SIOC Post profile for "AI3:::Adaptive Information"
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primary topic: The Open World Assumption: Elephant in the Room
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The Open World Assumption: Elephant in the Room
type: Post
has container: weblog
has creator: Mike Bergman
maker: Mike Bergman
created: 2009-12-22T04:20:14Z
content: OWA Enables Incremental, Low-risk Wins for the Semantic Enterprise Download PDF In speaking of the semantic Web, it is not infrequent that the open world assumption (OWA) gets mentioned. What this post argues is that this somewhat obscure concept may hold within it the key as to why there have been decades of too-frequent failures in the enterprise in business intelligence, data warehousing, data integration and federation, and knowledge management. This is a fairly bold assertion. In order to support it, we first need to look to the logic and mindset assumptions associated with traditional relational data management and the semantic Web. We then need to look to the nature of knowledge itself and its relation to data federation. It is in this intersection that the key of decades of faulty premises may reside. The main argument is that the closed world assumption (CWA) and its prevalent mindset in traditional database systems have hindered the ability of enterprises and the vendors that support them to adopt incremental, low-risk means to knowledge systems and management. CWA, in turn, has led to over-engineered schema, too-complicated architectures and massive specification efforts that have led to high deployment costs, blown schedules and brittleness. The good news is that abandoning these failed practices and embracing the open world approach can be done immediately based on existing assets. Simply shifting from the closed world to open world premise can, I argue, improve the odds for enterprise IT success in these areas. It is time to meet the elephant in the room. Scope and Some Root Causes of Enterprise IT Failures It is, of course, a bit of editorial hyperbole to label most enterprise initiatives in business intelligence and knowledge management as being failures over the past few decades. And, insofar as failures have occurred, I also do not believe they are the result of vendor greed or cynicism, or IT management mistakes or incompetence. Rather, I believe …
encoded: OWA Enables Incremental, Low-risk Wins for the Semantic Enterprise Download PDF In speaking of the semantic Web, it is not infrequent that the open world assumption (OWA) gets mentioned. What this post argues is that this somewhat obscure concept may hold within it the key as to why there have been decades of too-frequent failures in the enterprise in business intelligence, data warehousing, data integration and federation, and knowledge management. This is a fairly bold assertion. In order to support it, we first need to look to the logic and mindset assumptions associated with traditional relational data management and the semantic Web. We then need to look to the nature of knowledge itself and its relation to data federation. It is in this intersection that the key of decades of faulty premises may reside. The main argument is that the closed world assumption (CWA) and its prevalent mindset in traditional database systems have hindered the ability of enterprises and the vendors that support them to adopt incremental, low-risk means to knowledge systems and management. CWA, in turn, has led to over-engineered schema, too-complicated architectures and massive specification efforts that have led to high deployment costs, blown schedules and brittleness. The good news is that abandoning these failed practices and embracing the open world approach can be done immediately based on existing assets. Simply shifting from the closed world to open world premise can, I argue, improve the odds for enterprise IT success in these areas. It is time to meet the elephant in the room. Scope and Some Root Causes of Enterprise IT Failures It is, of course, a bit of editorial hyperbole to label most enterprise initiatives in business intelligence and knowledge management as being failures over the past few decades. And, insofar as failures have occurred, I also do not believe they are the result of vendor greed or cynicism, or IT management mistakes or incompetence. Rather, I believe …
topic: Description Logics
topic: Ontologies
topic: Semantic Web
has reply: comment-53364
has reply: comment-53486
has reply: comment-101374
has reply: comment-507598
links to: Download PDF
links to: semantic Web
links to: open world assumption
links to: business intelligence
links to: data warehousing
links to: data integration
links to: federation
links to: knowledge management
links to: closed world assumption
links to: [1]
links to: [2]
links to: Dilbert
links to: 3
links to: 4
links to: Datalog
links to: non-monotonic logic
links to: monotonic
links to: [5]
links to: null in SQL
links to: [6]
links to: 7
links to: [8]
links to: knowledge economy
links to: coherence
links to: Dewey Decimal Classification
links to: Library of Congress Classification
links to: Colon classification
links to: Avatar
links to: Lord of the Rings
links to: knowledge
links to: [9]
links to: [10]
links to: [11]
links to: [12]
links to: Web-oriented architecture
links to: Cost of IT Failure
links to: The CHAOS Report 2009 on IT Project Failure
links to: Software Project Failure Costs Billions; Better Estimation & Planning Can Help
links to: Critical Factors for Data Warehouse Failures
links to: Business Intelligence Projects are Famous for Low Success Rates, High Costs and Time Overruns
links to: Ontology-driven Applications Using Adaptive Ontologies
links to: Fresh Perspectives on the Semantic Enterprise
links to: Confronting Misconceptions with Adaptive Ontologies
links to: Advantages and Myths of RDF
links to: Making Linked Data Reasonable using Description Logics, Part 2
links to: The Role of UMBEL: Stuck in the Middle with You . . .
links to: ABox
links to: TBox
links to: working definition
links to: description logics
links to: RDF Semantics – W3C Recommendation
links to: Non-monotonic Logic
links to: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
links to: PaHo06a.pdf
links to: course
links to: OWL DL vs. OWL Flight: Conceptual Modeling and Reasoning for the Semantic Web
links to: A Relational View of the Semantic Web
links to: Frames and OWL Side by Side
links to: The Open World Assumption
links to: Closed World Reasoning
links to: 0067.html
links to: ontology-driven applications
links to: ABox-TBox
links to: lcw-aaai02.pdf
links to: Integrity constraints: Opening, Closing Worlds — On Integrity Constraints
links to: Inconsistency-tolerant Reasoning with Classical Logic and Large Databases

Mike Bergman
type: User

Mike Bergman
type: Person

4
label: [4]

[5]
label: 5

null in SQL
label: null statement in SQL

7
label: [7]

An Argumentative Approach to Reasoning with Inconsistent Ontologies

The Object-Oriented Semantic Web with SPIN