On November 30 and December 1 there will take place in Columbia, Maryland (in the shadow of the National Security Agency) a 2-day event organized by SUNY-Buffalo philosopher Barry Smith directed at intelligence analysts from a variety of government agencies. It will feature representatives from the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Administration, the Department of Defense, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Senate Intelligence Committee Technical Advisory Board, and numerous other bodies involved in intelligence activities throughout the world.
UB is the home of the National Center for Ontological Research (NCOR), a world center of ontological research, and the Columbia event
will feature three speakers from Buffalo, all of whom play an active role in
NCOR’s work.
The increasing volume, variety and velocity of intelligence analysis in the post 9/11 era requires new approaches to the analysis of data in responding to fast-evolving threats. Ontology has been successfully applied in areas such as bioinformatics, and the time is ripe to take seriously this new form of applied philosophy also in other spheres. The purpose of the meeting is to address the needs of the intelligence community for high-quality ontologies to support exchange and integration of data.
Recent years have seen a steep rise in the use of ontology-based technology for intelligence information processing applications. Even so,
there is little shared understanding of how to develop high quality ontologies
and of their potential applications. It is here that philosophers can help.
This workshop will bring together experts on ontology-based technology with particular experience in the problems facing the intelligence community. Complete details of the event are available here.