4 ms·

Ask HN: Who uses ontologies in practice and for what use case?

14 points by WolfOliver 6y ago

GianFabien 6y ago
I find ontologies useful in the preamble of requirements documents to define the terms and concepts that will be later used in the body of the document. Generally they are simple and accepted concepts for the domain specialists, but not well understood by programmers who have to read the requirements and business analysis documents.
- WolfOliver 6y ago
  How do you specify the ontologies in context of requirements documents? Do you use any formal methods like OWL? see: https://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/ https://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/
rapnie 6y ago
ISA² [0] (Interoperability solutions for public administrations, businesses and citizens) uses various ontologies, like Core Vocabularies [1]. [0] https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/solutions_en https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/solutions_en [1] https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/solutions/core-vocabularies_en https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/solutions/core-vocabularies_en (but maybe you meant this question in a more general sense, not specific examples)
- WolfOliver 6y ago
  Those are good examples, thank you!
sebast_bake 6y ago
They're increasingly being used in the building automation industry to describe HVAC and lighting systems for analytics purposes. RDF suits because inference allows it to deal with massive scope of data (the amount of different hvac products and configurations in buildings is crazy), and prevents vendor lock in (a surprisingly common concern in that industry). The two relevant schemas are Project Haystack[0], and Brick Schema[1]. As far as I know, the most mature analytics provider is Skyspark[2]. Super interesting space. [0] https://project-haystack.org/ https://project-haystack.org/ [1] https://brickschema.org/ https://brickschema.org/ [2] https://skyfoundry.com/product https://skyfoundry.com/product
- WolfOliver 6y ago
  I also think its very interesting space. It's just super hidden in big corporates with employee who do not know about hackernews.
airhead969 6y ago
Healthcare. Biomedical informatics IIRC did/does a lot with this in nosology.

14 points by WolfOliver 6y ago

I find ontologies useful in the preamble of requirements documents to define the terms and concepts that will be later used in the body of the document. Generally they are simple and accepted concepts for the domain specialists, but not well understood by programmers who have to read the requirements and business analysis documents.

WolfOliver 6y ago
How do you specify the ontologies in context of requirements documents? Do you use any formal methods like OWL? see: https://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/ https://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/

rapnie 6y ago

ISA² [0] (Interoperability solutions for public administrations, businesses and citizens) uses various ontologies, like Core Vocabularies [1]. [0] https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/solutions_en https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/solutions_en [1] https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/solutions/core-vocabularies_en https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/solutions/core-vocabularies_en (but maybe you meant this question in a more general sense, not specific examples)

WolfOliver 6y ago
Those are good examples, thank you!

sebast_bake 6y ago

They're increasingly being used in the building automation industry to describe HVAC and lighting systems for analytics purposes. RDF suits because inference allows it to deal with massive scope of data (the amount of different hvac products and configurations in buildings is crazy), and prevents vendor lock in (a surprisingly common concern in that industry). The two relevant schemas are Project Haystack[0], and Brick Schema[1]. As far as I know, the most mature analytics provider is Skyspark[2]. Super interesting space. [0] https://project-haystack.org/ https://project-haystack.org/ [1] https://brickschema.org/ https://brickschema.org/ [2] https://skyfoundry.com/product https://skyfoundry.com/product

WolfOliver 6y ago
I also think its very interesting space. It's just super hidden in big corporates with employee who do not know about hackernews.

airhead969 6y ago

Healthcare. Biomedical informatics IIRC did/does a lot with this in nosology.