ANSI Ad Hoc Group on Ontology Standards:
Discussion Topics for Ad Hoc Group meeting, March 4-5, 1996.

PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE STANDARD

• Definition of a conforming ontology
• Alignment of "slightly" incompatible ontologies
• Registration of conforming ontologies
• Public domain instance(s) of conforming ontologies
• Identification of
  • The kinds of models likely for each topic
  • Process(es) and people who will take each topic further
  • Ways one can, in principle, settle differences

THEORY

• Structure of ontological graphs (i.e trees, directed graphs, factored combinatorial, etc.)
• Relations
  • POSET of concept types
  • ISA (subtypes)
  • Other relations between types
  • Other relations between instances (e.g. part / whole)
• Definition of concept types
  • Rules of definition
    • Combinations
    • Recursive (factorial)
    • Primitive
      • Explicit
      • Closed form
    • Recursive
    • Implicit
      • Axioms
  • How rigorous should the definitions be?

LOGIC AND FORMALISM

• Basic elements (i.e. FOL, CG, KIF, etc)
• Extensions
  • Higher logic
  • Modality
  • Polarity
  • Authority
  • Defaults
  • Other
  • Context (point of view)
  • Confidence (degree of belief)
  • Probability (statistically established value, if it exists) as opposed to confidence

CONCEPT LIBRARY

• Upper structure
• Single-English-word set; terminology and ISA
• Multi-English-word set; terminology and ISA
• "Meat on the bones"; axioms, micro-theories, etc.

EXTENSIONS AND TESTING

• Description of ontological criteria
• Methodology / strategies for ontology conflict resolution
• Ontology measurements (size, content, organization)
• Evaluation / compliance

TOOLS

• Ontology browser / display
• Ontology editor
• Cross-ontology resource alignment / linker
• Crude consistency checker

RESOURCES

• WHO, WHAT, HOW, WHEN of agreed upon work to be done (i.e. writing various sections of the standard, editing, etc.)