members, please send us your feedback (before this Friday 1/15/10) by replying to this message in the Ontology Summit Organizing Committee Archives.
      • Michael will mention this survey during the Jan-14 session
    • Amanda, Fabian, Elizabeth & Peter will work offline on the rest of the survey questionnaires
    • putting together a mailing list of people we want to survey - (ref. the 2009.12.17 community input) this will need to go beyond the [ontology-summit] and [ontolog-invitation]
      • Michael: we could send the surveys out through the [iaoa-general] list as well.
      • Peter will also coordinate with Arturo and Amanda on other candidates that can be surveyed
      • Steve: one other possibility would be to ask Frank if we could use some portion of the NSF list that is relevant
  • Rosters: Organizing Committee, Advisory Committee & Co-sponsors
    • organizing committee - (Peter: to be fair to others on the organizing committee) should very busy individuals just stay on our advisory committee (as there is no time commitment requirements for that)?
      • Peter to contact Aldo, Steve to talk to Ralph
    • advisory committee - status of invitations - [Steve]
    • co-sponsors - status of solicitation - [Steve, Barry ... Amanda] ... discussion deferred
  • Any other Business:
  • Action Items:
  • Next Meeting: Tuesday 2010.01.19 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • a regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:30 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2010.01.05

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ]

  • postmortem of the Panel Session-1 Event - ConferenceCall_2009_12_17
    • Great input from the community collected. Yet to mine and synthesize that (by various champions) since the holidays came in between, but we'll start working on it.
  • preparation for the Panel Session-2 Event on "Content" - ConferenceCall_2010_01_14
    • Title: (MichaelGruninger will advise within the next couple of days)
    • Co-chair: Michael Grüninger & Leo Obrst
    • Panelists: a bunch of candidates were suggested and discussed, Michael will contact them and try to tie down a panel (of about 5 people) by the end of this week
    • Goal: to bring together a panel of people who have been providing ontologists training from a good cross-section of domains, so they can provide critique and suggestion to the training module/content strawman that Leo and Michael will be putting up for discussion
    • Abstract: (MichaelGruninger will advise within the next couple of days)
    • note that slides are due end-of-day Tue 2010.01.12
  • status review on the online discussion & community input - (discussion deferred)
  • status review on the survey preparation
    • it is agreed that the various tracks will launch their surveys independently - through the regular Ontolog channels (including the [ontolog-invitation], [ontology-summit] & (new) [ontology-summit-advisors] list); plus whatever other channels the track champions or other organizing committee members may suggest.
      • Arturo and Antony is almost ready and will launch their surveys first
      • Amanda, Fabian, Elizabeth and Peter will work offline to work up theirs ASAP
    • target to have data collected latest by mid-Feb an synthesis and draft deliverables available by end-Feb
  • status review on the syntheses (by the champions) - (discussion deferred)
  • Advisory Committee invitations:
    • re-send second batch of invitations
    • invitations to colleagues in Brazil
    • Advisors will be by invitation only
  • Co-sponsor solicitation:
    • 'Co-sponsors' are organizations who are providing technical or funding support, and/or endorsing the purpose (i.e. the objective) of this Ontology Summit
    • open solicitation to the community, especially stakeholders in Ontologist training and education institutions
    • ...the more the merrier
    • Peter to help dig up invitations from previous years, coordinate with Amanda (who may have some suggestions on the wordings) and Steve or Barry will put up a solicitation on the mailing list for this year's co-sponsors
      • Peter: suggest we carry forward our previous co-sponsors (allow them to opt out) and then solicit new ones this year
  • Planned dates review - see: Ontology Summit 2010 Event Calendar
    • if more virtual events need to be scheduled open Thursday slots (see: MeetingsCalls) are becoming scarce ... reserved slots ASAP, if need be
  • Any other Business:
    • Peter: delivered the intent to provide support/co-sponsorship in support of this year's summit from the OOR team - see here.
  • Action Items:
    • see above
  • Next Meeting: Tuesday 2010.01.12 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • a regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:49 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2009.12.15

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ]

  • postmortem on the Launch Event - ConferenceCall_2009_12_10
    • what worked: lots of energy this year; perceived as having been well organized
    • what needs to be improved: (Peter) infrastructure; (Barry) overlap in the tracks
      • Barry: focus Quality Track in "accreditation, certification, and bringing about the high quality multi-site training program" ... and suggesting Content Track to focus on the "content" and essential what needs to go into the curriculum (and leave the delivery mechanism to the Quality Track)
        • the ontology community does not have the discipline yet to have self-understanding of ...
      • Michael: agree ... the "Content Track" will develop the set of content and dependencies ... focusing on "what needs to be done"
        • Steve: after coming up with "what should be" maybe we could link it to "what already exists"
    • follow-ups:
      • "Professional Context Track" now re-labelled as "Requirements Tracks"
  • Addressing the organizational questions from the last organizing committee call:
    • Organizational questions from Obrst-Gruninger:
      • Should we have a separate dedicated distribution list for the Content track?
        • Peter's suggestion: No
      • Should we have a common distribution list for the Ontology Summit, with annotated headers for [CONTENT]?
        • Peter's suggestion: Yes ... let's ask people to prefix new threads with [CONTENT] [QUALITY] [REQUIREMENT], possibly later: [CONTENT-Present] [QUALITY-Present] [REQUIREMENT-Present] [CONTENT-Future] [QUALITY-Future] [REQUIREMENT-Future] ... (labels right?) ... and use a subject line that really identify what the discussion is about ... (probably easier said than done) ... suggestions?
      • Should we have a distinct wiki page? Who can contribute? Should contributions be reviewed prior to posting?
    • Organizational questions from Galton-Sanchez: (Organizational Questions that are applicable to all tracks / subtracks:)
      • How will the information be collected?
        • Peter's suggestion: ref. below
      • How will it be organised?
        • Peter's suggestion: ref. below
      • How will it be made available to interested parties?
        • Peter's suggestion: via this wiki (OntologySummit2010 homepage and content linked to it) ... and ALL summit activities (virtual and F2F)
      • Who will be responsible for collecting, organising, analyzing, and disseminating the information?
        • collecting: Sanchez-Galton, Florescu-Yim, Vizedom-Hodgson(?) ... and whoever else volunteers ...
        • analyzing: track champions
        • disseminating: see above (regarding "to interested parties"); especially via the release of our OntologySummit2010_Communique
    • Track "re-labeling" suggestions from Vizedom: (ref. http://interop.cim3.net/forum//ontology-summit-org/2009-12/msg00013.html )
      • Re-labeling tracks to:
        • "Content of training"
        • "Quality of Training"
        • "Purpose of Training"; "Ontology as a Profession"
          • "What is the purpose?" is answerable generally: e.g., to produce skilled, knowledgable, employable ontologists. Candidates: "State of the Profession," "Purpose: Working Ontologists," "Professional Roles and Activities," or "Ontology as a Profession."
            • I favor the latter, but am open to persuasion.
  • Status Review - Co-organizers / Co-sponsors / Advisors:
    • committee members are welcome to provide recommendations
    • Steve & Barry to advise status via the [ontology-summit-org] mailing list ... rather urgent now, especially in view of the fact that we will need to be engaging our Advisors to provide input to the survey and future studies after the Thu 2009.12.17 panel session.
  • 2. Ontology Summit 2010: Planned Dates - details (and some of the dates are) still subject to change:
    • ref. http://interop.cim3.net/forum//ontology-summit-org/2009-12/msg00019.html#nid05
    • Thu 2009.12.10 - Launch Event
    • Thu 2009.12.17 - "Surveying the Landscape and the Possibilities"
    • Thu 2010.01.14 - "Content" Track panel session
    • Thu 2010.02.04 - "Professional Context" Track panel session
    • Thu 2010.02.11 - "Quality" Track panel session (was: 2010.02.18 during this call; subsequently updated)
    • Thu 2010.03.04 - draft deliverables review and alignment
    • Thu 2010.03.11 - final community sync-up prior to the symposium
    • Mon & Tue 2010.03.15 & 16 - Summit symposium (face-to-face) at NIST (Gaithersburg, MD, USA) (06)
  • Any other Business:
    • proposition and intent on support/co-sponsorship from the OOR team - see here.
  • Action Items:
    • Survey action team: Arturo, Antony (possibly), Amanda, Fabian, Elizabeth & Peter - to work intensively within the next two days to prepare for the Thu session
    • communication and review to be done over the [ontology-summit-org] list
    • we will develop prototypes based on questions and developments already at hand
    • we will need to refine the questions and the RTDelphi developments
    • Amanda will send in an updated set of questions
    • we'll confirm with Arturo whether he, or Elizabeth or Peter will put questions into normal online survey forms for everyone
    • after the "prototype" is out, everyone else can comment and provide updates and amendments (to the survey and RTDelphi) as they see fit.
    • Peter to post an unedited version of the Dec-10 audio in the interim
  • Next Meeting: Tuesday 2010.01.05 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • a regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 09:48 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2009.12.08

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ]

  • Review and adopt agenda
    • From each track/subtrack co-champion:
      • (a) track mission
      • (b) an appropriate "label," and
      • (c) the pertinent questions their tracks are answering during the course of the summit.

of ontology education with regard to curricular content.

        • Pertinent Questions (a.k.a. Questions of Substance):
          • Which educational programmes are there, if any, which are mainly or entirely devoted to ontology and related topics?
          • Within other educational programmes, what modules/courses are there which are mainly or entirely devoted to ontology and related topics?
          • Are there any other programmes or modules/courses with sufficient ontologically relevant content?
          • Are there curricular models (a.k.a. curricular guidelines) that include ontology-related topics?
    • Track Label: Quality; Subtrack Label: Present
      • Mission: The track mission is to survey the existing forms of quality assurance (e.g., accreditation, certification, and licensure) for programs and/or courses with ontological content.
      • Pertinent Questions (a.k.a. Questions of Substance):
        • By what bodies, if any, are the programmes identified as having substantial ontological content currently accredited?
        • By what bodies, if any, are ontology professionals currently certified?
        • What other forms of quality control assurance exist that may be relevant to the track mission?
    • Organizational Questions that are applicable to all tracks / subtracks:
      • How will the information be collected?
      • How will it be organised?
      • How will it be made available to interested parties?
      • Who will be responsible for collecting, organising, analyzing, and disseminating the information?
    • Suggested Question for the "Quality / Future" track:
      • Are existing forms of quality assurance appropriate for the purposes of assuring educational provision as suitable for professional ontologists?
  • input from Amanda Vizedom (ref. http://interop.cim3.net/forum//ontology-summit-org/2009-12/msg00013.html)
    • Track / subtrack Characterization:
      • Track Label: Ontology as a Profession; Subtrack Label: Present
      • Mission: The track mission is to survey the existing roles filled and activites performed by working ontologists, along with the skills required and where they typically get them.
    • Pertinent Questions:
      • Where do ontologists currently work?
        • What organization types (companies, departments, institutions, agencies, etc.)?
        • What project types (long/short term, part of larger system/program, focus on IT|KM|search|interop|metadata|other)?
        • What fields or industries?
      • What folks are doing KOS work that is within or heading toward ontology, but may not be labeled as such?
      • What tasks do working ontologists perform and as roughly how much of their time (requirements gathering, elicitation, informal modeling, formal modeling, formal testing, user testing, "gold standard" and/or regression testing)?
      • What skills do working ontologists typically acquire on the job, and what via formal training?
        • What training do they wish they had, but don't have?
      • What skills do employers expect? What formal training do employers expects?
        • How do employers select ontologists when hiring?
    • additionally (from the 2009.12.10 session):
      • how are expectations from ontologists different from those of knowledge engineers of the past?
      • Is there any consistent relationship between job labels (ontologist | knowledge engineer | ontological engineer | concept modeler | ...) and activities/skills?
  • Draft Plan / Report by Elizabeth Florescu & Peter P. Yim
    • Track / Subtrack Characterization:
      • Track Label: Future Outlook; Subtrack Label: Realtime Delphi Study
      • Mission: to develop an outlook on the "Future of Ontologists"
        • we will try to gain insight from the perspectives of:
          • (a) the market - potential employer of the ontologist;
          • (b) the educator - the ontology training / education provider; and
          • (c) the individual - the ontologist or ontologist-to-be);
        • time horizon:
          • (a) now
          • (b) in 2.5 years
          • (c) in 5 years
          • (d) in 10 years
          • (e) in 20 years
        • for that, we will be making use of the Realtime Delphi process and the RTDelphi tool (developed by the Millennium project) to collect insights from a selected panel of experts in the domain
      • Some Pertinent Questions (a.k.a. Questions of Substance):
        • what are the skillsets that employers of ontologists will be looking for?
        • when will the market be needing ontologists, and how many of them?
        • from what academic background (disciplines) will ontologists come from?
        • when will we start having "ontology departments" in unversities and enterprises?
        • what needs to happen between now and the day when we will have "ontology departments" in unversities and enterprises?
        • what would be typical career paths of individuals with ontology training?
        • if an individual is inclined to pursue an ontology career, what are the education/training paths that he/she can pursue?
    • Quick reference to help this team get up to speed on the RTDelphi process and the use of the survey instrument:
      • Background about the RTDelphi process - http://millennium-project.org/millennium/studies.html#RTD-general
      • An example of the online questionnaire - you can see what the system currently looks like by going to http://www.realtimedelphi.net
        • sign in, and use "automobiles" as the access code.
        • This is a working demo that will show you one of some thousands of configurations that are available. The system will provide not only the instructions and questionnaire itself but also some simple tabs of the responses. We will have to define the questions to be asked, the participant list, send invitations, and synthesize the collected expert input.
      • An example study: "Future Possibilities for Education and Learning by the Year 2030"
    • Plan / Suggestions:
      • we (the summit organizers) will be using a combination of RTDelphi and traditional survey tools
      • we will assume that the organizing committee will provide us with their expert opinion on issues like those posed in the above questions.
      • From these answer (by folks here) to the pertinent questions, Elizabeth and Peter will compile a list of developments used in the RTDelphi that we will present to the larger panel (i.e. the summit conveners)
      • we will invite all conveners (participants) of the summit; particularly all members of the Advisory Committee to be on the "expert panel" to provide input to this future study
      • track/subtrack champions will synthesize their respective sections ... and the report thus generated will be a resource for the summit deliverable(s) and/or the Summit_communique
    • Barry: propose that we focus on the market demand - e.g. "INPUT" a (pay-per-view) database supposedly (cf. Revelytics suggested at the recent OIC) showed that 62 government funded project explicitly recruiting/recruited ontologists - otherwise, the discussion will be all over the place
      • Peter: I agree ... actually that is exactly why we want to use the RTDelphi process to make sure we can reduce the input to specifics that we can get a handle on.
  • Barry: the "Quality track" will be ... (Barry, please post to the [ontology-summit-org] list)
    • Fabian to join Barry and Nicola in the co-championship of the Quality Track
  • Leo: the "Content Track" will be ... (Leo, please post to the [ontology-summit-org] list)
    • programs for: Associate ... Masters ... PhD, also professional
    • competencies ...
  • Tying down the agenda and details for the "Launch Event": ConferenceCall_2009_12_10
    • Steve & Barry: goal of the summit ... Peter: providing the timeline and logistics ... Arturo & Antony: laying out the structure (via concept map) ... track missions
    • who is speaking? - Steve, Barry and all track/subtrack-champions
    • Peter: slides due (via email to the Steve & Barry c.c. Peter) by noon Wed 2009.12.09
  • Establishing an agenda for the virtual panel session-1 "Surveying the Landscape and the Possibilities": ConferenceCall_2009_12_17
  • Status Review - Co-organizers / Co-sponsors / Advisors:
    • ... item not discussed during this call
    • Peter has posted his recommendations
    • other recommendations solicited from the organizing committee members
    • Steve and Barry to be making the invitation / announcements
      • Peter: Steve & Barry, please advise status as to where we will stand by the time of the launch.
  • Any other Business:
  • Action Items:
    • Need from all champions posted to the [ontology-summit-org] list:
      • Mission statement of their track/subtrack - today (Dec-8)
      • slides or presentation material for the Thursday (Dec-10) launch event - by end of day Wed 2009.12.09
      • the "pertinent questions" or "issues" that each track wants to get answers on (from the summit participants) by end Thu 2009.12.10 (after the launch event)
    • Note the timing is crucial, without the above in place, we will not be able to have the survey instrument ready for the Panel Session-1 on Thu 12009.12.17 ... consider yourself being on the critical path, please.
  • Next Meeting: Tuesday 2009.12.15 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • A regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 10:04 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2009.12.01

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ]

  • Structuring the summit - Co-champions' strawman on the next level of details
    • Research Track (update by ArturoSanchez):
      • Version 1 of the concept map is now available and can be seen here. The previous version (v0) can be seen here. Summary of changes: three main tracks; four subtracks under "Research"; a consistent pattern is used to refer to deliverables per track, classified by country. Any suggestions for improvement? Post them here OR send an email to the mailing list
      • Draft Survey Questions have not changed since last meeting
  • Antony: coordinating Ontology Summit 2010 and FOIS-2010 to leverage one another ... defer to email and next meeting
  • Peter (idea): framing the discussion and deliverables as answers to a handful of pertinent and important questions - what would be those questions, for each track/subtrack?
    • All: confirmed ... all track co-champions will come up with the questions they will answer
  • Peter: proposal of the study on the "Future of Ontologists" or "Future of Education for the Ontologists" using the Realtime Delphi (futures research) methodology
    • proposing this as a subtrack under the "Research" track, and recommending that Peter P. Yim and Elizabeth Florescu be co-champions for this
      • confirmed to go ahead. Possibility of making this a separate track discussed (no conclusion yet)
    • possibly developing all the surveys (academia, professional, future) into a coherent whole, and put that up as an online questionnaire
      • Peter to ping Arturo, Antony, Amanda & Ralph on what they think
  • Co-organizers / Co-sponsors / Advisors:
    • Peter: I'll post a recommendation later today ... comments, additional recommendations from everyone else on the organizing committee are solicited
  • Any other business: ... the following were also discussed
    • Competency Development Framework; Modular Accreditation Program; Scan: what's working, what's not; career opportunity and skills & requirements; current reality ... future reality ... and how to get there; what needs to be taught, and how to make sure it has quality;
    • Barry: career opportunities include both professional and academic careers; the Summit objectives also include

lobbying and creating new institutions

  • Action items:
    • everyone to engage on email (don't wait for the next meeting)
      • emphasis: the co-champion role are to help frame the discussion, facilitate and synthesize ... (the same individuals will certainly take the role of the summit participant too, and contribute to the discourse later ... but note that that is not the "co-champion" role any more.)
    • ALL: track/subtrack co-champions to come up with their (a) track mission, (b) an appropriate "label" and (c) the pertinent questions their tracks are answering
      • suggestions: Professional Roles and Activities Track, Existing Ontology Training Resources, Background Track, Curriculum Track, ... Tracks 1, 2, 3,
    • need to finalize and be ready for the Dec-10 launch event by the next organizing committtee call (Dec-8)
  • next meeting: Tuesday 2009.12.08 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:59 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2009.11.24

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ]

  • Structuring the summit - Co-champions' strawman on the next level of details
    • Confirmation of track champions: all
      • Research track: (Environmental Scan (was:Research track)): Arturo Sanchez & Antony Galton
        • Concept Map built which shows an approach that can be used to conduct the Environmental Scan, and which can be seen here.

Note: concept map nodes have two types of hyperlinks. The ones with an icon that looks like a tree are associated with other concept maps. The ones with an icon that looks like a document are associated with external links. It think it would be easier it I walked you through it. I have set up an Elluminate session you can join by clicking on THIS LINK (open in a new window). You can use your computer's speaker to hear me. If this is the first time you are using Elluminate, allow Java Web Start to be installed in your computer, and do not allow your firewall to block the application. To join, just enter your name at the prompt.

        • (DRAFT) Survey Questions to be sent to the ONTOLOG community (and also to the FOIS community?): (1) Name of institution; (2) Unit within the institution; (3) Title of module; (4) Level of module; (5) Course(s) within which the module can be taken; (6) Accrediting bodies (if any); (7) Ontology-related content covered; (8) Person to contact; (9) Web-links wherever possible. QUESTION: how would this survey be administered?
          • Peter, Leo et al. - we'll be covering both professional and academic tracks
      • Content track: Leo Obrst & Michael Grüninger
      • Certification track: Barry Smith & Nicola Guarino
        • Mark Musen: suggest our dialog tries focusing on "accreditation", and avoid "certification" and all the politics that it brings
        • Nicola and Barry will come back with a confirmation of the Track "label"
    • Terms of reference for each track
    • identifying Sub-Tracks or Discussion Threads that we should be pursuing in this Summit
    • identifying virtual panelist candidates (to be discussed or recommended by track champions)
    • identifying deliverable
  • (Antony:) please discuss the Ontology Summit 2010 program in relation to the upcoming FOIS 2010 "Education" workshop - deferred to next week
  • Discussion
    • it is agreed that the track champions will develop their thoughts using the concept map (Cmap possibly) ... and Arturo will help steward the maim map (and link everybody else's maps in)
    • Dec-10 Launch: Nicola and Antony will be traveling
    • Nicola: is-a vs. is-an-instance-of
    • Looking for from the champions - something we tell the community at the launch
      • 1. how do you want to frame the discussion of the track
      • 2. need sub-tracks, sub-track champions
      • 3. deliverables
    • subtrack on "Research" ... propose subTrack champion to focus on the industrial (vs. academic) side of the current and future ontologists and ontology education
  • Co-organizers / Co-sponsors / Advisors:
    • (Peter and) all to propose and discuss on the [ontology-summit-org] list
    • after list confirmed, Steve and Barry to send out invitations
    • ALL: decided to not take on further "co-organizers" ... but will welcome them as "co-sponsors"
  • Candidate Dates (esp. virtual sessions for the 3 tracks) - tentative targets - need to decide what/when to put on
    • Thu 2009.12.10 - summit launch
    • Thu 2009.12.17 - curricula outline and/or preliminary environmental scan report; announcing the survey study(ies)
    • Thu 2009.01.14 - Content Track panel session
    • Thu 2009.02.04 - Research Track panel session
    • Thu 2009.02.18 - "Certification" Track panel session
    • Thu 2009.03.04 - draft deliverables review and alignment
    • Thu 2009.03.11 - final community sync-up prior to the symposium
    • Mon & Tue 2009.03.15 & 16 - Summit symposium (face-to-face) at NIST (Gaithersburg, MD, USA)
  • Any other business
  • Action items:
  • next meeting: Tuesday 2009.12.01 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:54 am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2009.11.17

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ]

  • Structuring the summit (next level of granularity)
    • Confirmation of track champions (to provide leadership for each track and their sub-tracks)
    • identifying Sub-Tracks or Discussion Threads that we should be pursuing in this Summit
    • identifying virtual panelist candidates (to be discussed or recommended by track champions)
    • identifying deliverable
  • Discussion
    • Barry: IAOA should be involved who or what should do the accreditation rather than doing the accreditation
    • Barry will contact Nicola on his acceptance ... and if so, start framing the discussion that you want the community to embark
    • we will defer discussion of the next level of granularity after the co-champions
  • Co-organizer / Co-sponsor / Advisory Committee member invitations
    • Peter will compile a list of past Ontology Summit advisors
    • we'll solicit more Advisor nominations from everyone on the organizing committee
    • the (2 items) above will be circulated on the [ontology-summit-org] list for discussion
    • Steve and Barry will send the invitations (say, at least a week before the launch) so that we will have an advisory committee in place by the time of the launch
    • similarly with past co-sponsors ... we'll also solicit new co-sponsors in the public mailing lists
  • Any other business:
    • none
  • Action items:
    • co-champions will work up the next level of details and a strawman on how they want to frame the discussion on their track (... etc.) within the week, so we can discuss it during our next organizing committee meeting. See above on the next level of details expected.
    • Steve to follow-up on inviting Arturo Sanchez to co-champion the "Research Track" with Antony Galton
    • Barry to invite Nicola Guarino to join him in co-championing the "Certification Track"
  • next meeting: Tuesday 2009.11.24 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 8:56am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2009.11.10

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

[ Audio Archive of the meeting ]

  • Review on what transpired from the "OntologySummit2010 Community Input and Planning session" - ConferenceCall_2009_11_05
    • great session ... well attended ... lots of great ideas collected ... new faces too
  • Structuring the summit (framing the discussion)
    • identifying Tracks or Discussion Threads that we should be pursuing in this Summit
      • Research track: Environmental scan & market research
      • Content track: recommending curricula
        • developing various certificate program curricula (professional, education, academic degree)
      • Certification track: Certification, Testing, Evaluation & Accreditation (certifying individuals, content, program & supplier)
    • identifying champions to provide leadership for each track (proposals)
    • identifying virtual panelist candidates (to be discussed or recommended by track champions) ... (discussion deferred until next meeting)
  • Candidate Dates (virtual sessions) -tentative targets
    • Thu 2009.12.17 - curricula outline or environmental scan report
    • Thu 2009.01.21
    • Thu 2009.02.04
    • Thu 2009.02.18
    • Thu 2009.03.04 - draft deliverables review and alignment
  • Co-organizer / Co-sponsor / Advisory Committee member invitations
    • Peter: no update
  • Any other business:
    • none
  • Action items:
    • Steve will ping/invite the proposed champions and have them recommend subtracks and subtrack champions
  • next meeting: Tuesday 2009.11.17 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:20am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Organizing Committee conference call - Tue 2009.11.03-11:30am EST

Conference call details:

Agenda & Notes for the Call

  • Scope issue - Nicola, Steve et al: wider vs. narrower scope ... and weaving "methodology" in.
    • Nicola: we want to work on both education and content
    • Steve: (a suggestion) ... assume a text book/tool-kit and an outline ... we can work up modules (chapters or sub-chapters) for the field of ontology and ontology engineering ... some of us can work on the structure, and others work on content, as our contribution to ontology education
    • Fabian: we need to allow diverse opinion and approaches ... the field is far from having a unified view on things
    • Michael: two levels - undergraduate and graduate level
    • Leo: if the deliverable is like a curriculum / curricula, a lot of these differences will show up in the work product
    • Steve: besides curriculum ... think certification too (as a possibility)
      • Fabian: Barry has been talking about this too
  • Aldo's participation - thoughts on patterns and vocamp
    • consider design patterns in ontology design can address more directly the needs of people, because they focus on specific application/modeling/learning needs; see http://www.ontologydesignpatterns.org
    • have high opinion about vocamp after having attended one ... the total "bottom up" approach of vocamp format facilitates the emergence of needs and issues that can be hampered by traditional lecture-oriented, top-down modelling/learning
  • Peter: various stakeholder approached during ISWC
    • NSF, NEU, RPI, UMD, Oxford, MIT, Karlsruhe, China, ... besides,Stanford, Buffalo, ...
    • GeorgeStrawn's suggestion that we should consider having "proposals" done as part of our deliverables
    • suggest other members of the organizing committee start approaching other people who will be in position to contribute
  • preparing for the "OntologySummit2010 Community Input and Planning session" - ConferenceCall_2009_11_05
    • Chair session: Steve Ray (or Steve Ray + BarrySmith) [Fabian will get back]
      • deliverables: a strawman, list of questions, a slide deck [Steve, Barry & Leo to get back to Peter on them]
    • Agenda:
    • process -
    • how to frame our discussion -
  • Structure of the summit
    • parallel work during the 3-months virtual interaction
    • try not to do breakouts at the two-day symposium at the end ... we want cohesion and things to come together at that point
  • confirming dates for the "Kick-off" sessions - Dec-10 confirmed (regular Ontolog slot)
  • Co-organizer / Co-sponsor / Advisory Committee member invitations
    • enlist all institutions and individuals who supported earlier summits
    • those Peter has approached (ISWC, IAOA-EC, ...) ...
    • all organizing committee members to propose strategic institutions and individuals that could help us advance this summit's agenda
    • will continue this discussion on the [ontology-summit-org] list
  • virtual panelist candidates
    • will work on the program after we have strustured a program and the individuals who will champion the various segments of it
  • Any other business
  • Action:
  • next meeting: Tuesday 2009.11.10 - 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC
    • Steve: I probably cannot join on Nov-10, Barry to chair
    • regular meeting will be scheduled (as agreed at our 2009.10.20 first meeting, please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EST / 8:30am PST / 5:30pm CET / 4:30pm GMT / 16:30 UTC

-- call ended 9:43am PST --


Ontology Summit 2010 Core Co-Organizer (Organizing Committee) conference call - Tue 2009.10.20-11:30am EDT

Conference call details:

Notes for the Call

  • Opening (SteveRay)
    • core co-organizers now include: NIST, NCOR, NCBO, IAOA & Ontolog
  • Some starting points:
    • the NIST Interoperability Week (as you have seen from an earlier communication that I have forwarded) is slated to happen between March 15-19, 2010.
    • we have agreed to do our OntologySummit2010_Symposium (the 2 day face-to-face event that concludes the summit) on Mon & Tue, Mar 15 & 16, 2010
    • our symposium venue will continue (like the last two years) to be at the "Employee Lounge" of the NIST Gaithersburg, Maryland, US campus
    • (we told NIST) all symposium details will be similar to the last two years' summit symposium, and we should expect around the same attendance as last year (around 40~80 on-site, plus remote attendees)
  • We do want to have a "good idea" on where we are going with the next Summit within the next week or so, so that we might approach some of the key people identified during ISWC next week (Oct. 25~29, 2009 in Chantilly, VA.) if possible. Therefore, this is prime time to get all the core co-organizer principals together and do a conference call, so we can start getting into the next level of details ... like:
    • defining a theme:
    • identifying key personnel, institutions or communities that we will need to approach:
      • additional co-organizers: educational institutions, stakeholders/enablers, ... universities, NSF, ... to be discussed
      • additional key-people: ... to be discussed
      • Advisory Committee members: ... to be discussed
      • co-sponsors: ... to be discussed
    • setting up an organizing committee:
      • Barry: request to nominate Fabian Neuhaus to represent NCOR
      • Nicola: probably would need to nominate someone else from IAOA (which they will discuss at the next executive council call)
      • with the exception of Barry & Nicola, everyone else expected on this call (plus FabianNeuhaus) is now officially on the organizing committee
    • prescribing a time-line:
      • community brainstorm/planning/input session - (say, 1 month before kick-off) 5 or 19-Nov-2009
      • kick-off session - (say, 3 months before symposium) 10 or 17-Dec-2009
      • summit symposium - Mon & Tue 15 & 16-Mar-2010
    • ...etc.
  • Barry: as some of you know, I have been working on Army's Universal Core (an xml schema; but Army want to develop an ontology approach) ... there is a need for a huge number of ontologists
    • proposing we explore, in the next summit: "Future need for trained ontologists ... and the response to meet this need"
      • Steve: this theme is already on the short list ... Peter: Barry actually proposed that two years ago.
      • Nicola: endorse the education theme ... also ontology development methodology (can be connected to the training)
      • Steve / Nicola: maybe we can drop out a curriculum in the process
      • Barry: we can get NIST, NSF, Army, etc. to speak out about the need
    • ALL: agreed to take on this as our theme for Ontology Summit 2010
    • Barry will help reduce to a tag-line we can use as a "Theme" ... (minutes later) Wow! he already got back with the following ...
  • Peter: the other contender is "Barrier to Ontology use" (which several people endorsed)
    • Peter: let's try to address some of this under the "education" theme
    • Barry: barrier is "negative" ... and of course, one of the major barrier is that we just don't have enough ontologists
  • Mark Carlisle: try to lean towards manufacturing
    • Nicola: we can use manufacturing as a case study
  • Any other business
    • Peter: sorry ... I didn't managed to do an audio recording of this session.
  • Action:
    • we'll continue to discuss this over the Ontology Summit 2010 core co-organizers email thread;
    • Peter will subscribe all core co-organizers principals and their organizing committee representatives onto the [ontology-summit-org] list, and we can take the conversation
    • start a discussion on the community [ontology-summit] mailing list some time soon
Creating the Ontologists of the Future
(first draft) Increasingly, major national and international projects centered on ontology technology are being advanced by governments and by scientific and industrial organizations. This brings a growing need for ontology expertise and thus for new methods and institutions for the training of ontologists. The 2010 Ontology Summit will explore strategies to address this need in terms of curriculum, establishment of new career tracks, role of ontology support organizations and funding agencies.
  • next meeting: Tuesday 2009.11.03 - 11:30am EDT / 8:30am PDT / 5:30pm CEST / 15:30 UTC
    • no meeting next week due to the fact that quite a few of us will be at ISWC
    • regular meeting will be scheduled (please block out the time) - every Tuesday, 11:30am EDT / 8:30am PDT / 5:30pm CEST / 15:30 UTC

-- call ended 8:58am PDT --