Social Event, Monday, November 18, 6pm. The Information Artifact Ontology: Roots in BFO Barry Smith...

Social Event, Monday, November 18, 6pm

The Information Artifact Ontology:Roots in BFO

Barry SmithOctober 14, 2013

Continuant Occurrent

IndependentContinuant

DependentContinuant

Quality

Disposition

Process

Role

Realizable DependentContinuant

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located near

Latrine

Well

‘VT 334 569’

Distance Measurement

Result

Village Name

‘Khanabad Village’

Village

is_a

instance_of

Geopolitical Entity

Spatial Region

GeographicCoordinate

s Setdesignate

s

instance_of

located in

instance_of

has location designates

has location

instance_of

instance_of

’16 meters’

instance_of

measurement_of

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Types and Instances

Continuant


Specifically DependentContinuant

Quality

Disposition

Information Artifact

Role

Realizable DependentContinuant

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GenericallyDependentContinuant

Gene Sequence

Specifically Dependent Continuants

SpecificallyDependentContinuant

Quality, PatternRealizable Dependent Continuant

(RDC)

has unique bearer; if this bearer ceases to exist, then the quality or RDC ceases to exist

the color of my skin

the function of my heart

John’s smile

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Generically Dependent Continuants


Information Object

Sequence

if one bearer ceases to exist, then the entity can survive, because there are other bearers

(copyability)

the pdf file on my laptop

the DNA (sequence) in this chromosome

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Information artifacts

pdf file

email

poem

symphony

algorithm

symbol

- can migrate from one information bearer to another

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Continuant



Quality Information Artifact

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Gene Sequence

Material Entity

Information Bearing

Entity

Continuant



Quality Information Artifact

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Material Entity

Information Bearing

Entity

Information QualityEntity

depends_on concretized_by

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http://bioportal.bioontology.org/ontologies/IAO

http://bioportal.bioontology.org/ontologies/IAO

IAO: information content entity=def. an entity that is generically dependent on some artifact and stands in the relation of aboutness to some entity

Problems

Is a work of fiction about something?

Is a fake cover story for a fake terrorist about something?

Is an erroneous entry in a database about something?

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Generically dependent continuants such as plans, laws …

are concretized in specifically dependent continuants

(the plan in your head, the protocol being realized by your research team, the law being implemented by this government agency)

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War and Peace is an instance

SpecificallyDependentContinuant

War and Peace quality

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This bound copy of

War and Peace


The novelWar and Peace

instance_of instance_of instance_of

depends_on

concretized_by

The novel War and Peace has many bound copiesThe quality spherical has many instances

But having copies and having instances are two different things

Information entities exist in a way which makes them dependent on provenance, and on processors, in a way in which types are not

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Instances vs Copies

Is War and Peace a type or an instance?If War and Peace were a type, and the copies of War and Peace in my library and in your library were instances, then

• there would be many War(s) and Peaces.

Hence War and Peace is an instance.

What is a work of literature?

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There can be two copies of the US Declaration of Independence

There cannot be two US Declarations of Independence

There cannot be subtypes of the US Declaration of Independence

Hence the US Declaration of Independent is an instance and not a type.

There are not two Declarations of Independence

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Rule for types

Their names are pluralizable

There can be three peopleThere cannot be three Michelle Obamas.

Information Content Entities are GDCs = entities which can exist in many copies

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they have a different kind of provenance

◦Aspirin as product of Bayer GmbH◦aspirin as molecular structure◦This Financial Report is submitted to the

SEC

Generically dependent continuants are distinct from types

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Generically dependent continuants


Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is concretized in the pattern of ink marks which make up this score in my hand – this is an information quality entity: a BFO:quality of the material (information bearing entity) that is the score

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Generically dependent continuants (GDCs)

can be concretized in multiple different media (paper, silicon, neuron …)

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Type or instance

ContinuantOccurrent(Process)


human being,protocol document

DependentContinuant

pattern of ink marks

Applying the protocol

Side-Effect …

... .. ..... .... .....26

Continuant Occurrent


DependentContinuant

.... ..... .......

InformationContent

Entity

Action

creating a datum

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do not require specific media (paper, silicon, neuron …)


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Generically Dependent Continuants


Information Content Entity

Gene Sequence

.pdf file .doc file

instances 29


Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is concretized in the pattern of ink marks which make up this score in my hand


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Steps towards an email ontology• message has_part header section and body

section• header section has_part a collection of header

fields• header field contains a header name and a

header body• header body may have additional structure

based on the header in question• body may have nested structure and attachments

based on MIME• the body may contain a text version, an HTML

version, or both• the body may contain attachments (files such as

images, documents, other emails, etc• header fields may use MIME to include header

information in other languages/charsets

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email may have_status draft, sentemail may addressee may be in to: field, cc: field,

bcc: fieldemail may be forwardedemail may be read, unreademail may have priority…

Steps towards an email ontology

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E-mail Header

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A field is an information structure entity

(comparable to cell, margin, space between words, period, comma, etc.)

This means it is not about anything.

Nearly all information content entities have fields as parts

Address field is an information content entity which has a field as part

But address field is about (in some very attenuated sense) the type: address

Similarly the field in a spreadsheet where you fill in the measurement unit used is an ICE, because it is (in this same attenuated sense) the type: measurement unit.

When you fill in the actual address then the resultant field is an ICE which is about that actual address

BS

Email Address Field

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Good. Well sort of. What is the type "address" here? Below it is another information content entity. Sometimes the address means the "mailbox", i.e. an entity on the other side of a future communication, rather than an entity on the form. Sometimes it is about the target/owner of the email address, for instance when it is used as a user name in an online authentication form.

Email address

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Sometimes, even the idea that the email address is of an addressee fails. For example email can be used as a request for a service. An example is when we send mail to "[email protected]", where it is known that software will intercept such emails, extract the string after "From:", and remove from the mailing list any email address with that form. In that case the email address seems more to be about some kind of role, where the realization of that role is the action taken by the software.

mailto:[email protected]

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Descriptive purpose=def. the purpose of describing some portion of realityExamples: scientific paper, newspaper article, diary, experimenter

log notebookPrescriptive purpose=def. the purpose of prescribing or permitting or allowing some

activityExamples: a legal code, a license

Purpose of an Information Artifact

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Directive purpose=def. the purpose of specifying a plan or method for achieving

somethingExamples: instruction, manual, recipe, protocolDesignative purpose=def. the purpose of uniquely designating some entity or the

members of some class of entitiesExamples: a registry of members of an organization, a phone book,

a database linking proper names of persons with their social security numbers.

Purpose of an Information Artifact

Information Content Entity (science)

protocoldatabasetheoryontology gene listpublicationresult...

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Information Content Entity (labeling)

serial numberbatch numbergrant numberperson numbernameaddressemail addressURL...

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• Financial Report• Financial Report in XBRL for submission to GAAP• Business Report

Information Content Entity (Finance)

Social Event, Monday, November 18, 6pm. The Information Artifact Ontology: Roots in BFO Barry Smith...

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