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International ISKO

8th ISKO France conference, Lille, 27-28 June 2010 . Metadata about what ? Distinguishing between ontic, epistemic, and documental dimensions in KO Claudio Gnoli vice-president, ISKO University of Pavia. Science and Technology Library. International ISKO.

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International ISKO

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  1. 8th ISKO France conference, Lille, 27-28 June 2010 .Metadata about what ?Distinguishing between ontic, epistemic, and documental dimensions in KOClaudio Gnolivice-president, ISKOUniversity of Pavia. Science and Technology Library

  2. International ISKO (Fidelia had just left !)

  3. ISKO regional chapters

  4. knowledge organization = Wissensordnung = organisation des connaissances | du savoir = organizzazione della conoscenza | del sapere = organisación del conocimiento = ... Focused on the subject content of knowledge items KO  KM (gestion des connaissances) KO  KR (représentation des connaissances)

  5. Structure of the KO discipline KO theory e.g. levels theory  KO systems (KOS) e.g. CDU  KO representation  KRe.g. SKOS  KO applications  KMe.g. your digital library

  6. KO systems (KOS) • keyword sets • folksonomies • taxonomies • subject headings lists • thesauri • classification schemes  • ontologies sophistication, • ... hence cost!

  7. Traditional KO • by • disciplines: • Theology • Philosophy • Literature • ...

  8. Many new media... How to organize knowledge in them ? “Theology” ?? “Literature” ?? ...

  9. Scope of KO What is a knowledge item (a document) ? 1st attempt: Everything that conveys knowledge

  10. Scope of KO But everything can be a sign of something other ... [semiotics] E.g. a plant conveys knowledge about local climate Then even, say, a cactus is a document ?!

  11. Scope of KO Normally not. However, a cactus in a botanical garden is a document ! Everything that intentionally conveys knowledge

  12. Scope of KO • Collections of knowledge items: • libraries • archives • museums, galleries, exhibitions • botanical and zoological gardens • bibliographies, catalogues, directories • maps of research departments • websites, digital libraries • ...

  13. “From the world to the classifier” • [Brian Vickery  CG, 2 Aug 2007] • “The world = Phenomena • People’s activities = Disciplines, fields of activity • Reports of activities • Subjects of reports • Classification of subjects”

  14. Dimensions of knowledge (  reality ) [mystique ?]   phenomena [ontology]   aspects [epistemology]   carriers [bibliography]   collections [library science]   users [sociology] [cfr. Hjørland & Hartel, Afterword: ontological, epistemological and sociological dimensions of domains, KO, 30 (2003), n. 3-4, p. 239-245]

  15. Dimensions of knowledge • A book has • a mind ~ phenomena • a language ~ aspect • a body ~ carrier • [Ranganathan 1967]

  16. The ontic dimension (  reality )   phenomena [ontology]   aspects (disciplines, domains, activities, theories, approaches, perspectives, ...) Phenomena vs. disciplines [Mills & Broughton, BC2. Introduction ..., section 5.5, Butterworths, 1977]

  17. The ontic dimension Phenomena and disciplines often correspond: organisms ~ biology animals ~ zoology plants ~ botany Some call these sub-disciplines, while fundamental disciplinesare forms of knowledge, alternative “ways of looking at phenomena of the world”: science / philosophy / history / art [Mills & Broughton cit.; Langridge 1992]

  18. The ontic dimension Phenomena can work better than disciplines as knowledge units, because they are shared between many different media [Gnoli 2010] stars countries wines ...

  19. The ontic dimension ... photons, granites, cats, teams, operas, ... “Reality is the basis for the texts of documents; that is what authors try to describe, and what searchers are investigating.” [DJ Foskett 1970]

  20. The ontic dimension ... photons, granites, cats, teams, operas, ... “ building models of entities in reality, thus for example building models of the organization of the genome and not just of information contained in this or that database [Barry Smith 2004] ”

  21. Concepts depend on the current status of knowledge: their meaning changes in time [Popper; Quine; LaPorte]  phenomena analyzed into concepts   aspects ( theories )  all KOSs need revisions

  22. The epistemic dimension ... microscopy techniques, semiotics, Marxism, poetry, child education, ...  phenomena   aspects [epistemology] (disciplines, domains, activities, theories, approaches, perspectives, ...)   carriers

  23. The epistemic dimension The Integrative Levels Classification analyzes it into ten epistemic facets: 0 viewpoint, perspective [Beghtol] 01 epoch [Tennis] 02 place 03 method [Szostak] 04 theory [Szostak] 05 discipline [traditional KO] 06 culture 07 activity field, domain [Vickery, Hjørland] 08 modality, case 09 mood, communicative function [Hutchins]

  24. The epistemic dimension In some knowledge items (poetry, political cartoons), theme is strongly epistemic [Landbeck C, Issues in subject analysis and description of political cartoons, Proc. 19th Workshop ASIST SIG/CR, 2008, http://dlist.arizona.edu/ arizona/handle/10150/105595]

  25. The documental dimension ... MPEG formats, dates, durations, file sizes, ...  aspects   carriers [bibliography s.l.]   collections [library science] pragmatics    users [sociology]

  26. The documental dimension The Integrative Levels Classification analyzes it into ten documental facets: 00 document, specimen, knowledge item 001 publication time 002 publication place 003 language 004 medium 005 section 006 author 007 target 008 commented document 009 format

  27. The documental dimension In some knowledge items, like instrumental music, content is strongly formal, although phenomena and aspects can also be relevant, e.g. in Smetana’s Moldau

  28. Dimensions in titles Lectures onsettheory Handbook ofAfrican anthropology Birdwatchingin the Cotentin peninsula: a guide

  29. Front loading Recommended sequence: phenomenon > aspect > carrier ... on what ??

  30. Front loading      

  31. Subject matter vs. form phenomenon + aspect ~ subject indexing, semantics (classmarks, subject headings...) carrier ~ descriptive indexing (titles, authors, dates, ...)

  32. Subject matter vs. form Originally, “facets” are components of subject matter [Ranganathan] ... ... but in Web information architecture they are often meant as components of form [La Barre] JStor

  33. Subject matter vs. form form “facets”

  34. Subject matter vs. form • Metadata: • semantic • descriptive Standards for the “Semantic” Web concern subject contents ... ... but also descriptive metadata, e.g. “ontologies” for description of documents ...

  35. Thesis There is a need for distinguishing between the different dimensions of knowledge items, and to treat each separately in an appropriate way

  36. The León Manifesto [ISKO Spain 2007] Leon Manifesto • interdisciplinarity • requires some new KOS • based on phenomena • allowing to shift between perspectives • by analytico-synthetic techniques

  37. Integrative Levels Classification www.iskoi.org/ilc Esperimental freely-faceted KOS

  38. Integrative Levels Classification Treat dimensions as facets beginning by –0 mq03b animals, studied by observation mq03ganimals, studied by marking ft03g proteins, studied by marking

  39. Integrative Levels Classification Allows for combination of phenomenon, aspect, and carrier [León Manifesto] : mq03g007uanimals, studied by marking, treated for university readers so that each dimension can be searched and retrieved independently:

  40. Integrative Levels Classification Tested with a web bibliography on bioacoustics:

  41. Freely-faceted KO Allows for freecombination of phenomena, aspects, and carriers, hence for searching them separately in creative ways, thus discovering new combinations ... E.g.: has method x ever been applied to phenomenon y ? “Undiscovered public knowledge” [Davies, Szostak]

  42. What is the mission of KO ? Only describing the status-quo of knowledge by faithfully reproducing its perspectives (“theology books”, “literature books”) [literary warrant], or also favouring new creative, interdisciplinary uses of knowledge (“x, from viewpoint of y, applied to z”) ?...

  43. What is the mission of KO ? ... let’s discuss !

  44. Acknowledgements Tom Pullman (ILC project ; U Cambridge) Rick Szostak (ILC project ; U Alberta) Francesca Cattaneo (U Pavia)

  45. Merci pour votre attention !  Des questions (même en français) ? gnoli@aib.it

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