03.01.12
Ontology Evolution or Revolution?
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Will the application of ontology to software development be evolutionary or revolutionary? Since many in the software industry are not even aware of the potential impact of applying ontology, the general belief is that nothing significant will happen. Those that are aware of the advances see the use of ontology in specialized areas only and often within the highly disciplined university environment. Then there are the Enterprise Architects that see a wonderful revolution about to take place.
The efforts to capture machine-readable knowledge have become more intense over the last decade due to the internet. This idea is all part of the semantic web efforts where knowledge defined in axiomatic form can be shared across the world. It is a noble idea, but one that has been slow in its maturity.
The biggest challenge in sharing knowledge is the “not invented here” syndrome. Everyone believes that they are different and every organization believes they are different. From the perspective of an Enterprise Architect, the differences are very small from one organization to another. Organizations in the same line of business are actually very similar. Individuals performing the same role in one organization can transfer to a similar role in another organization.
I believe that there will be a revolution. Once business organizations realize the value of not reinventing the wheel for their core business operations, they will begin to focus on their true unique competencies to enhance their customer’s experience. This awareness will come as an awakening that will revolutionize how organizations operate.
This awakening is an easy prediction to make given the following assumptions: 1) Organizations like to save money; 2) Organizations like to produce better quality results; 3) Organizations are not hesitant to make changes when either 1 or 2 is obvious.
As with any major change, the aggressive organizations will be first and the others will fall like dominoes. Already, the health industry has found tremendous benefit in capturing and sharing knowledge that helps everyone. This knowledge is not buried in published documents; it exists as a repository of both structure and logic. Unlike databases that only offer the storing and retrieval of data, ontologies provide executable capabilities that assure structure and logic.
Think about software developers as the providers of solutions that assure structure and logic. As ontologies begin to take over as the providers of structure and logic, the software development industry will be changed forever. It will be a revolution.
The Enterprise Architects can see what is coming and are already preparing. They know that this will be their time. Corporations will be able to completely focus on their business, and automation will be viewed as an agile enabler. Automation will finally become the self-service contributor that the Corporate Office has always wanted it to be. –Enterprise Architects Masters of the Unseen City
Closing the Business / IT gap.
