Leveraging Communities to Collaboratively Develop

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Leveraging Communities to Collaboratively Develop
Operationalize Semantic Technologies
by Peter P. Yim ltpeter.yim_at_cim3.comgt September 9,
2004 at the

• Federal CIO Council Best Practices Committee -
  SICoP
• 2nd Semantic Technologies for eGov Conference
• at MITRE (McLean, VA)

( v 1.23 )
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Abstract
Semantic Technologies, applied in the presence of
the ever increasing computing power and
connectivity, could well bode the advent of a
paradigm shift (in the sense of Thomas Kuhn's
"Scientific Revolution") and usher the real
"knowledge economy". What is going to be
different this time, the author purports, is that
it is more complex than anything else we had
experience on, and is going to happen much faster
than people may think. As Ray Kurzweil's research
keeps showing us, in what he calls the "Law of
Time and Chaos," these changes are all moving at
an an exponential pace. We will, similarly, need
the ways and means to improve our capabilities at
an exponential rate, before we would be able to
cope with what is coming. Doug Engelbart's
"Bootstrap" approach towards developing a
collective intelligence through Networked
Improvement Communities spells out one strategy
whereby we can tackle this imminent challenge.
In this paper, the author will share his
insight on how we can collaboratively develop
operationalize semantic technologies, through
developing and engaging virtual open communities.
The author will explore the kind of "shared
understanding" that needs to be developed and
the stakeholders, expertise and resources that
have to be engaged, before we stand a chance to
tackle the type of problem (which Horst Rittle
calls a "wicked problem") at hand. The author
will proceed to describe the CIM3 methodology,
which involves the holistic application of
collaboration in tools, process and people, and
an organizational form -- the Fishnet
Organization (Johansen Swigart, 1994) -- that
is, in his opinion, ideally suited for the
purpose. To demonstrate his point, the author
will be citing examples from projects and
communities of practice that he has been involved
in, including those from the Bootstrap community,
Ontolog-Forum, the OASIS-UBL standards effort,
the ebXML Core Component Type Ontology project,
as well as some of the e-Government initiatives
like SINE, COLAB and SICoP. The author
concludes that open virtual enterprising over
such Fishnet organizational form will afford us
the agility we need to be competitive and
innovative in tomorrow's knowledge economy.
However, he also warns that the key to true
"open" collaboration will lie in our own
"attitude towards sharing."
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Semantic Technologies, applied in the presence
of the ever increasing computing power and
connectivity, could well bode the advent of a
paradigm shift (in the sense of Thomas Kuhn's
"Scientific Revolution") and usher the real
"knowledge economy"
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Understand Your Needs?- What is your semantic
application for?

• Reference standards
• Transaction process
• Information Mapping
• learning knowledge discovery

Different applications calls for different
approaches, technologies and skillset
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What Resources do you need for your project?

• Systems expertise
• Domain expertise
• Knowledge Engineering / Knowledge Representation
  expertise
• Software Engineering expertise
• Program/Project management
• Funding

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Why we need to Collaborate in Communities of
Practice?

• No one knows all the answers (dont believe me?
  try addressing the triple bottom line )
• A lot of times, we are dealing with problems
  which we cant even properly articulate
• Its urgent! We need our solution quick!
• Things around us are changing too fast, and
  unpredictably
• Bottom line we need a collective intelligence to
  cope

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Why Distributed Collaboration?

• Face-to-face interaction, while good and
  sometimes even necessary, is something we cant
  afford
• The expertise needed is too rare, or just isnt
  available locally
• Multiple perspectives improves quality
• We need to involve all stakeholders, and they
  arent all local
• Its more efficient, and its finally feasible

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Introducing CIM3

• CIM Engineering, Inc. - San Mateo, CA (since Jan
  1989)
• CIM3 Collaboration In huMan-Machine-Methodology
  
• Effectively, we are about optimizing systems of
  People, Tools and Process
• Mission to enable more effective distributed
  collaboration and virtual enterprise through
  bootstrapping collective intelligence over the
  Internet
• Doing business as
• cim3.com, cim3.net and cim3.org
• cim3.com the business arm of the company
• cim3.net the collaborative work environments
  where client Communities of Practice and
  distributed team workspaces are hosted
• cim3.org the research arm, and holder of the
  companys open technology, content and other
  intellectual properties
• Products/Services providing an ISP/ASP based
  Collaborative Work Environment (CWE)
  infrastructure that enables distributed project
  teams, virtual enterprise partners and
  communities of practice to work effectively over
  the Internet.

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Our FocusCommunities Distributed Teams

• People as an integral part of the system
• The Community Spectrum Kaplan/iCohere
• Affinity Networks
• Learning Communities
• Communities of Practice (CoPs)
• Project Teams
• We optimize our infrastructure, tools and process
  for CoPs and Distributed Project Teams

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CIM3's Approach

• Augmentation - human-machine interaction -
  collaboration - communities
• Openness - we use open-source software comply
  with open standards as much as we can we
  open-source our technology and content, and
  participate in open standards development
• Capitalizing on the Internet technology taking
  it
• from the research and academic network
• to the current form as publishing media
• to Transactions and Web Services
• onto being its future as knowledge media in the
  Semantic Web
• Providing Enterprise performance, quality,
  robustness, security fault tolerance
• Providing platform neutrality supporting
  machines on PCs, Macs, Linux, Unix,
• System built upon a knowledge architecture
  optimized for distributed teamwork
• Emphasis on effectiveness and strategic value -
  not technology
• Supporting entire user spectrum from the
  everyday users to the power users
• While we do open-source work, we believe in
  properly remunerating our contributors, and in
  helping create a viable economic model for open
  work, possibly in the form of Open Virtual
  Enterprises (OVEs)

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Case Examples of Communities on the CIM3 CWE

• Ontolog-Forum
• eGov COLAB
• eGov SINE
• GOV-CWE
• NIST-interop
• Millennium Project(AC/UNU)
• Protégé
• Digital Art Ontology
• (more)

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ontolog-forum
http//ontolog.cim3.net

• Ontolog is an open forum to
• Discuss practical issues and strategies
  associated with the development of both formal
  and informal ontologies used in business
• Identify ontological engineering approaches that
  might be applied to the UBL effort (and by
  extension, to the broader domain of eBusiness
  standardization efforts)
• What holds us together our Core Value
• Developing Shared Understanding
• Openness
• Advancing the practice of semantic engineering
• Doing meaningful work and making a difference
  with it

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An Organizational Form that the CWE aims at
supporting bringing us from collaboration
to innovation by forging the Open Virtual
Enterprises
these are temporary (or semi-permanent)
hierarchies, that emerge out of the CoP's, which
capitalize on distributed capabilities to achieve
specific purposes when those purposes are
achieved (or when the opportunities no longer
exist), they disband, and the resources (people,
knowledge, skillsets) are returned to the CoP's
where they come from.
The Fishnet Organization
Source Institute for the Future Johansen, R.,
Swigart, R.  Upsizing the Individual in the
Downsized Organization
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The Challenges

• We need to be improving at an exponential rate,
  just to cope with the exponential rate of
  change happening around us
• We need the tools, the process, and most
  importantly the people to all work together
• Team building, with distributed individuals who
  might not even have met one another, is a
  challenge
• Trusted communities cannot be developed overnight
• The current economic and legal infrastructure
  arent meant for these types of organizations
• The individual participants hold the key to the
  communities success its in their attitude
  towards sharing

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For more information, visit

• eGov COLAB community work environment
  http//colab.cim3.net
• Ontolog-Forum our Open International
  Community of Practice on Business Ontology
  http//ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
• CIM Engineering, Inc. Collaborative Work
  Environment infrastructure hosting
  http//www.cim3.com

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About the Author
Peter P. Yim is the CEO of CIM Engineering, Inc.
(incorporated in California 1989 dba CIM3.com
CIM3.net CIM3.org). He is also the Co-convener
of Ontolog-Forum, an open international
community of practice on business ontologies, and
a contributing member of the OASIS Universal
Business Language (UBL) Technical Committee.
His company has been developing and providing
hosted infrastructure that enables highly
effective distributed project teams, communities
of practice and open virtual enterprising. CIM3
is involved in projects ranging from the
development of the ebXML Core Component Type
Ontology (cctont), to the eGov - COLAB and SINE
(Sustainable Intergovernmental Network Exchange)
collaborative work environments. Peter works
out of Northern California (San Mateo, CA 94402)
and can be reached at peter.yim_at_cim3.com or
[phone]