[Air-l] Origin of the term "Internet" ?

[Christopher Lueg]

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007, Ellis Godard wrote:

> Here's a less verbose (and so more obtuse) definition, complementary to at
> least some aspects of that "short answer" and in the context of three
> others:

The whole discussion would be much easier if AI would not (continue to) 
confuse data (the stuff computers are good at processing) and 
information/knowledge (the stuff that involves people and their 
interpretations of data).
(a slightly longer version of this perspective is here:
http://www.svifsi.ch/revue/pages/issues/n021/in021Lueg.pdf)

> Ontology regards what can be known (including demarcations regarding the
> basis for decisions, such as appeal to observable facts).
>
> Epistemology involves strategies for knowing (ideally implying, if not
> explicitly specifying, criteria for evaluating particular applications of
> the strategy).
>
> Theory attempts to summarize what is known (reducing the idiosyncrasies of
> life's complexity by appeal to patterns, processes, or other connecting
> threads).
>
> Methodology involves and applies ideas about coming to know.
>
> -eg
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-
>> bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of James Whyte
>> Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 1:09 PM
>> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>> Subject: Re: [Air-l] Origin of the term "Internet" ?
>>
>> I have received comments both onlist and offlist about my comments on
>> this thread. I offer this as a source for my reasoning. My apology for
>> not doing this earlier.  What is an Ontology?    Tom Gruber
>> <gruber at ksl.stanford.edu>
>> Short answer:
>>    An ontology is a specification of a conceptualization.   The word
>> "ontology" seems to generate a lot of controversy in discussions about
>> AI. It has a long history in philosophy, in which it refers to the
>> subject of existence. It is also often confused with epistemology,
>> which is about knowledge and knowing.   In the context of knowledge
>> sharing, I use the term ontology to mean a specification of a
>> conceptualization. That is, an ontology is a description (like a formal
>> specification of a program) of the concepts and relationships that can
>> exist for an agent or a community of agents. This definition is
>> consistent with the usage of ontology as set-of-concept-definitions,
>> but more general. And it is certainly a different sense of the word
>> than its use in philosophy.   What is important is what an ontology is
>> for. My colleagues and I have been designing ontologies for the purpose
>> of enabling knowledge sharing and reuse. In that context, an ontology
>> is a specification used for
>>  making ontological commitments. The formal definition of ontological
>> commitment is given below. For pragmetic reasons, we choose to write an
>> ontology as a set of definitions of formal vocabulary. Although this
>> isn't the only way to specify a conceptualization, it has some nice
>> properties for knowledge sharing among AI software (e.g., semantics
>> independent of reader and context). Practically, an ontological
>> commitment is an agreement to use a vocabulary (i.e., ask queries and
>> make assertions) in a way that is consistent (but not complete) with
>> respect to the theory specified by an ontology. We build agents that
>> commit to ontologies. We design ontologies so we can share knowledge
>> with and among these agents.   This definition is given in the article:
>> T. R. Gruber. A translation approach to portable ontologies. Knowledge
>> Acquisition, 5(2):199-220, 1993. Available on line.   A more detailed
>> description is given in   T. R. Gruber. Toward principles for the
>> design of
>>  ontologies used for knowledge sharing. Presented at the Padua workshop
>> on Formal Ontology, March 1993, to appear in an edited collection by
>> Nicola Guarino. Available online.
>>
>>   http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/kst/what-is-an-ontology.html
>>
>>
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-- 
Dr. Christopher Lueg
Professor of Computing
University of Tasmania
Centenary Building R451
Hobart, TAS, Australia
christopher.lueg at utas.edu.au
http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~lueg/
CRICOS Provider Code: 00586B