mauri kaipainen 10.01.2007 soft ontologies and meaning dimensions of the city mauri kaipainen, phd...

Mauri Kaipainen 10.01.2007

Soft Ontologies and Meaning dimensions of

the CityMauri Kaipainen, PhD

Knowledge Environments Research GroupTallinn University


My institution

• Tallinn University, Department of Informatics

• Interactive Media and Knowledge Environments (IMKE) international MA program

• Knowledge Environments Research Group (KERG)

• Tallinn Media Cluster (TMC)


My background and approach Backgrounds:• Cognitive science• New Media• Semiotics• Education• Musicology=> Talking about a city as• A medium• An environment of joint sense-making

(semiosis)


Aim To• Point out the omnipresence of

ontologies• Spatialize and de-textualize the idea of

ontologies• De-cartesianize ontologies of the city=> Propose a hybrid ontological space as

a bridge between textual and spatial ontologies


OUTLINE

• About modeling• Ontology and ontologies• Soft ontologies• Multi-perspective media• Taggin’ Tallinn


ABOUT MODELS


ModelsCan be, e.g.• Miniatures• Visualizations• Spatializations• Dynamic system models• Mathematical models• Algorithmic and generative models• Conceptual models...Big picture: Digital modeling of the whole world

ongoing!


Models

• Explain objects, processes, activities (and sequences)

• Simplify rather than complicate• Help understanding• Structure ways of managing the

objects of modeling (as in digital systems)


ONTOLOGY AND ONTOLOGIES


Ontologies as conceptual modelsModels of • How a domain is conceived to exist• What a domain is conceived to

consist of• What relationships its constituents

have with each other and the external world


Ontology in Philosophy

• ”Study of being or existence” (WP)• Discipline of philosophy• Ontologies ”Bad” reputation in

postmodern thinking: Associated with naïve realism


Ontologies in Computer science• ” Ontology is a data model that

represents a domain and is used to reason about the objects in that domain and the relations between them” (WP)

• ” An ontology is a specification of a conceptualization.” (Gruber)


Roles of Ontology

Functions of ontology discussed:• Conceptual model of sense-making

within a domain• Spatial model(!)• Backbone of Multidimensional

Database media


Premise 1: Ontologies are always thereEach message, text, or narrative

assumes an ontology, either• implicit (usually), or• explicitCity as a text (Lotman) or a story.


Premise 2: Ontologies reflect perspectivesNot neutral but reflect someone’s:• priorities, preferences• values• meaningsof the author or owner of the

medium.


Premise 3: Ontologies are (typically) hard• Hard = Built into structure or technical

implementation of the medium (here city)

• Typically assumed to represent static ”reality” of the domain

Example: City as a system of coordinates, system of electricity, plumbing, law & order etc.-> Truth?


Premise 4: Ontologies are monoperspectivalConventional ontologies are • Monoperspectival, representing

the perspective of the author or owner of the medium


Premise 5: Ontologies are means of power• Means of top-down top-down

media power


Premise 6: Ontologies are text-based• Text based• Not natively spatial• Not natively visual


Hard and soft ontologies

• Hard ontologies (conventionally)• Soft ontologies (proposed!)


Implicit hard ontologies

Embedded in the structure, presentation order or hierarchy

• Language, vocabularies, terminology, concepts

• Stories: cinema, theatre, etc.• Search engines, e.g. Google• City conceptualization and

planning(?)


Explicit hard ontologies

• Taxonomies: Linnaean botanical taxonomy• Library systems• Database architectures• Metadata systems, often hierarchical:

Semantic Web• Hypertext link structure (flat): web pages,

sites, hypertext• City infrastructure, administrative structure,,

web presence etc. (?)


Key issues about ontologies of a city• What kind of story do I/you/we/they

want to tell about a city?• Who/what defines a city and for whom?• Can there be a single truth about a city?• Whose own the (conceptualization

of )the city?


SOFT ONTOLOGIES


Soft ontologies

Dynamically multidimensional conceptualizations, by means of...

Open sets of descriptive feature dimensions applicable to all items of the domain.

• explicit• open ended


Purposes of soft ontology

• To define a domain of information without a single fixed perspective

• Support multiple perspectives to an ontological space

• Allow open (accumulating) conceptualization of a domain


Implementation of soft ontologies• Numeric: Each item takes a value

between 0 and 1 on each ontological dimension

• => Spatial organization!• Dimensionality open: New features

can be added and existing ones may be ignored at will


Example of soft ontology as table

Bars & cafeteriaslatitudelongitudealtitudeGood_latteFriendly_serviceSmiley_customersCool_musicWiFi add...Rüütli_Latte 7 3 7 4 1 2 0.5 1Rae_Café 6 8 6 4 0.5 3 0.5 0Toom_Cool 3 2 3 2 0 3 1 0.3SadamAmbient 4 5 5 2 1 3 0.9 0.7Kohvik_City_Cult 1 9 4 0 0 1 0.2 0.9Urban_Legend 6 1 2 4 0 6 0.9 0Basement_Bar 5 6 1 2 0.8 1 0 1add..

Ontological dimension

Ontology

Add data!Add dims!


Ontological space of a cityDefined by:• Geographical dimensions (latitude, longitude,

altitude)• Dimensions of meaning, experiential dimensions• Searches• Measurement dimensions: statistics, weather,

measurements etc. Dimensionality growing ad infinitum

How can such an ambiguous space be made sense of?


MULTI-PERSPECTIVE MEDIA

A concept for future mediaDemand created by two-way

communication


Multi-Perspective Media

• Media particularly designed to support multiple equally right/true perspectives to a domain

• Media based on multi-dim databases (Manovich)

• Supports interactive exploration of multiple perspectives, established by

• Bottom-up media, public contribution of ontological dimensions (e.g. folksonomies) for Web 2.0


Exploring multiple perspectivesA sketch for implementation (among

alternatives):• Slider interface to manage

perspectives (can be replaced by other interfaces)

• Realtime projection, e.g. by means of multi-dimensional scaling

• Browser and search functionalities


Choosing perspective


One dimension taken into account

(Trivial case)• Orthogonal display of

data with respect to the viewer

• See the whole distribution with respect to a

dimension


Two dimensions taken into account

• Two dimensional matrix


Several dimensions taken into account• Nonlinear projection (here online multi-

dimensional projection)• Analog to cortical projections (color maps,

tonotopies, retinotopies, somatotopies)• Real-time exploration made possible• Challenging visualization Requires active exploration and movement! How to facilitate this by means of design?


Softness?

Ontological dimensions can be• Taken into account or ignored• Added at will (next example), open

endedness, ∞ - dimensionality• Graded degrees of relevance

allowedImplies spatial organization


Short course of geo-semiotics

• One case/utilization/example (just a point) does not yet constitute a meaning but

• A meaning dimension is needed to establish a meaning (line)

• A dimension makes sense only from near-orthogonal perspective

• Making sense = projection from multi-perspective ontological space

• Understanding = being able to see multiple perspectives

• Knowledge = sharing perspectives within a community


TAGGIN’ TALLINN


Taggin’ Tallinn

Blending virtual and physical presence in the city


Partners • Tallinn University• Eesti Kunstiakadeemia• EMT• Urban Mark• Tallinn City(?!)• RAK• more...


Project nature

Framework and lab of:• locative media & urban presence• public contributions of content,

software and ontologies• social software• new mobile technologies• mobile interfacing


Spraying graffiti not encouraged


Add a virtual tag

• MMS + SMS• GPS + Online

connection• Map-click (at

home)

X

Mauri was here!

59°43.7’N 24°74.3’


Associate content with your tag

X

Via mobile or web


Establish a new content collection

Tag content not fitting to any existing collection?


Content communityesEach content community Elaborates a particular dimension of

meaning.Has • community of peers• a moderator• rules of e.g. membership, acceptance,

priorization and evaluation -> game!


Tags, blogs and communities

Content community & ”game” = ontological dimension of the city

Tag = X was here...•Individual presence•Coordinates•Place•Content link•CommunityB

log = individual track


Hybrid coordinate system of TallinnBlend:• Geographical coordinates tracked

by GSM, GPS, or manually clicked• Meaning coordinates

Locative media

Community softwareCollaborative environment


Explore own perspectives to the city

•Multi-perspective view

•Hybrid geo-experiential map

•Mobile and web interfaces


Community and social software New tags are• distiributedto the

community• peer-evaluated• moderated• accepted/rejected• priorized

(competition)• elaborated jointly

Immediate p2p communication facilitated


CONCLUSIONS


About Soft Ontologies

• Define domain of information without fixing a single perspective

• Support exploration of multiple perspectives to an ontological space

• Allow open (accumulating) conceptualization of a domain

=>Native of Web 2.0!


Multi-perspective Media:

• Presentations of information in such a way that allow a number of alternative perspectives

• No priorized perspective or truth• Native to bottom-up content• Allow cool stuff!


What is multiperspective media good for?• Modeling individual sense-making

in ambiguous spaces• Modeling community sense-making• Visualization of similarity-

dissimilarity• Search and match functionalities


More application areas• Narrative spaces: Obsession enactive

cinema project• Politics: Political maps• Ethics• Education: Knowledge building by joint

MPM exploration• Graphical search engines• Matchmaking (partners, cars, homes...)


What is Taggin’ Tallinn about?• Multidisciplinare researc

framework• Collaborative meaning-building• Locative and explorative media• Soft ontology as a backbone


Workshop

• Constituting meaning dimensions of the city

• Collaboratively• Non-verbally with imagesMore in the evening. Instructions in

http://lin2.tlu.ee/~mkaipain/presentations/urban.html


Papers on soft ontologies

• Aviles Collao, Jazmin; Diaz-Kommonen, L.; Kaipainen, M.; Pietarila, J. (2003). Soft Ontologies and Similarity Cluster Tools to facilitate Exploration and Discovery of Cultural Heritage Resources. IEEE Computer Society Digital Library. Proc. DEXA 2003. September 1.-5.2003, Prague Czech Republic.

• Kaipainen, M.; Niglas, K.; Laanpere, M.; Kikkas, K.; Normak, P.; Sillaots, M. (2006). Knowledge environments with soft ontologies and multiperspective explorability. Interactive Learning Environments (submitted).


Locative media projects

• Positium Tallinn project• Katumuisti (Street memory)• Yellow Arrow• Visby Under• Merkitys - Meaning• many more...


Thank you!

[email protected]://www.tlu.ee/~mkaipain/

mauri kaipainen 10.01.2007 soft ontologies and meaning dimensions of the city mauri kaipainen, phd...

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