ONTOLOGY

What is it?

(quotations from UCGIS white paper)

that branch of philosophy that deals with the nature and organization of reality

the totality of geospatial concepts, categories, relations, and processes

conceptual systems that people use

canonical description of knowledge domains

associated classificatory theories

the formal modeling of the geospatial world as this is experienced and conceptualized by non-experts

what we talk about

vague or precise?

role of cognitive science

is there one ontology or many?

compare data modeling

identification of the essential elements necessary to the description of a domain

data and relationships

but not processes
process models
transformations, simulations, programs...

select a general framework

specialize it for an application

ignore, suppress, marginalize, rethink things that do not fit the framework

hierarchical

network

relational

object-oriented data models

what are the essential constraints of each?

why are they successful?

what explains the historic progression?

more fundamental frameworks

table
list
map
field

something else

the code
general knowledge

applied to specific boundary conditions

methods in the OO model

associated with objects
"smart" objects

knowledge of all types

how the world looks (static description)

how the world works (dynamic process description)

reviews

can the study of how knowledge is structured be divorced from the acquisition of knowledge?

is every scientist an ontologist, or do we need experts?