[ubl-comment] RE: Revised Ontolog Invitation Letter

[Monica Martin <mmartin@certivo.net>]

I can be more of an observer, because of time limits only.
 
 
Thanks, and good to hear from you Peter.
 
Monica

-----Original Message-----
From: Kurt Conrad [mailto:conrad@sagebrushgroup.com]
Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 1:35 AM
To: ontolog@forums.cim3.net; ubl-comment@lists.oasis-open.org
Cc: Peter P. Yim; Leo Obrst
Subject: Revised Ontolog Invitation Letter


Friends and associates,

This message is an invitation to join the reconstituted Ontolog
discussion group.  For those of you who were once subscribed to the
[ubl-ontolog] forum, you will need to respond to subscribe to this new
forum.  This is the only general call for participation that we
currently expect to distribute.


Charter

Ontolog is an open forum to: 

*	Discuss practical issues and strategies associated with the
development of both formal and informal ontologies used in business. 

*	Identify ontological engineering approaches that might be
applied to the UBL effort. 



Background

In March and April of 2002, members of the OASIS Universal Business
Language (UBL) Committee with backgrounds and interests in ontologies
attempted to kick off and charter a discussion dealing with ontological
issues under auspices of UBL Library Content Subcommittee (
http://oasis-open.org/committees/ubl/lcsc/
<http://oasis-open.org/committees/ubl/lcsc/> ).

Two factors made this approach problematic: 1) Early feedback indicated
more interest in learning about ontologies than applying experience with
ontological development 2) Tight timetables, deadlines, and priorities
within the UBL effort made it an inappropriate forum.

After conversations with the chair of the UBL committee, Jon Bosak, the
conveners of this forum decided to reconstitute the Ontolog forum
outside of the UBL effort around the statements of mission listed in the
above charter. 


Objectives 

In addition to the primary statements of purpose: 

*	We want to be pragmatic and not take a purely philosophical or
academic approach to the topic. 

*	We expect to contribute to the development of future standards.
The ongoing relationship with the UBL effort is one example of this. 

*	We encourage forum members to propose and decide upon their own
objectives. 

*	Some day, we hope to host a repository of business ontologies. 



How It Will Work 

*	The Ontolog discussion will use infrastructure provided by CIM
Engineering, Inc.  This is normally provided on a subscription basis.
If you have any ideas about potential sponsorship, please inform the
conveners. 

*	Messages can be posted by members to ontolog@forums.cim3.net 

*	Archives can be accessed by anybody at
http://ontolog.cim3.org/forums/ontolog/
<http://ontolog.cim3.org/forums/ontolog/>  

*	A shared, web-accessible work space is available at
http://ontolog.cim3.org/files/ <http://ontolog.cim3.org/files/>  

*	Activities will follow the OASIS process as closely as possible.


*	Where the discussion raises specific issues or leads to specific
proposals or recommendations for the UBL effort, they will be separately
documented and forwarded to the UBL Chair for consideration. Input will
be limited to actionable recommendations, not just general issues that
would require further study. 



What We Expect Each of You To Do 

*	Reply to this message, indicating whether you would like to be
added to the in the Ontolog discussion group. 

*	If you choose to participate, indicate whether you expect to be
an active member (with voting rights) or merely an observer (no voting
rights).  Observers will be encouraged to participate in the discussion
but will not be expected to take responsibility for critical path
activities. 



What We Hope Each of You Will Do 

*	Add discussion threads of personal interest. 

*	Identify other individuals that might want to participate in the
list. Simply ask them to contact one of the three convenors, who will
coordinate their addition to the list. 



We would like to see Ontolog become the forum of choice for discussing
the development and application of business ontologies.  With your
participation, we expect this to quite feasible.

/s/ The conveners of the Ontolog forum,

   Kurt Conrad         <conrad@sagebrushgroup.com>
   Leo Obrst           <lobrst@mitre.org>
   Peter Yim           <yimpp@cim-oem.com>