1 UOS Application Dialog Introduction Dagobert Soergel College of Information Studies, University of Maryland

2 Purpose of this session Identify benefits of upper ontologies Identify benefits of aligning existing upper ontologies Identify requirements for upper ontologies Identify research issues

3 Purpose of this session Identify benefits of upper ontologies Identify applications where the use of an upper ontology gives –improved efficiency in system creation and/or –better system performance in terms of better reasoning or retrieval etc. Identify benefits of aligning existing upper ontologies for improving interoperability among applications Identify requirements for upper ontologies from the perspective of (potential) adopters Identify research issues on the path towards meeting application requirements and interoperability

4 Agenda 9:00 AM - Introduction – Dagobert Soergel 9:10 AM - Upper Ontologists: Application examples 10:10 AM - Stakeholders and potential funders 10:30 AM - Break 11:00 AM - Open dialog: Potential of upper ontologies –Upper ontologists –Stakeholders –Application builders 12:00 NOON - ADJOURN

5 Agenda 9:10 AM - Upper Ontologists: Application examples Cyc applications – Doug Lenat, Cycorp SUMO applications – Adam Pease, Articulate Software ISO applications – Matthew West, Shell DOLCE applications – Nicola Guarino Charge Present an example where the use of an upper ontology made a real difference in practice; Help those not steeped in logic understand the need for formalization and axioms; Illustrate the importance of aligning existing upper ontologies to achieve interoperability among practical applications.

6 Agenda 10:10 AM - Stakeholders and potential funders John Walker, NSA TBA, NSF Charge Comments and reactions to the presentations with a view to next steps towards implementation

7 Agenda 11:00 AM - Open dialog: Potential of upper ontologies –Upper ontologists –Stakeholders –Application builders Chris Welty, IBM Mike Uschold, Boeing Conor Shankey, Visual Knowledge Miles Davis (on Digital Harbor & Metatomix applications) Tom Beckman, Beckman Associates Dave McComb, Semantic Arts Charge Give more examples so we can start to build guidelines Identify requirements to make the use of upper ontologies easier. 12:00 NOON - ADJOURN