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Ontologie des Dokuments

Barry Smith

Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science Saarbrücken

Department of PhilosophyUniversity at Buffalo

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Ontologie (Phil.)Die Lehre vom Sein

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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) 6.9.06

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Q: Warum ‘Ontologie’ heute? A: Das Babelturmproblem der Informationssysteme

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‘Ontologie’ (Tech.)

= die Konstruktion künstlicher Taxonomien als Softwareartefakte, die u.a. Datenbanken miteinander kompatibel (interoperabel) machen sollen

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Erste Reaktion auf dieses Problem:Thesauri

IndizierungSuchfunktionen

Probleme mit string-basiertem Suchendiffuse Organisation durch Synonyma

keine logische Struktur

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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

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Ontology (science) in der Biomedizin

wir akkumulieren gigantische Mengen von Daten

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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 ?

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where in the cell ?

what kind of process ?

wir brauchen semantischeAnnotation dieser Daten

what kind of biological goal ?

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warum ist die Gene Ontologie so erfolgreich?

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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

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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

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Ontology (science)

Wichtigkeit menschlicher Akzeptanz

Menschen müssen Ontologien bevölkern und benützen

Gegengift zum Nimbus der EDV-Fachleute

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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

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Beispiel: Die Ontologie des Dokuments

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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

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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

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Beispiele von Dokumenten in diesem deontischen Sinn

• identification documents

• commercial documents

• legal documents

Thus: not novels, recipes, diaries ...

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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

advertising hoarding

gravestone

hallmarked silver plate

film credits

exterior signage on buildings

clay tablet record-ing outcome of litigation

e-document

electronic health record

credit card

car license plate

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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

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Basic distinctions among documents

–document template (Vorlage) vs. filled-in document

–document vs. piece of paper

–authentic document vs. copy, forgery

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Provenienz• Gemälde vs. Gedicht• Lohnsteuerformblatt vs. Lohnsteuerausweis• Fingerabdruck vs. Analyse eines Fingerabdrucks

historische vs. syntaktische Identität

• Unterschrift• Lichtbild• Siegel• Stempel

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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

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Two types of entities

• Discovered entities (molecules, cells, organisms)

• Created entities (corporations, ministries, obligations)

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Two types of ontology

• natural-science ontology (bio-ontologies)

• administrative ontology (e-commerce ontologies, legal ontologies)

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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 ?

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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 ...”)

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The Searle thesis:

the performance of speech acts brings into being claims and obligations and deontic

powers

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appointings, marryings, promisingschange the world... provided certain background conditions are satisfied:

valid formulation

legitimate authority

acceptance by addressees

We perform a speech act ... the world changes, instantaneously

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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?

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Answer

In small societies: the memories of those involved

In large societies: documents

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provided certain background conditions are satisfied

documents create and sustain permanent re-usable deontic powers

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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)

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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

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The Searle thesis

the performance of speech acts brings into being claims and obligations and deontic

powers

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The de Soto thesisdocuments and document systems create the institutional orders of modern societies

Freiheit für das Kapital! Warum der Kapitalismus nicht weltweit funktioniert,

Rowohlt 2002

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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

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The Mystery of Capital

= documentation

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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 ...)

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The creative power of documents

insurance certificates

treaties

patents

licenses

membership cards

divorce decrees

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Identity documents

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Identity documents

• create identity (and thereby create the possibility of identity theft)

• what is the ontology of identity?

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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Redundancy

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fingerprint

official stamps and seals

photograph

watermarks

bar code

numeric IDs allowing cross-referencing to documents

Technologies of identification

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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)?

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The ontology of signatures

signed/not signedsigned

incorrectlyfraudulentlyand stampedand countersigned (Gegenzeichnungen)by a proxy (Stellvertreter)with a single/with a plurality of signatories

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Standardized documents

Template, followed by act of filling in

documents filled in completely/partiallycorrectly/incorrectlyvalidly/invalidlyby proxy ...

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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

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from the Shiprock Navajo fair

New Mexico, September 30-October 1, 2005

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Standardized documents embody social memory (the technology of filling in)

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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

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documentshelped to create modern

civilization

they help us to move from small to large societies

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Hernando de SotoInstitute for Liberty and Democracy, Lima, Peru

Bill Clinton: “The most promising anti-poverty initiative in the world”

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using ontology (science) to answer the question:

what really exists in the African village ?

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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

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