“A Discussion on Ontology-Driven Information Systems"

Friday, April 15, 2005
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Room 404, IS Building

You are invited to meet the speaker before the talk
from 10:30 AM – 11:00 AM in the Large Commons Room of the IS Building

Abstract: In the traditional systems modeling approach, the modeler is required to capture a user’s view of some domain in a formal conceptual schema. In doing so, the modeler follows an established paradigm, such as object-orientation or entity-relational, that is chosen in terms of the available programming environment. Such an approach forces the modeler to mentally map concepts acquired from the specific domain to instances of abstractions available in his paradigm of choice. This mapping is done informally and in an ad-hoc fashion, thereby introducing inconsistencies and inaccuracies that inevitably lead to conflicts between the user’s concepts and the abstractions captured in the conceptual schema. Looking for an answer to this problem, Guarino proposed that those working on information systems should make use of commonly held, formally defined ontologies in the design, development, and use of information systems. He named such systems ontology-driven information systems. Nevertheless some authors disagree that the development of IS based on ontologies is a new concept. Sowa uses the work of Tsichritzis and Klug for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to say that the concept of using ontologies as the foundation for IS development is an old idea. But one implicit concept in Sowa’s argument is that a conceptual schema is the same thing as an ontology. In this presentation we discuss the differences between ontologies and conceptual schemas. In this context, we not only try to clarify the distinction between ontologies and conceptual schemas, but we also hope to contribute to the ongoing project of understanding the nature of ontology-driven information.

Contact Information:
E-Mail: fredfonseca@ist.psu.edu
Homepage Link: http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/f/u/fuf1/

Bio: Dr. Fonseca is an assistant professor at the School of Information Sciences and Technology at The Pennsylvania State University since 2001. He finished his Ph.D. in 2001 with Dr. Egenhofer at The University of Maine. His thesis covered the area of geographical information systems interoperability providing a theoretical basis for semantic interoperability. With his focus on geographical information systems design, Dr. Fonseca demonstrates how complicated processes can be integrated to the benefit of users. His newly developed concept of ontology-based GIS is highly interdisciplinary as it brings together various research methods from artificial intelligence, software engineering, and GIS. His research on ontologies, currently funded by NSF and by an AT&T fellowship, is marked by a capstone publication in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology in 2004. In the past year, Dr. Fonseca gave presentations in two selected workshops, wrote a chapter for a reference book in GIS, and reviewed papers for four conferences and seven different journals. Dr. Fonseca has served as a panel reviewer for NSF and as a member of the Advisory Board for the online professional Masters degree program in Geographic Information Systems. Dr. Fonseca is currently teaching Introduction to IST Research, in which he relates his research on Philosophy of Science and Ontologies with specific questions in IS research.