Raw Data Now? How about better data or ontological translators now?

At the Microsoft Faculty Summit John Wilbanks from Creative Commons foundation advocated very, very, very hard for better standards and ontologies and for making sure that everyone follows them. He brought up in his support Berners Lee‘s “Raw Data Now” TED talk. The general tenor of the talk was: why can’t we all get along and use the same ontologies? This brought to my mind the analogy of our search for a universal language, say, Esperanto, and our failure to adopt any of them. Universal languages never worked because there are clear advantages to using idiosyncratic languages. The same goes for the world of ideas. We prefer idolects to specific, unique ontologies. Nuance, metaphor, methodological options, or philosophical perspectives need specific vocabularies and grammars. For humans to express their deepest individual insights they need specific, at times idiosyncratic concepts, grammars, vocabularies. So, instead of chasing what appears to be the fata morgana of universal ontologies, how about we work a little harder on translators and on communication protocols that enable ontologies to converse with each other. Just like it happens in real life, where when we need to talk to each other we use translators (or learn each other’s language).

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