Alexander Johannesen, Bekk Consulting AS

DISCLAIMER : I love Topic Maps, and I get passionate about what I love. I think Topic Maps by itself will create peace on earth, solve world hunger and the energy crisis, so don’t expect me to dabble too much in the details. And, I love you.

Monteverdi and baroque music My wife pretending to understand me My kids learn something that I value highly Seriously complex challenges Enabling connotational knowledge

Monteverdi and baroque music

My wife pretending to understand me

My kids learn something that I value highly

Seriously complex challenges

Enabling connotational knowledge

composer Not classical music! partnership responsibility Has a price Measurement or Opinion context Information science Monteverdi and baroque music My wife pretending to understand me My kids learn something that I value highly Seriously complex challenges Enabling connotational knowledge Epistemology

Monteverdi and baroque music

My wife pretending to understand me

My kids learn something that I value highly

Seriously complex challenges

Enabling connotational knowledge

knowledge stories meaning humanity history culture

” Ferociously concerned with the preservation and access to knowledge”

” Ferociously concerned with the preservation and access to knowledge”

Unique postition Libraries are trusted to do the right thing Keepers of knowledge and order People who care No nonsense, only truth Nice, but firm Global institution

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Topic Maps made me a better man Forces me to Ponder meaning of words and relations Face modern IT problems differently Define your solutions humanely Think about what identity means Focus on the information rather than technology Relive my philosophical past in perpetual epistemology

Topic Maps made

me a better man

Forces me to

Ponder meaning of words and relations

Face modern IT problems differently

Define your solutions humanely

Think about what identity means

Focus on the information rather than technology

Relive my philosophical past in perpetual epistemology

Capturing knowledge in a way that’s easily dealt with by humans and computers alike Ease knowledge representation and findability Building an infrastructure for better cooperation of knowledge sharing Something about ”subject-centric” or something …

Capturing knowledge in a way that’s easily dealt with by humans and computers alike

Ease knowledge representation and findability

Building an infrastructure for better cooperation of knowledge sharing

Something about ”subject-centric” or something …

What’s a subject?

“ Anything whatsoever, regardless of whether it exists or has any other specific characteristics, about which anything whatsoever may be asserted by any means whatsoever ” What’s a subject?

A subject can be anything, and a topic represents it ” Memories of Prague” Semantic data model Huh, I thought a topic was “anything”?

Semantic - Meaning, meaningful, knowledge, idea, concept, sense Data - Stuff, most often loosely based on reality Modeling - exaggerated representation of parts of reality RECAP

Semantic

- Meaning, meaningful, knowledge, idea, concept, sense

Data

- Stuff, most often loosely based on reality

Modeling

- exaggerated representation of parts of reality

Models are concepts shaped by constraints “ freedom” free rights duality trapped RECAP

Models are concepts shaped by constraints

Models are concepts shaped by constraints “ freedom” free rights duality trapped Is_determined Have_influence Created_through RECAP

Models are concepts shaped by constraints

PSI “ Alex ” , “ Alexander ” , “ Johannesen, Alex ” #nla-resource-team-member #nla-resource-person #nla-resource-employee http://psi.me.net/ego “ Alex” #nla-resource-person http://psi.me.net/ego “ Alexander” #nla-resource-team-member http://psi.me.net/ego “ Johannesen, Alex” #nla-resource-employee http://psi.me.net/ego XY project My new app Fish ontology

Share your structures and data with outside sources as well Fiddle Project Dingbat Project AustLit project ontology XY project My new app Fish ontology

“ All models are wrong. Some models are useful.” -- George Box, statistiker, kjemiker

“ All models are wrong.

Some models are useful.”

-- George Box, statistiker, kjemiker

bull

head legs freedom milk It happens…

The idea of a category is central... Most symbols (i.e., words & representations) do not designate particular things or individuals in the world... Most of our words & concepts designate categories. There is nothing more basic than categorization to our though, perception, action & speech. Every time we see something as a kind of thing [...] we are categorizing Lakoff, ”Women, Fire and dangerous things”

an abstract container with things either inside or outside clear boundaries defined by common properties of the members items are in the same category if and only if they have certain properties in common independent of who is doing the categorising no member of a category has any special status all levels of a hierarchy are important and equivalent Categories?

an abstract container with things either inside or outside

clear boundaries

defined by common properties of the members

items are in the same category if and only if they have certain properties in common

independent of who is doing the categorising

no member of a category has any special status

all levels of a hierarchy are important and equivalent

[Classical category theory] is built into the foundations of mathematics and into much of our current computer software. Since mathematical and computer models are being used more and more as intellectual tools in the cognitive sciences, it is not surprising that there is considerable pressure to keep the traditional theory of classification at all costs. It fits the available intellectual tools, and abandoning it would require the development of new intellectual tools. And retooling is no more popular in the academy than in industry. Lakoff, ”Women, Fire and dangerous things”

Categories, really Derived from language; different languages classify things differently; there’s no universal categories Basic category theory Lakoff ”Women, Fire and Dangerous things” Chairs, where some chairs are more ”chair” than others Cognitive perception limits things’ modality which language further complicates ; we’re middle-sized beings with a knack for poetry How can you understand how big the universe is when you’ve lived in a cave your whole life … Models of understanding must be slowly built to overcome the perspective; it’s a genetic thing

Categories, really

Derived from language; different languages classify things differently; there’s no universal categories

Basic category theory

Lakoff ”Women, Fire and Dangerous things”

Chairs, where some chairs are more ”chair” than others

Cognitive perception limits things’ modality which language further complicates ; we’re middle-sized beings with a knack for poetry

How can you understand how big the universe is when you’ve lived in a cave your whole life …

Models of understanding must be slowly built to overcome the perspective; it’s a genetic thing

Categories are not merely organized in a hierarchy from the most general to the most specific, but are also organised so that the categories that are most cognitively basic are "in the middle" of a general-to-specific hierarchy. Generalisation proceeds upward from the basic level and specialization proceeds down

A basic level category is roughly in the middle of a hierarchy Learned earliest (how you teach kids) Usually has a short name in frequent use People are fast at identifying category members Categories have best - or prototypical - examples, with some members of the category being more representative than other members

A basic level category is roughly in the middle of a hierarchy

Learned earliest (how you teach kids)

Usually has a short name in frequent use

People are fast at identifying category members

Categories have best - or prototypical - examples, with some members of the category being more representative than other members

Most of our knowledge is organised around basic level categories (focus ontologies there for easy uptake?) Dependent on the person who is thinking (scope needs more pimping) No definitive basic level for a hierarchy A single mental image can reflect the category

Most of our knowledge is organised around basic level categories (focus ontologies there for easy uptake?)

Dependent on the person who is thinking (scope needs more pimping)

No definitive basic level for a hierarchy

A single mental image can reflect the category

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Topic Maps already supports your crazy ideas

Topic Maps

already supports

your crazy ideas

But we can only be subject-centric together with others

But we can only be

subject-centric together

with others

To be subject-centric … Community involvement and evolvement low (and tricky to find and get into), and threshold of entry is very high We’re a bit web shy, not part of the fabric of the web (no embedable XTM, [nearly] no exchange protocols after 10 years … we’re a bit slow on the ”cool” stuff), making experimentation through the worlds greatest network a bit slow We’re silo farmers with a mechanism to break free, yet we haven’t embraced it much

To be subject-centric …

Community involvement and evolvement low (and tricky to find and get into), and threshold of entry is very high

We’re a bit web shy, not part of the fabric of the web (no embedable XTM, [nearly] no exchange protocols after 10 years … we’re a bit slow on the ”cool” stuff), making experimentation through the worlds greatest network a bit slow

We’re silo farmers with a mechanism to break free, yet we haven’t embraced it much

To be subject-centric?? Categories are vocabulary, but where is the vocabulary level in Topic Maps? How can we share ontologies - speak people’s languages - when they’re undefined as such? OWL is a good constraint to create knowledge. Who could make persistent identifiers that people would trust? Subject-centric, or context-centric? What are subjects without constraints or relationships?

To be subject-centric??

Categories are vocabulary, but where is the vocabulary level in Topic Maps? How can we share ontologies - speak people’s languages - when they’re undefined as such? OWL is a good constraint to create knowledge.

Who could make persistent identifiers that people would trust?

Subject-centric, or context-centric? What are subjects without constraints or relationships?

Alexander Johannesen Manager +47 982 19 378 [email_address]

Alexander Johannesen

Manager

+47 982 19 378

[email_address]