Financial Informatics II Ontology and Semantic Web and

Financial Informatics –II: Ontology and Semantic Web and Finance Khurshid Ahmad, Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science Trinity College, Dublin-2, IRELAND November 17 th, 2008. https: //www. cs. tcd. ie/Khurshid. Ahmad/Teaching. html 1

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology SOURCE: Firat, Aykut; Madnick, Stuart; and Grosof, Benjamin, "Knowledge Integration to Overcome Ontological Heterogeneity: Challenges from Financial Information Systems" (2002). ICIS 2002 Proceedings. Paper 17. http: //aisel. aisnet. org/icis 2002/17 2

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology ‘Constructing correct definitions of pizzas from a menu and for a “vegetarian pizza” so that the correct pizzas are classified as “vegetarian” turns out to be a surprisingly challenging exercise’ for creating an ontology (Rector et al 2004). Rector, Alan. , Nick Drummond, Matthew Horridge, Jeremy Rogers, Holger Knublauch, Robert Stevens, Hai Wang, Chris Wroe. (2004) OWL Pizzas: Practical Experience of Teaching OWL-DL: Common Errors & Common 3 Patterns (http: //www. co-ode. org/resources/papers/ekaw 2004. pdf)

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology ‘Constructing correct definitions of pizzas from a menu and for a “vegetarian pizza” so that the correct pizzas are classified as “vegetarian” turns out to be a surprisingly challenging exercise’ for creating an ontology (Rector et al 2004). Rector, Alan. , Nick Drummond, Matthew Horridge, Jeremy Rogers, Holger Knublauch, Robert Stevens, Hai Wang, Chris Wroe. (2004) OWL Pizzas: Practical Experience of Teaching OWL-DL: Common Errors & Common Patterns (http: //www. co-ode. org/resources/papers/ekaw 2004. pdf) 4

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology A tangled pizza toppings hierarchy. Rector, Alan. , Nick Drummond, Matthew Horridge, Jeremy Rogers, Holger Knublauch, Robert Stevens, Hai Wang, Chris Wroe. (2004) OWL Pizzas: Practical Experience of Teaching OWL-DL: Common Errors & Common Patterns (http: //www. co-ode. org/resources/papers/ekaw 2004. pdf) 5

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology A tangled pizza toppings hierarchy. Rector, Alan, . Nick Drummond, Matthew Horridge, Jeremy Rogers, Holger Knublauch, Robert Stevens, Hai Wang, Chris Wroe. (2004) OWL Pizzas: Practical Experience of Teaching OWL-DL: Common Errors & Common Patterns (http: //www. co-ode. org/resources/papers/ekaw 2004. pdf) 6

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology An initial hierarchy. Rector, Alan et al (2004) OWL Pizzas: Practical Experience of Teaching OWL-DL: Common Errors & Common 7 Patterns (http: //www. co-ode. org/resources/papers/ekaw 2004. pdf)

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology A correctly classified hierarchy. Rector, Alan et al (2004) OWL Pizzas: Practical Experience of Teaching OWL-DL: Common Errors & Common 8 Patterns (http: //www. co-ode. org/resources/papers/ekaw 2004. pdf)

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology ‘Constructing correct definitions of pizzas from a menu and for a “vegetarian pizza” so that the correct pizzas are classified as “vegetarian” turns out to be a surprisingly challenging exercise’ for creating an ontology (Rector et al 2004). Rector, Alan. , Nick Drummond, Matthew Horridge, Jeremy Rogers, Holger Knublauch, Robert Stevens, Hai Wang, Chris Wroe. (2004) OWL Pizzas: Practical Experience of Teaching OWL-DL: Common Errors & Common Patterns (http: //www. co-ode. org/resources/papers/ekaw 2004. pdf) 9

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology 10

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology ‘Constructing correct definitions of pizzas from a menu and for a “vegetarian pizza” so that the correct pizzas are classified as “vegetarian” turns out to be a surprisingly challenging exercise’ for creating an ontology (Rector et al 2004). Rector, Alan. , Nick Drummond, Matthew Horridge, Jeremy Rogers, Holger Knublauch, Robert Stevens, Hai Wang, Chris Wroe. (2004) OWL Pizzas: Practical Experience of Teaching OWL-DL: Common Errors & Common Patterns (http: //www. co-ode. org/resources/papers/ekaw 2004. pdf) 11

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology What counts as a Pizza. ‘Do all pizzas have to have a base? toppings? Is a pizza base without a topping a Pizza? Is anything with a Pizza_Base and Pizza_Toppings a Pizza? Can we completely define a Pizza? ’ (Rector 2004, section 5. 5) Rector, Alan. , Nick Drummond, Matthew Horridge, Jeremy Rogers, Holger Knublauch, Robert Stevens, Hai Wang, Chris Wroe. (2004) OWL Pizzas: Practical Experience of Teaching OWL-DL: Common Errors & Common Patterns (http: //www. co-ode. org/resources/papers/ekaw 2004. pdf) 12

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology What counts as a Pizza. ‘Do all pizzas have to have a base? toppings? Is a pizza base without a topping a Pizza? Is anything with a Pizza_Base and Pizza_Toppings a Pizza? Can we completely define a Pizza? ’ (Rector 2004, section 5. 5) Rector, Alan et al (2004) OWL Pizzas: Practical Experience of Teaching OWL-DL: Common Errors & Common 13 Patterns (http: //www. co-ode. org/resources/papers/ekaw 2004. pdf)

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Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology We need to exchange information. So we mark up the key elements of texts: A markup language is an artificial language using a set of annotations to text that give instructions regarding the structure of text or how it is to be displayed. Markup languages have been in use for centuries, and in recent years have also been used in computer typesetting and word-processing systems. A well-known example of a markup language in use today in computing is Hyper. Text Markup Language (HTML), one of the most used in the World Wide Web. HTML follows some of the markup conventions used in the publishing industry in the communication of printed work among authors, editors, and printers. http: //ec. europa. eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/index_en. htm 15

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology We need to exchange information. So we mark up the key elements of texts: Ontology exchange is envisaged through mark languages like XML: The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages. It is classified as an extensible language, because it allows the user to define the mark-up elements. XML's purpose is aiding information systems share structured data, especially via the Internet, to encode documents, and to serialize data http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/XML 16

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology So we know how our world works. How do we tell others in the agencement what we know? Take the case of value-added tax: http: //ec. europa. eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/index_en. htm 17

So we know how our world works. How do we tell others in the agencement what we know? Take the case of value-added tax: It takes a 181 page document to just outline the tax. Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology http: //eur-lex. europa. eu/Lex. Uri. Serv. do? uri=OJ: L: 2006: 347: 0001: 0118: en: PDF 18

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology Colleagues in the Netherlands have developed an ontology of European VAT laws. They have used this ontology to build an information extraction [system] (i) to assist both tax authorities as well as traders in extracting specific knowledge about companies. (ii) […][to] retrieve relevant legislative texts or even particular sections in VAT law based on specific concept-queries. The colleagues claim that the ontology can be used to support a so-called reader’s assistant in providing extra VAT-related information about concepts appearing in e. g. company websites. And to deal with VAT Fraud http: //www. starlab. vub. ac. be/research/projects/poirot/contents/vatontology. htm 19

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology So we know how our world works. How do we tell others in the agencement what we know? Take the case of value-added tax: http: //www. starlab. vub. ac. be/research/projects/poirot/contents/vatontology. htm 20

Financial Informatics: What is ontology? Literature on intelligent systems invariably refers to a thesaurus of domain objects in the construction of knowledge bases. A ‘thesaurus’ suggests the existence of a range of words and phrases associated with a concept. The names of the objects form the terminology of the domain. The organisation of terminology is discussed under the rubric of ontology. 21

Financial Informatics: What is ontology? Ontology is a branch of philosophy, and some philosophers believe that to understand what is in every area of reality one should look into theories of sciences (Quine 1981). Quine coined the term ontological commitment: ‘scientists and philosophers to seek a comprehensive system of the world, and one that is oriented to reference even more squarely and utterly than ordinary language’. Quine, Willard, van Omran. (1981). Theories and Things. Cambrdige (Mass) & London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 22

Financial Informatics: What is ontology? “The goal of the Gene Ontology Consortium is to produce a dynamic, controlled vocabulary that can be applied to all eukaryotes even as knowledge of gene and protein roles in cells is accumulating and changing. To this end, three independent ontologies accessible on the World. Wide Web (http: //www. geneontology. org) are being constructed: • biological process, • molecular function and • cellular component. ” Michael Ashburner et al (2000). "Gene Ontology: tool for the unification of biology". Nature Genetics Vol 25, pp 25 - 29 23

Financial Informatics: What is ontology? Ontology is a branch of philosophy, and some philosophers believe that to understand what is in every area of reality one should look into theories of sciences (Quine 1981). But some folk are rather sceptical of this approach: “Scientific theories and scientific methods are usually ontologically opaque. Their ontological commitments, in other words, can rarely be read off unequivocally from their axioms, principles, or methodological rules. ” (Boettke et al 2005: pp F 319). ‘[…] methods and models used by economists are ontologically opaque, that is, that economists ontological commitments cannot be read directly off the tools they use. ’ (Boettke et al 2005: pp F 322). Boettke, Peter J. , Christopher J. Coyne, John Davis, Francesco Guala, Alain Marciano, Jochen Runde and Margaret Schabas. Where Economics and Philosophy Meet: Review of the Elghar Companion to Economics and Philosophy with responses from the Authors. The Economic Journal, Vol 116 (June), pp F 306–F 325 24

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? Ontology is a branch of philosophy, and some philosophers believe that to understand what is in every area of reality one should look into theories of sciences (Quine 1981). But some folk are rather sceptical of this approach: “Scientific theories and scientific methods are usually ontologically opaque. Their ontological commitments, in other words, can rarely be read off unequivocally from their axioms, principles, or methodological rules. ” (Boettke et al 2005: pp F 319). ‘[…] methods and models used by economists are ontologically opaque, that is, that economists ontological commitments cannot be read directly off the tools they use. ’ (Boettke et al 2005: pp F 322). Boettke, Peter J. , Christopher J. Coyne, John Davis, Francesco Guala, Alain Marciano, Jochen Runde and Margaret Schabas. Where Economics and Philosophy Meet: Review of the Elghar Companion to Economics and Philosophy with responses from the Authors. The Economic Journal, Vol 116 (June), pp F 306–F 325 25

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? How does one define aspects of ontology of finance/economics? How does Reuters News Agency assign categories to their reports? http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf 26

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? Indexing news wires Reuters News services use a Coding Scheme that is updated annually. Three major categories are being used: Industry, Topic and Region codes are used 27

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? 28

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? Two major applications: Indexing news wires Reuters News Feed; Variable news feed: In a sample over half the news items had less than or equal to 5 codes; 10% had more than 7 codes and some news items had as many as 20 codes Number of Document 30. 00% 25. 00% 20. 00% 15. 00% 10. 00% 5. 00% 0. 00% 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 Number of Codes per Document 29

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? Consider financial business process integration standards: Unified Business Language (UBL), ISO 20022 (UNIFI), and Interactive Financial e. Xchange (IFX), and how a bill is being described in the three: Tuomo Mäkelä, Kaisa Rommel, Jukka Uskonen, Tao Wanhttp Towards a Financial Ontology – A Comparison of e. Business Process Standards. http: ////www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf 30

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf 31

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? In order to systematically and profitably conduct business within and across organisations, it is important that agents (people, machines, algorithms) are able to exchange data and that the data has meaning for all the agents involved in the exchange data and keep it meaningful to everyone involved. There are sophisticated technological solutions for such a meaningful exchange IBM Crossworlds ‘hub and spoke’ B 2 B systems Image from: http: //www. ibm. com/developerworks/ibm/library/i-cross/ 32

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? Universal Business Language (UBL) is an ambitious effort to unify the chaotic world of XML formats for business: The language (and the standard) comprises business forms for placing an order; responding to simple and complex orders; cancelling an order; dispatch advice or shipping notice; reciept advice; and, invoices. http: //www. ibm. com/developerworks/xml/library/x-think 16. html 33

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? Universal Business Language (UBL) is an ambitious effort to unify the chaotic world of XML formats for business: The language (and the standard) comprises business forms for placing an order; responding to simple and complex orders; cancelling an order; dispatch advice or shipping notice; reciept advice; and, invoices. An ‘order’ form in e. Xtensible Markup language (XML) http: //www. ibm. com/developerworks/xml/library/x-think 16. html 34

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? The Interactive Financial e. Xchange (IFX) specification is a […] XML-based, financial messaging protocol, built by financial industry and technology leaders [. . ]. IFX can be used for Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment Business to Business Payments Business to Business Banking (such as balance and transaction reporting, remittance information) Automated Teller Machine communications Consumer to Business Payments Consumer to Business Banking http: //www. ifxforum. org/standards/ 35

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? UNIFI is the nickname of ‘ISO 20022 - UNIversal Financial Industry message scheme’, the platform proposed by ISO to develop all financial messages. Objective: To enable communication interoperability between financial institutions, their market infrastructures and their enduser communities http: //www. iso 20022. org// 36

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? nt Date u Acco All institutions have their own sets of data objects ISO standardises common r Orde data objects… r Orde ate D e t a D EDIFACT XML FIX …and groups them into ‘syntaxneutral’ message models, which. . . … can be ‘transformed’ in message formats in the desired syntax ISO 15022 SOURCE: http: //www. iso 20022. org/documents/general/Scripted_UNIFI_(ISO_20022)_presentation_v 37. ppt 37

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? Ordering Party Trade Counterpart y Order (FIX) Executio n (FIX) Trade Ordering Counterpart Party y Order (ISO 15022) Executing Party Execution (ISO 15022) SOURCE: http: //www. iso 20022. org/documents/general/Scripted_UNIFI_(ISO_20022)_presentation_v 37. ppt 38

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? There a number of systems that can help with the integration of business processes, and some are appearing in the financial industry. However, the standards are designed for different purposes and support different processes. Generation of a high-level ontology would provide means to enhance the interoperability between standards and support streamlined processes within the financial domain. http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf 39

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? There a number of systems that can help with the integration of business processes, and some are appearing in the financial industry. However, the standards are designed for different purposes and support different processes. Generation of a high-level ontology would provide means to enhance the interoperability between standards and support streamlined processes within the financial domain. http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf 40

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? Mäkelä, Rommel, Uskonen and Wan (2007), based in Helsinki, have asked three research questions: 1. How do different standards cover the field of financial information exchange? 2. How are the existing standards constructed and related to each other? 3. What are the basic requirements for ontology to support financial B 2 B integration? Mäkelä, Tuomo. , Kaisa Rommel, Jukka Uskonen, Tao Wanhttp Towards a Financial Ontology – A Comparison of e 41 Business Process Standards (available at http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? Mäkelä, Rommel, Uskonen and Wan (2007), have used the socalled Upper Level Ontology to integrate the various process languages to produce an ontology of finance. Mäkelä, Tuomo. , Kaisa Rommel, Jukka Uskonen, Tao Wanhttp Towards a Financial Ontology – A Comparison of e 42 Business Process Standards (available at http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? Mäkelä, Rommel, Uskonen and Wan (2007), have used the so-called Upper Level Ontology to integrate the various process languages to produce an ontology of finance. Mäkelä, Tuomo. , Kaisa Rommel, Jukka Uskonen, Tao Wanhttp Towards a Financial Ontology – A Comparison of e 43 Business Process Standards (available at http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of finance? Mäkelä, Rommel, Uskonen and Wan (2007), have used the so-called Upper Level Ontology to integrate the various process languages to produce an ontology of finance. Mäkelä, Tuomo. , Kaisa Rommel, Jukka Uskonen, Tao Wanhttp Towards a Financial Ontology – A Comparison of e 44 Business Process Standards (available at http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf

Mäkelä, Rommel, Uskonen and Wan (2007), have used the socalled Upper Level Ontology to integrate the various process languages to produce an ontology of finance. 45

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of financial transactions? Mäkelä, Tuomo. , Kaisa Rommel, Jukka Uskonen, Tao Wanhttp Towards a Financial Ontology – A Comparison of e 46 Business Process Standards (available at http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of tangled financial transactions? Child of multiple parents Mäkelä, Tuomo. , Kaisa Rommel, Jukka Uskonen, Tao Wanhttp Towards a Financial Ontology – A Comparison of e 47 Business Process Standards (available at http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of financial account? Mäkelä, Tuomo. , Kaisa Rommel, Jukka Uskonen, Tao Wanhttp Towards a Financial Ontology – A Comparison of e 48 Business Process Standards (available at http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of financial account that have siblings? Mäkelä, Tuomo. , Kaisa Rommel, Jukka Uskonen, Tao Wanhttp Towards a Financial Ontology – A Comparison of e 49 Business Process Standards (available at http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf

Financial Informatics: What is ontology of financial account that have tangles? Multiple parents! Mäkelä, Tuomo. , Kaisa Rommel, Jukka Uskonen, Tao Wanhttp Towards a Financial Ontology – A Comparison of e 50 Business Process Standards (available at http: //www. soberit. hut. fi/T-86. 5161/2007/Financial. Ontology_final. pdf

Central semantic authority www. w 3. org/2001/sw/hcls/f 2 f-2006/presentations/Federation. 3. ppt 51

Hierachical semantics Devoid of specifics but very sharable Very specific but poorly sharable www. w 3. org/2001/sw/hcls/f 2 f-2006/presentations/Federation. 3. ppt 52

Federated semantics 53

But just before I go on with rest of my talk --Theories and Things Ontology is a branch of philosophy, and some philosophers believe that to understand what is in every area of reality one should look into theories of sciences (Quine 1981). Ontology, if understood in its religious sense as ‘what there is’ (a deity usually), then ontology or rather the ontological commitment as to what there is fixed for all times – otherwise we will not have a diety!! So do ontological commitments change over time within a community and across communities at fixed point in time 54

Financial Informatics: Special languages and linguistic writing The growth in the size and complexity of the vocabulary of a specialist language, and the concomitant use of limited grammatical structure, usually accompanies a growing body of knowledge (see, for example, Gerr 1943 and Halliday and Martin 1995). Sentences in specialist writing are usually of declarative and imperative type. 55

Financial Informatics: Semantic Web and Ontology Level of ‘knowledge’ INVENTORY/ GLOSSARY TERMINOLOGY Elaboration A collection of glosses; a list with explanations of abstruse, antiquated, dialectal, or technical terms; a partial dictionary. Etymologically, The doctrine or scientific study of terms; in use almost always, The system of terms belonging to any science or subject; technical terms collectively; nomenclature. TAXONOMY Classification, esp. in relation to its general laws or principles; that department of science, or of a particular science or subject, which consists in or relates to classification; esp. the systematic classification of living organisms. ONTOLOGY The science or study of being; that branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature or essence of being or existence. 56