Ontologie des Dokuments Barry Smith Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science Saarbrücken Department of Philosophy University at Buffalo http://ifomis.org
Ontologie (Phil.) Die Lehre vom Sein http://ifomis.org
Google hits (in Millionen) 6.7.06 ontology + philosophy 2.7 ontology + information science 6.6 ontology + database 9.8 ontology 51.4 Google hits (in Millionen) 6.7.06 Google hits (in Millionen) 6.9.06 http://ifomis.org
Q: Warum ‘Ontologie’ heute Q: Warum ‘Ontologie’ heute? A: Das Babelturmproblem der Informationssysteme http://ifomis.org
‘Ontologie’ (Tech.) = die Konstruktion künstlicher Taxonomien als Softwareartefakte, die u.a. Datenbanken miteinander kompatibel (interoperabel) machen sollen http://ifomis.org
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Erste Reaktion auf dieses Problem: Thesauri Indizierung Suchfunktionen Probleme mit string-basiertem Suchen diffuse Organisation durch Synonyma keine logische Struktur http://ifomis.org
Ontologie und Webtechnologie die Integration von Wissen im Internet z.B. im Rahmen des so genannten “Semantic Web” Ontology Web Language (OWL) http://ifomis.org
Ausdrucksfähigkeit vs. Berechenbarkeit die Sprachen des Ontological Engineers bieten nur stark begrenzte Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten sie führen daher oft zu vereinfachten ‘Modellen’ der Wirklichkeit statt zu einer Repräsentationen dieser Wirklichkeit selbst http://ifomis.org
Semantic Web führt daher leider oft zu ‘schwachen Ontologien’ Pet Profile Ontology MusicBrainz Metadata Vocabulary Musical Baton Vocabulary Beer Ontology Kissology (http://www.w3.org/) http://ifomis.org
Ontology (science) eine Wissenschaft von Typen von Entitäten in den verschiedenen Domänen der Wirklichkeit, sowie von den Relationen zwischen diesen Typen Ontologien werden durch intensive multidisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit entwickelt empirische und logische Methoden werden verwendet, um Evolutionsschritte in Richtung einer Qualitätsverbesserung zu ermöglichen http://ifomis.org
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Ontology (science) in der Biomedizin wir akkumulieren gigantische Mengen von Daten http://ifomis.org
http://mednews.stanford.edu/stanmed/2005fall/microarray.html http://ifomis.org
Ontology (science) in der Biomedizin how do we know what data we have ? how do I know what data you have ? how do we know what data we don’t have ? how do we make different sorts of data combinable ? http://ifomis.org
wir brauchen semantische Annotation dieser Daten where in the cell ? what kind of process ? what kind of biological goal ? wir brauchen semantische Annotation dieser Daten dir.niehs.nih.gov/ microarray/datamining/ http://ifomis.org
Woops: 54M already ! Compare with 3M Dec 2004, and 12 M june 2005 when I did this. http://ifomis.org
warum ist die Gene Ontologie so erfolgreich? http://ifomis.org
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GO Methodologie der Annotation Experten durchforsten die wissenschaftliche Literatur, um Einträge in biochemischen Datenbanken mit GO-Termini zu verbinden diese Verbindungen werden digital katalogisiert die verschiedenen Datenbanken werden dann durch die GO-Termini automatisch integriert und zwar in einer Weise, die die biochemischen Daten auch für Menschen zugänglich macht GO Methodologie der Annotation http://ifomis.org
this leads to improvements and extensions of the ontology GO + Annotationen stellen eine wachsende algorithmisch interpretierbare Landkarte der biologischen Wirklichkeit dar Sie spielen auch für Menschen eine wichtige integrierende Rolle this leads to improvements and extensions of the ontology http://ifomis.org
Ontology (science) Wichtigkeit menschlicher Akzeptanz Menschen müssen Ontologien bevölkern und benützen Gegengift zum Nimbus der EDV-Fachleute http://ifomis.org
Ontologie (science) als wissenschaftliche Begleitung der Rechtsinformationssysteme Anwendungen in: Standardisierung (z.B. des EU-Rechts) Lernsystemen im komparativen Recht Festlegung gemeinsamen Grundwissens automatischem Schließen Statistik Integration von Daten http://ifomis.org
Beispiel: Die Ontologie des Dokuments http://ifomis.org
Dokument als Gegenstand der Informatik Bob Glushko (Document Engineering): “A document is a purposeful and self-contained collection of information.” on-line business transactions are ‘internet information exchanges’ but there is more than information here http://ifomis.org
Was ist ein Dokument? x is a document=def x ist eine dauerhafte Urkunde, die einen deontisch oder institutionell relevanten Akt darstellt oder ausdrückt x ist eine dauerhafte Urkunde, die eine wesentliche Rolle in einem deontisch oder institutionell relevanten Akt spielt http://ifomis.org
Beispiele von Dokumenten in diesem deontischen Sinn identification documents commercial documents legal documents Thus: not novels, recipes, diaries ... http://ifomis.org
Some examples Made of paper Not made of paper novel textbook newspaper advertising flier recipe map business card license degree certificate deed contract will bill statement of accounts consent form clay tablet record-ing outcome of litigation e-document electronic health record credit card car license plate advertising hoarding gravestone hallmarked silver plate film credits exterior signage on buildings http://ifomis.org
OED 1., 2. Teaching, lesson learned (cf. doctor, docile, docent) 3. That which serves to show, point out, or prove something; evidence, proof. 4. Something written, inscribed, etc., which furnishes evidence or information upon any subject, as a manuscript, title-deed, tombstone, coin, picture, etc. http://ifomis.org
Scope of document ontology the sorts of things we can do with documents the powers of documents the social interactions in which documents play an essential role the enduring institutional systems to which documents belong http://ifomis.org
Basic distinctions among documents document template (Vorlage) vs. filled-in document document vs. piece of paper authentic document vs. copy, forgery http://ifomis.org
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Provenienz Gemälde vs. Gedicht Lohnsteuerformblatt vs. Lohnsteuerausweis Fingerabdruck vs. Analyse eines Fingerabdrucks historische vs. syntaktische Identität Unterschrift Lichtbild Siegel Stempel http://ifomis.org
http://www.chazj.com/indent/en/1664qa.jpg http://ifomis.org
Allographic = identity is notational Autographic = identity is historical A signature is autographic A fingerprint left at the scene of the crime is autographic A fingerprint taken for identification purposes is allographic http://ifomis.org
What happens when you sign your passport? you initiate the validity of the passport you attest to the truth of the assertions it contains (historical identity) you provide a sample pattern for comparison (syntactic identity) Three document acts for the price of one http://ifomis.org
Passport acts I use my passport to prove my identity You use my passport to check my identity He renews my passport They confiscate my passport http://ifomis.org
You use my passport to check my identity knowledge by acquaintance knowledge by description knowledge by comparison http://ifomis.org
knowledge by complementation http://ifomis.org
Two types of entities Discovered entities (molecules, cells, organisms) Created entities (corporations, ministries, obligations) http://ifomis.org
Two types of ontology natural-science ontology (bio-ontologies) administrative ontology (e-commerce ontologies, legal ontologies) http://ifomis.org
Documents belong to the realm of administrative entities entities such as organizations, rules, prices, debts, standardized transactions ..., which we ourselves create But what does ‘create’ mean ? http://ifomis.org
Speech Act Theory We tell people how things are (assertives) We try to get them to do things (directives) We commit ourselves to doing things (commissives) We express our feelings and attitudes (expressives) We bring about changes in the world through utterances (declarations) (“I name this ship ...”) Searle 1996, p. 9. http://ifomis.org
The Searle thesis: the performance of speech acts brings into being claims and obligations and deontic powers http://ifomis.org
appointings, marryings, promisings change the world ... provided certain background conditions are satisfied: valid formulation legitimate authority acceptance by addressees We perform a speech act ... the world changes, instantaneously http://ifomis.org
but speech acts are evanescent entities: they are events, which exist only in their executions what is the physical basis for the temporally extended existence of its products and for their enduring power to serve coordination? http://ifomis.org
Answer In small societies: the memories of those involved In large societies: documents http://ifomis.org
provided certain background conditions are satisfied documents create and sustain permanent re-usable deontic powers http://ifomis.org
Differences between document acts and speech acts there are categories of document acts which serve multiple ends (three-for-the-price-of-one) documents endure through time, and so can create traceable liability (rückverfolgbare Haftbarkeit) documents can be attached together, creating new complexes whose structure mirrors relations among the human beings involved (of husband to wife, debtor to creditor) http://ifomis.org
Differences between document acts and speech acts speech acts are normally self-validating (they wear their provenance on their face) documents need technological devices (official stamps, special watermarks, signatures, countersignatures, seals, ...) documents foster proxy execution of social acts (representation, Vertretung) documents can be registered documents can be amended http://ifomis.org
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The Searle thesis the performance of speech acts brings into being claims and obligations and deontic powers http://ifomis.org
The de Soto thesis documents and document systems create the institutional orders of modern societies Freiheit für das Kapital! Warum der Kapitalismus nicht weltweit funktioniert, Rowohlt 2002 http://ifomis.org
The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Succeeds in the West and Fails Everywhere Else Freiheit für das Kapital! Warum der Kapitalismus nicht weltweit funktioniert, Rowohlt 2002 http://ifomis.org
The Mystery of Capital = documentation http://ifomis.org
The creative power of documents stock and share certificates create capital title creates property examination documents create PhDs marriage licenses create bonds of matrimony (Heiratsurkunde schafft Ehebund) bankruptcy certificates create bankrupts (Insolvenznachweis schafft Bankrotteur) statutes of incorporation create business (Statuten der Gesellschaftsgründung schaffen Unternehmen) charters create universities, cities, guilds (Verfassung schafft eine Stadt ...) http://ifomis.org
The creative power of documents insurance certificates treaties patents licenses membership cards divorce decrees http://ifomis.org
Identity documents http://ifomis.org
Identity documents create identity (and thereby create the possibility of identity theft) what is the ontology of identity? http://ifomis.org
The creative power of documents documents create authorities (physicians’ license creates physician) authorities create documents (physicians creates sick notes) documents issued by an authority within the framework of a valid legal institution vs. documents issued by an authority extralegally on its own behalf (cf. US Declaration of Independence) http://ifomis.org
Organizational chart = a map of the organization and of its flows of authority (document creates a system of positional roles) http://ifomis.org
Homework: How classify these kinds of documents ? partnership agreement/ statute of incorporation proxy form/representation agreement ballot form residence permit census report stock certificate insurance claim form insurance policy visa/immigration document bankruptcy certificate insurance card/health insurance card health certificate consent form (for medical procedure) medical record criminal record pension book rent book accident report/theft report/police report/charge architects plan (vs. template for an architects plan) http://ifomis.org
What kinds of documents have creative power in social reality? not novels – which exist in many identical copies (tokens of the same type) not watercolors in a gallery – which do not contain time-sensitive information http://ifomis.org
Non-Creative novel textbook newspaper recipe map business card advertizing flier timetable guarantee tax form (filled in) minutes of a meeting ALLOGRAPHIC license birth certificate degree certificate deed contract will receipt banknote painting statue building AUTOGRAPHIC http://ifomis.org
What can we do with a document? [DOCUMENT ACTS] Sign it Stamp it Copy it Witness it Fill it in Revise it Register it Archive it Realize (interrupt, abort ...) the actions mandated by it Deliver it (de facto, de jure) Declare it active/inactive Display it (price list) Attest to its validity Nullify it Destroy it http://ifomis.org
Who can engage in document acts? [DOCUMENT ACTORS] creator of document / of document-template (legislator, drafter ...) signer / attestor filler-in of template checker (solicitor, notary, administrative official) recipient addressee (executor of an estate) beneficiary (will ...) registrar, archivist http://ifomis.org
Registration storing of documents in a way which makes them permanently accessible (checkable, verifiable) amendable (e.g. where property is used as collateral for loans) combinable (attachment): social relations are created via cross-referenced and cross-attached documents more easily authenticated http://ifomis.org
What can we do with an ontology of documents? what categories of documents? what categories of document acts?’ what categories of provenience? what kinds of forgery and what kinds of safeguards? can we reproduce all of these computationally? http://ifomis.org
Redundancy Safety procedures for mission-critical technology involve multiple layers of redundancy to ensure against catastrophe. a photograph alone is not sufficient to establish your identity: it must appear in the right place in the right sort of document that has been marked in the right sort of way by signatures, counter-signatures, stamps, ID numbers these elements serve to anchor the document to the reality beyond and to the history of its production http://ifomis.org
Redundancy http://ifomis.org
Technologies of identification fingerprint official stamps and seals photograph watermarks bar code numeric IDs allowing cross-referencing to documents http://ifomis.org
Problems And how do we recreate these features in the realm of e-documents? How do we distinguish author from proxy in the realm of e-documents? How do we anchor e-documents to objects and processes in physical reality (e.g. to human beings)? http://ifomis.org
The ontology of signatures signed/not signed signed incorrectly fraudulently and stamped and countersigned (Gegenzeichnungen) by a proxy (Stellvertreter) with a single/with a plurality of signatories http://ifomis.org
The ontology of names a baptism ceremony creates a new sort of cultural object called a name names, too, belong to the domain of administrative (= created) entities this is an abstract yet time-bound object, like a nation or a club it is an object with parts (your first name and your last name are parts of your name, in something like the way in which the first movement and the last movement are parts of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony) http://ifomis.org
How do documents relate to the underlying physical medium A credit card receipt is autographic A credit card is allographic But the credit card as physical carrier is dispensable: What is important are the credit card numbers http://ifomis.org
The ontology of (credit card) numbers These numbers are not mathematical (not informational) entities – they are ‘thick’ (historical) numbers, special sorts of cultural artefacts they are information objects with provenance: abstract keys fitting into a globally distributed lock http://ifomis.org
Standardized documents Template, followed by act of filling in documents filled in completely/partially correctly/incorrectly validly/invalidly by proxy ... http://ifomis.org
Standardized documents allow networking across time (documents can accumulate through attachment - Anhänge) across space (different groups can orientate themselves around the same document forms) can encapsulate the memory and experience of an entire profession http://ifomis.org
Good documents vs. bad documents Good documents must be well-designed they must map the corresponding reality in a perspicuous way – cf. maps as document they must be easy to fill in by members of its central target audience (need for process of education?) they must not create new problems (should bow off the stage once they have been properly filled in and never be seen again except in those rare cases where problems arise) http://ifomis.org
Much valuable work on ‘documents’ in the context of XML, etc Much valuable work on ‘documents’ in the context of XML, etc., standardization e.g. Bob Glushko: “A document is a purposeful and self-contained collection of information.” focuses on information content, not on the physical container sees business collaborations – e.g. between on-line customer credit card authorization service when the latter verifies and charges the customer’s account – as ‘Internet information exchanges’ but there is more than information here http://ifomis.org
Similarities between speech acts and document acts Memory and learning play a role in each We have to be trained to use and trust documents (de Soto in Peru) Documentary habits are acquired in small face-to-face societies http://ifomis.org
from the Shiprock Navajo fair New Mexico, September 30-October 1, 2005 http://ifomis.org
Standardized documents embody social memory (the technology of filling in) http://ifomis.org
The virtues of standardized documents one can more easily check that one has filled in the boxes correctly (from a syntactical point of view) truthfully by the right person with the right authority the form itself can guarantee that it occupies its proper place in a network of forms facilitates checking and enforceability, and thus contributes to reliability and simplification of transactions http://ifomis.org
Document Systems the system of identity documents (of birth and death certificates and public records offices, of visas, passports, consulates and border posts); the system of legal documents (of codes of law, summonses, police reports, court proceedings) the system of credentialing documents (of degree certificates, examinations, class lists, charters of credentialing organizations) http://ifomis.org
as document systems evolve human beings acquire associated documentary skills in widening circles they thereby acquire the capacity to concretize the relevant kinds of ‘we’ intentionality, to occupy the relevant kinds of positional roles within larger corporate wholes through documents the actions of countless individuals become coordinated over space and time http://ifomis.org
documents helped to create modern civilization they help us to move from small to large societies http://ifomis.org
Hernando de Soto Institute for Liberty and Democracy, Lima, Peru Bill Clinton: “The most promising anti-poverty initiative in the world” http://ifomis.org
common beliefs about the African village no individual property rights regime of ‘community property’ land cannot be bought and sold, because it is sacred … no legal and economic institutions law is confined to what is legislated (= big-city top-down, colonial law) http://ifomis.org
using ontology (science) to answer the question: what really exists in the African village ? http://ifomis.org
Ontologie (science) als wissenschaftliche Begleitung der Rechtsinformationssysteme wissenschafliche Geschichte der Institutionen des Rechts wann sind welche Institutionen zuerst entstanden? Datierung von Dokumenten Unterschriften Dokumentvorlagen Ankreuzfelder http://ifomis.org
The history of document acts in medieval England a change in the meaning of ‘to record’ from to bear oral witness to to produce a document origin of practices such as dating and signing of documents, the making of financial accounts, the safekeeping of (master copies of) documents in central registries peasants’ charters giving smallholders title to their land institutions formerly the preserve of royal chanceries progressively disseminated among the laity http://ifomis.org
ENDE http://ifomis.org