Ontology

The term ontology is used in a large number of diverse fields. An ontology is, in its broadest sense, a systematic or formalized description of accepted properties and characteristics that relies on distinct institutional, social, and technical conventions. In geography, it represents a nexus of intellectual activities, most significantly philosophy and computer science. Its significance comes in no small measure through its role in the facilitation of information exchange and sharing in computer networks (interoperability). Examples of geographic ontologies include public transportation, noise emissions, and map features. Through systematization and formalization, these examples help facilitate the exchange of information about multiple activities that often are stored in different computer systems. Different disciplinary understandings of the term have led, in geography and geographic information science (GIScience), to people distinguishing “big Ontology” from “little ontology.”

The general concept of ontology can be compared to a synopsis of a community's language and understanding of the world around the community. Each community's members pursue similar activities, but their environment influences how they conduct activities and what relationships they have with a variety of activities. An Arctic Inuit group understands the world its members experience in different ways from a Xhosa group in Southern Africa. Each group has an ontology that reflects the community's shared set of knowledge. The specifics of fishing activities are different (e.g., needing to cut a hole in the ice), but the systematization of the ontology leads to a clear definition of specific activities being part of fishing.

This “small o” concept of ontology has a practical orientation that accounts, to some degree, for different meanings of things but tends to describe functions. Functions offer much insight into what people do but make it hard to distinguish the means from the ends, especially means that are implicit such as the paper needed to write a letter and the sharpened stone needed to break through ice. For work with computers, this issue means that an ontology can oversimplify and possibly ignore key aspects of activities that give them significance. Rather than merely functions, small o ontologies should be taken as specification of a conceptualization. However, although this considers activities broadly, it remains limited to what is needed and desired for a particular conceptualization. Returning to the fishing example, an ontology of the Inuit conceptualization of fishing may be perfectly adequate for Inuit communities but not for Xhosa or other indigenous fishers dwelling in more temperate areas.

Philosophers have raised this question and focused on this “big O” issue, attempting to systematically, logically, and rationally describe the penultimate meaning of objects and activities. The philosophical concept of Ontology involves determining the essential characteristics and actions of fishing and describing the universal traits and activities of fishing. This concept originated with Plato's view that the human mind is chained in a cave and can only perceive reflections of the world outside of the cave. Big O ontology aims to describe that world.

In spite of these differences, each approach requires the systematic and formal representation of[Page 342] knowledge. In either approach, an ontology is independent of the agent's internal representation, for example, presented in a language and terms that a person outside of the agent's community can understand. Small o ontologies are called conceptualizations, which are abstract simplified views of the world to represent for a purpose and are explicit.

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