Creating the ontologists of the future

Abstract

The goal of the Ontology Summit 2010 was to address the current shortage of persons with ontology expertise by developing a strategy for the education of ontologists. To achieve this goal we studied how ontologists are currently trained, the requirements identified by organizations that hire ontologists, and developments that might impact the training of ontologists in the future. We developed recommendations for the body of knowledge that should be taught and the skills that should be developed by future ontologists; these recommendations are intended as guidelines for institutions and organizations that may consider establishing a program for training ontologists. Further, we recommend a number of specific actions for the community to pursue.

Ontology development is consensus creation, not (merely) representation

“…During the Ontology Summit 2010, leading ontology experts discussed the training and education of future ontologists. In the resulting document the authors identify core knowledge and core skills that are required for an ontologist to be able to develop ontologies successfully (Neuhaus et al, 2011). Of the 15 core skills that were identified, 14 are technical (e.g., the ability to conduct an ontological analysis or choose an appropriate representation language).…”

Implementing connectivism by semantic technologies for self-directed learning

“…Domain ontologies can describe a domain of learning in terms of its composition of concepts, the connections between concepts and the further semantic differentiation of the concepts and connections. Domain ontologies are created and maintained by ontology engineers who translate expert knowledge into the representation of the ontology (Neuhaus et al , 2011). In doing so, the knowledge is codified into the composition and connections of the concepts, as well as into the description of the semantics of concepts and connections.…”

Getting it Fast - An Information Systems Oriented Semantic Web Curriculum

“…Paralleling this strong interest there is a flourishing growth of courses in academia and professional institutions; however, these courses are often single courses within larger programs. The authors in (Neuhaus, 2011) identified only one complete academic program completely devoted to education in applied ontology (a Master's program at the University of Buffalo) and 21 programs that offer ontology-centered topics.…”

“…The aim of this paper is to give a detailed overview of the curriculum taught in a Master's-level class in Informatics Engineering in order to "describe in more detail" how some of the knowledge and skills indicated in (Neuhaus, 2011) can be acquired. Our curriculum is "IT-oriented" with a particular emphasis placed on the knowledge and deployment of "IT systems involving many components in addition to the ontology itself" (Neuhaus, 2011).…”

“…The aim of this paper is to give a detailed overview of the curriculum taught in a Master's-level class in Informatics Engineering in order to "describe in more detail" how some of the knowledge and skills indicated in (Neuhaus, 2011) can be acquired. Our curriculum is "IT-oriented" with a particular emphasis placed on the knowledge and deployment of "IT systems involving many components in addition to the ontology itself" (Neuhaus, 2011). This type of curriculum fits well with the knowledge and background of Informatics Engineering and Computer Science students and provides a means of broadening both data and knowledge design capabilities, as well as system integration and software development skills.…”