The MetaEngineering Ontology
The ontology is the content (raw data and classifications) of tools and analyses. Currently, the ontology is contained in a Microsoft Access database, though that is by no means the only form it can (or will) take. For example, TekMap would be more monolithic and easier to install if the ontology were stored in an integral javaDB database. Alternatively, we might export the content as xml to become part of the semantic web. Access is simply a convenient tool for providing forms for data entry to bootstrap the knowledge base.
What's in the ontology?
The ontology defines concepts that are classified as natural laws, principles, effects, quantities, abstractions, models, designs, devices, processes, substances, publications, and more. It defines events that capture the origins and refinements of these concepts plus the people and organizations that created or refined them. It contains temporal relationships, such as preconditions for an innovation, and conceptual relationships, such as similar functions with different operating principles. Technological innovations, such as designs, devices and processes, are further characterized by the functions they serve, the scaling problems they overcome, and the design strategies they employ. It also contains (to varying degrees of completeness) qualitative influences between quantities, and quantitative equations encoded in MathMl to represent physical laws.
Updating and extending the ontology
The ontology is expected to grow significantly. As this is still an alpha release, there is no formal process for contributing to it yet. Please feel free to contact Tom Hinrichs to submit revisions or updates. If there is interest, it may be possible to set up an online version of the kb using Sql Server, or export the kb to the semantic web.
Current Status
The ontology is continually being refined and extended. It is being released to open source in the hope that it might be useful or interesting to other researchers, students, or tool developers. However, it exists for the purpose of analyzing trends in the history of technology, extracting patterns that may be useful for future development, etc. To that end, the current focus of effort is on elaborating the relationships between concepts and events, experimenting with more objective measures of characterizing design spaces, and adding depth to the representations in terms of qualitative and quantitative models.