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© 2008 Palantir Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.
Palantir and the Dynamic Ontology
Asher K Sinensky, PhDForward Deployed Engineer
Palantir and The Dynamic Ontology
Ontology
Ontos + Logia
(Gk) “being” + “the study of”
A Categorization of the World
Platonic Realism
Universal vs. Particular Ontology vs. Ontic Form vs. Copy Class vs. Object
VS.
Nice Philosophy…but useful?
From: http://www.dayah.com/periodic/
Leo(Lion)
Species:Tigris(Tiger)
Pardus(Leopard)
Genus: Panthera
• Kingdom: Animalia• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia • Order: Carnivora
• Family: Felidae• Genus: Panthera
• Species: ?
Parent Object: Person
Pilot DoctorChild Object:
Lawyer
•Objects•Entities
•Living Things•Person
•?
How is this modeled in practice?
Objects– Latin taxonomy of animals
Objects and Properties– Periodic Table (has implicit relationships)
Objects and Relationships– Properties can be modeled as relationships to ‘data’ objects
Objects and Properties and Relationships– How information can be modeled in Palantir
The Ontology in Palantir
Data Import: Table TypeData Import: Property TypeData Import: Link TypeData Import: Entity ReferenceData Import: Entity ResolutionSearch and Discovery: Search AroundSearch and Discovery: Link-ByGraph Interaction: Add NewGraph Interaction: Types PanelGraph Interaction: Filters and FoldersProperty Visualization: BrowserProperty Visualization: Selection OverviewProperty Visualization: HistogramProperty Visualization: Timeline
The Ontology permeates almost every function in the Palantir Workspace.
Consequently, a well-formed Ontology is critical to effective analysis.
The Dynamic Ontology
Palantir uses a ‘Dynamic’ Ontology…An Ontological structure…not an Ontology.
What does Dynamic mean?– It means that Palantir does not use a hard-coded Ontology.
• In Palantir the only hard-coded notions are for Objects, Properties and
Relationships
• Objects are further divided into Documents, Entities and Events
Why soft-code an Ontology?
A hard-coded Ontology is inherently limiting
– Forces an organization into one of two extremes
General Ontology
Specific Ontology
No Semantics
Over-Defined Semantics
Another Dynamic Advantage
Palantir’s Dynamic Ontology provides tremendous flexibility
– Can model many different concepts
– Can model the same concepts in many ways
Consider the question: How do we model a person’s
Occupation?
Person
Pilot DoctorLawyer
A person’s job-function could be classified using
an object definition.
Objects
Person
OCCUPATION
PILOT
DOCTOR
LAWYERA person’s job-function could be classified by defining the
person’s occupation property.
Properties
Person 1
Person 1 is the Doctor of Person 2 Person 2
Person 1 is the Lawyer of Person 3
Person 3
Person 1 is the Pilot of Jet 1 Jet 1
It is also possible to define a person’s job function through their relationships with other
people and objects.
Relationships
But is that really Dynamic?
Having a soft-coded Ontology is clearly valuable– Relevant Semantics for any Domain– Flexible
However, if a soft-coded Ontology can’t be changed, it is not much better than a hard-coded Ontology
This is where the ‘Dynamic’ really comes in
–In Palantir, Ontologies can be modified after deployment
What sort of Modifications?
Any objects, property or relationship that is not in use can be deleted
Any new object, property or relationship can be added
The functionality of existing objects, properties and relationships can be modified
−New/Modify Label Generators−New/Modify Aliases−New/Modify Parsers−New/Modify Validators−New/Modify Icons−New/Modify Approxes−New/Modify property allowances−New/Modify link allowances−New/Modify menu structures
Summary
Through Palantir’s Dynamic Ontology, any organization can build the data model that is appropriate for their domain.
This Ontology is not hard-coded but rather soft-coded.
The Ontology can evolve along with the organization which represents real dynamism.