Saturday, April 09, 2005
Stefano's Linotype ~ Folksologies: de-idealizing ontologies
Stefano's Linotype ~ Folksologies: de-idealizing ontologies: "Came across Clay Shirky's talk at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference entitled 'Ontology is Overrated: Links, Tags and Post-hoc Metadata'. It's worth listening to.
Just like me, Shirky is alakoff-ian (excuse the neologism): categories are embodied, espression of humanity, not abstract metaphysical entities (Plato's ideas) that we aim to obtain. I wrote about this already.
Still, Shirky misses one important point: ontologies are not overrated, they are just contracts, a (more or less explicit) agreement between different parties. Language is a contract as well. So are categories. So is metadata. So are APIs, protocols, plug shapes and their voltage, meters.... you name it! Many make the mistake of associating an 'ontology' with Plato's metaphysical ideas, I think Shirky is one of them."
Just like me, Shirky is alakoff-ian (excuse the neologism): categories are embodied, espression of humanity, not abstract metaphysical entities (Plato's ideas) that we aim to obtain. I wrote about this already.
Still, Shirky misses one important point: ontologies are not overrated, they are just contracts, a (more or less explicit) agreement between different parties. Language is a contract as well. So are categories. So is metadata. So are APIs, protocols, plug shapes and their voltage, meters.... you name it! Many make the mistake of associating an 'ontology' with Plato's metaphysical ideas, I think Shirky is one of them."
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