Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - 2005 Annual Report: A Tree in the Storm -- Philanthropy and the Health of the Public

Contains president's message, program information, grantee profiles, grants list, financial statements, and an assessment of the public health system after Hurricane Katrina

Living ontologies: collaborative knowledge structuring on the Internet

This thesis discusses the issues involving the support of Living Ontologies: collaborating in the construction and maintenance of ontologies using the Internet. Ontologies define the concepts used in describing a domain: they are used by knowledge engineers as reusable components of knowledge-based systems. Knowledge engineers create ontologies by eliciting information from domain experts. However, experts often have different conceptualisations of a domain and knowledge engineers often have different ways of formalising their conceptualisations. Taking a constructivist perspective, constructing ontologies from multiple conflicting conceptualisations can be seen as a design activity, in which knowledge engineers make choices according to the context in which the representation will be used. Based on this theory, a methodology for collaboratively constructing ontologies might involve comparing differing conceptualisations and using these comparisons to initiate discussion, changes to the conceptualisations and the development of criteria against which they can be evaluated. APECKS (Adaptive Presentation Environment for Collaborative Knowledge Structuring) is designed to support this methodology. APECKS aims not only to support the collaborative construction of ontologies but also to use ontologies to present information to its users adaptively within a virtual environment. It demonstrates a number of innovations over conventional ontology servers, such as prompted knowledge elicitation from domain experts, automated comparisons between ontologies, the creation of design rationales and change tracking. A small evaluation of APECKS has shown that it is usable by domain experts and that automated comparisons between ontologies can be used to initiate alterations, investigations of others' conceptualisations and as a basis for discussion. Possible future development of APECKS includes tighter integration with a virtual environment and with other networked knowledge-based tools. Further research is also needed to develop the methodology on which APECKS is based, by investigating ways of comparing, combining and discussing ontologies

Living ontologies: collaborative knowledge structuring on the Internet

This thesis discusses the issues involving the support of Living Ontologies: collaborating in the construction and maintenance of ontologies using the Internet. Ontologies define the concepts used in describing a domain: they are used by knowledge engineers as reusable components of knowledge-based systems. Knowledge engineers create ontologies by eliciting information from domain experts. However, experts often have different conceptualisations of a domain and knowledge engineers often have different ways of formalising their conceptualisations. Taking a constructivist perspective, constructing ontologies from multiple conflicting conceptualisations can be seen as a design activity, in which knowledge engineers make choices according to the context in which the representation will be used. Based on this theory, a methodology for collaboratively constructing ontologies might involve comparing differing conceptualisations and using these comparisons to initiate discussion, changes to the conceptualisations and the development of criteria against which they can be evaluated. APECKS (Adaptive Presentation Environment for Collaborative Knowledge Structuring) is designed to support this methodology. APECKS aims not only to support the collaborative construction of ontologies but also to use ontologies to present information to its users adaptively within a virtual environment. It demonstrates a number of innovations over conventional ontology servers, such as prompted knowledge elicitation from domain experts, automated comparisons between ontologies, the creation of design rationales and change tracking. A small evaluation of APECKS has shown that it is usable by domain experts and that automated comparisons between ontologies can be used to initiate alterations, investigations of others' conceptualisations and as a basis for discussion. Possible future development of APECKS includes tighter integration with a virtual environment and with other networked knowledge-based tools. Further research is also needed to develop the methodology on which APECKS is based, by investigating ways of comparing, combining and discussing ontologies

Artistic practices & democratic politics: towards the markers of uncertainty: from counter-hegemonic positions to plural hegemonies

Can artistic and cultural practices play a critical role in societies in which criticisms are reflexively absorbed and immobilised by the prevailing hegemony? And, if yes, what kind of political order can they aspire to, given the ‘post-utopian’ nature of the human condition? How do we approach the tortuous question of the destiny of both the project of modern democracy and that of aesthetic modernity? There is no agreement on this issue. We are told that there is no alternative to the existing liberal democracy and capitalist pluralism without risking yet another dystopia – the dilemma that in the artistic realm is sometimes articulated as the opposition between modernism and postmodernism. What might progressive art look like in such times when the ideas of progress and modernity are viewed with great suspicion? The most popular positions concerning artistic and cultural practices’ critical dimension revolve around the idea that with the post-Fordist transformation and the bankruptcy of the Left, the paradigm of power has really changed. This is reflected in the radical character of contemporary artistic practices, which desperately struggle to constitute subject at the expense of themselves. However, the question is: can these practices be both radical and democratic? This depends on our understanding of emancipatory politics, the nature of aesthetics and post-Fordist transformation. We will examine the different approaches to these subjects influenced by the Frankfurt school and post-Operaist theories to argue that neither Theodor Adorno’s and Max Horkeimer’s analyses based on the Fordist model, nor Antonio Negri’s and Paolo Virno’s post-Fordist appropriation of the significance of art in the new forms of production provide a useful framework with which to grasp the nature of the changes and challenges that face our society. Such novel ideas as ‘immaterial labour’ and ‘spontaneous communism’ or exodus and ‘communism of capital’, despite their new vocabulary, are a dangerous inversion of the Frankfurt school’s idealism and inability to grasp that social reality is hegemonically constructed through the practices of articulation that temporarily and incompletely ‘fix’ the meaning of social institutions. Neither politics nor post-Fordism should be considered through the matrix of culture, but in terms of hegemony. What is at issue is to grasp the nature of the democratic and aesthetical paradoxes and envisage how the two could be applied to contribute to progressive changes in power relations. Judgements must be made – we have to be able to distinguish between who belongs to demos and who does not; however, how we judge, which is the subject of aesthetic critique, is at the core of democratic artistic-political practice. One way in which artistic practices can be critical is a counter-hegemonic intervention that acts against the position of supremacy of any hegemonic order and shows that any fullness exists because there are gaps, but judges this lack in a way that resists the totalisation of the sensible. However, perhaps the way to weaken the centre is not just to expose its flaws, but to pluralise hegemonies. In this way, the idea to pluralise modernism in the era of globalisation could help us to redefine modern democracy in the post-political era and outline the positive vision of the ‘hegemonic trap’. Could the evolution of artistic-political practice be envisaged as the radicalisation of ‘oppositional identities’, which undermine the hegemonic forms of subject articulation into compository or shimmering identities, making such supremacy impossible? Can art become a symbol of emptying ‘democracy’ and thus construct many ‘democracies’, answering our tortuous question by producing plural answers

Theology & technology: An Exploration of their relationship with special reference to the work of Albert Borgmann and intelligent transportation systems

This thesis summarizes a large body of literature concerning the sociology, рhilosophy, and history of technology and the specific set of technologies concerned with Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). It considers technologies of various kinds within the Old and New Testaments and how technology has been understood and occasionally discussed by contemporary theologians. Intelligent Transportation Systems are a very prominent area of modem technologies that will shape the future of society in profound ways. The overall field of ITS is described and then a specific case study concerning a set of automated highway systems applications within three states and two large national parks within the United States is presented. The case study then provides a backdrop to explore specific ways in which theology might engage in a conversation with intelligent transportation systems specifically and technology more generally. Since theologians have written relatively little about technology, we draw upon the work of a leading philosopher of technology who is informed by his Christian commitments, Albert Borgmaim. The extensive philosophy of Bergmann about technology and the character of contemporary life is described. Various considerations about how to create, foster, and maintain a sustained dialogue between disparate intellectual traditions and disciplines are suggested. This includes attention to goals for dialogue, respective strengths that various parties bring to the conversation, and the willingness to hear and learn from the other. A framework to categorize interactions between theology and technology is introduced. Borgmann's ideas, coupled with those of other theologians and philosophers are then applied to the case study. The worth of this approach is then assessed in light of what theologians might contribute to discussion and decision-making about technological systems and devices facing toward the future. Consideration is also given to what technology might contribute to the theological enterprise. The investigation demonstrates the importance of such dialogues and the viability of initiating them