xml-dev - RE: Success factors for the Web and Semantic Web

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>]

I mean given a text, can one build an ontology 
from it or match it to an existing ontology? 

In other words, what does one do with an 
ontology or knowledge level description? 
One thing is to use it to establish 
further deeper agreement about some 
domain of discourse.  I identified one 
(a Request For a Proposal) and suggest 
that each discourse by use of the ontology 
may lead naturally and formally to the 
next logical discourse.  This is negotiation. 

We can't entirely put away natural language. 
In fact, we'd be hard pressed to give a 
closed definition for "natural language".  
If you can create an RDF from the web pages, 
you can do it from other texts.  The formality 
and structure of the texts make a difference 
of degree.  Those definitions as resources 
are in fact, natural language accompanied 
by axiomatic tests.

It isn't impractical.  Consider it in the 
framework of UDDI defined services.  A service 
layer below discovery is interpretation and 
negotiation in a cycle that outputs a Quote.  
Then another round of negotiation to create 
a Contract that will include Terms and Conditions. 
This is followed by execution of said contract 
which will include parallel operations, tests, 
and so forth until the project  
(outermost process of a nested process 
definition) closes.

BTW:  UDDI provides elements with 
key attributes (serviceKey, businessKey, 
tModelKey, etc) and these can be used 
to get details about services.  The URL 
gets you the entry point.  At that point, 
once you get past the surface descriptions, 
you engage the local business protocol.  
Businesses have been negotitating the 
steps in such protocols since Rome ruled 
Carthage.  It is SOP.

Len Bullard
Intergraph Public Safety
clbullar@ingr.com
http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard

Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h

From: Sean B. Palmer [mailto:sean@mysterylights.com]

> Could an ontology be used to service an engine
> that analyzes a text and determines the intent of
> the sender with regards to the text and what
> actions would meet that intent?

I don't think so. Note that TimBL in his XML2000 presentation said that the
Semantic Web did *not* mean the semantics of natural language. Of ocurse, I
may be completely misinterpreting what you are saying there! When you mean
analyze a text, did you mean analyze data?