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OntoUML Research TODO

This page is a working research TODO for the next OntoUML and UFO study passes needed to support the Knowledge Ontology direction.

It exists because the thesis An Ontological Approach to Security Modeling gave a strong foundation, but it also made clear that some areas need deeper follow-up if Governance Foundation is going to build a serious canonical ontology and runtime model.

Purpose​

The goal of this research list is to move from:

  • a good synthesis of the thesis
  • to deeper command of the OntoUML/UFO stack
  • to a practical Knowledge Ontology Runtime Model

Priority order​

  1. UFO core foundations (first pass captured in UFO Essentials)
  2. Types and taxonomic structures (first pass captured in Taxonomy and Type Rules)
  3. Relationships and relators (first pass captured in Relationships and Relators Guide)
  4. Events, occurrents, and time (first pass captured in Events and Temporal Change Guide)
  5. Prevention vs interference / mitigation (first pass captured in Mitigation and Interference Extension Note)
  6. Enterprise architecture ontology mapping
  7. Runtime ontology model for Governance Foundation (first pass captured in Knowledge Ontology Runtime Model)
  8. Vocabulary / glossary consolidation (first pass captured in Ontology Glossary)

Research TODOs​

1. Deepen UFO core foundations​

Why: The thesis uses UFO heavily but does not fully teach it from scratch.

Questions to answer:

  • What are the most important UFO distinctions for Governance Foundation?
  • Which categories are essential for the Knowledge Ontology and which are probably too heavy for a first implementation?
  • How should UFO-A, UFO-B, and UFO-C map into our practical ontology work?

Likely source docs:

  • G:\My Drive\Projects\Governance.Foundation\OntoUML\Unified Foundational Ontolog.pdf
  • G:\My Drive\Projects\Governance.Foundation\OntoUML\Towards_Ontological_Foundations_for_the (1).pdf

Expected output:

  • a compact UFO essentials for Governance Foundation synthesis
  • a list of mandatory foundational distinctions to preserve in the runtime model

2. Study types and taxonomic structures properly​

Why: Kinds, subkinds, roles, phases, rigidity, identity, and taxonomic errors are central to good modeling.

Questions to answer:

  • What exactly makes a kind different from a role or a phase in practical modeling?
  • What mistakes are most common in organisational ontology work?
  • Which taxonomic patterns should become explicit validation rules later?

Likely source docs:

  • G:\My Drive\Projects\Governance.Foundation\OntoUML\Types_and_Taxonomic_Structures_in_Conceptual_Modeling_A Novel_Ontological_Theory_and_Engineering_Support.pdf

Expected output:

  • a practical guide to kinds, roles, phases, and subkinds
  • a checklist of taxonomic anti-patterns to avoid in Knowledge Ontology

3. Go deeper on relationships and relators​

Why: This is one of the biggest likely failure points in enterprise and governance modeling.

Questions to answer:

  • When is a plain relation enough?
  • When does a relation need a relator?
  • How should contracts, obligations, memberships, authority, employment, service agreements, and commitments be modeled?
  • What relationship mistakes are especially dangerous for governance and agent memory?

Likely source docs:

  • G:\My Drive\Projects\Governance.Foundation\OntoUML\What_s_in_a_Relationship_An_Ontological.pdf
  • G:\My Drive\Projects\Governance.Foundation\OntoUML\What_s_in_a_Relationship_An_Ontological (1).pdf
  • G:\My Drive\Projects\Governance.Foundation\OntoUML\We_need_to_discuss_the_Relationship_Rev.pdf

Expected output:

  • a relator-focused modeling guide
  • clear rules for when to model a relationship as a first-class thing

4. Study events, occurrents, and time​

Why: The thesis depends heavily on events, causal chains, and temporal change, but this needs deeper treatment for runtime use.

Questions to answer:

  • What is an event, ontologically, versus a process, state, or situation?
  • How should participation, temporal unfolding, and before/after transitions be modeled?
  • How should event identity and event chains be represented?
  • What does Governance Foundation need for migrations, interventions, and history?

Likely source docs:

  • G:\My Drive\Projects\Governance.Foundation\OntoUML\WhattoConsiderAboutEvents-ASurveyontheOntologyofOccurrentsPre-Print.pdf

Expected output:

  • an events and temporal change synthesis
  • runtime modeling guidance for event records, change events, and causal chains

5. Extend beyond prevention into interference / mitigation​

Why: This is an explicit limitation of the thesis. Governance and organisational design need more than binary prevention.

Questions to answer:

  • How should partial mitigation, dampening, containment, degradation, resilience, and recovery be modeled?
  • What concepts are missing if we reuse the thesis too literally?
  • Do the collected OntoUML/UFO documents already point toward better treatment of interference?

Likely source docs:

  • thesis follow-up references in the OntoUML collection
  • prevention-related papers adjacent to the thesis material

Expected output:

  • a note on where the prevention model is sufficient and where Governance Foundation must extend it
  • candidate concepts for mitigation, resilience, and recovery ontology work

6. Research well-founded enterprise architecture modeling (first pass captured in Enterprise Architecture Ontology Mapping)​

Why: The ArchiMate chapter is useful, but Governance Foundation needs broader enterprise architecture mapping.

Questions to answer:

  • How should service, application, data, infrastructure, capability, and organisation be represented ontologically?
  • Which enterprise architecture concepts are usually only framework-level views?
  • What should be canonical ontology versus rendered framework projection?

Likely source docs:

  • G:\My Drive\Projects\Governance.Foundation\OntoUML\Well-Founded IT Architecture Ontology an Approach from a Service Continuity Perspective.pdf
  • G:\My Drive\Projects\Governance.Foundation\OntoUML\Well_Founded_IT_Architecture_Ontology_An.pdf
  • G:\My Drive\Projects\Governance.Foundation\OntoUML\Using a Foundational Ontology for Reengineering a Software Enterprise Ontology.pdf
  • G:\My Drive\Projects\Governance.Foundation\OntoUML\Using a Foundational Ontology for Reengineering a Software Process Ontology_cameraready (1).pdf

Expected output:

  • a first mapping of enterprise architecture concepts into ontology-first categories
  • notes for framework-as-view transformations

7. Define the Knowledge Ontology Runtime Model​

Why: This is the next major deliverable implied by all the synthesis work.

Questions to answer:

  • What are the canonical runtime entity categories?
  • What relationship categories are needed?
  • Which concepts should be represented as roles, phases, relators, dispositions, qualities, situations, and events?
  • How should provenance, confidence, evidence, contradiction, and change history be stored?
  • What rules should be validated automatically?

Expected output:

  • a dedicated Knowledge Ontology Runtime Model document
  • candidate schemas or object-model structures for agents and persistence

8. Build a maintained glossary / vocabulary layer​

Why: Appendix B of the thesis makes it obvious that crisp vocabulary is part of the actual ontology work.

Questions to answer:

  • Which OntoUML/UFO terms need canonical Governance Foundation definitions?
  • Which thesis-specific terms should be preserved directly?
  • Which local terms need to be aligned to ontology terms?

Expected output:

  • a compact glossary page or vocabulary reference
  • stable definitions for high-value terms used across KnowledgeFund and Knowledge Ontology docs

Suggested reading sequence​

If this research is done as a sequence, the best order is probably:

  1. Unified Foundational Ontolog.pdf
  2. Types_and_Taxonomic_Structures_in_Conceptual_Modeling_A Novel_Ontological_Theory_and_Engineering_Support.pdf
  3. What_s_in_a_Relationship_An_Ontological.pdf
  4. We_need_to_discuss_the_Relationship_Rev.pdf
  5. WhattoConsiderAboutEvents-ASurveyontheOntologyofOccurrentsPre-Print.pdf
  6. Well-Founded IT Architecture Ontology an Approach from a Service Continuity Perspective.pdf
  7. Using a Foundational Ontology for Reengineering a Software Enterprise Ontology.pdf
  8. Using a Foundational Ontology for Reengineering a Software Process Ontology_cameraready (1).pdf

Practical deliverables to produce from this research​

This research should ideally produce these repo artifacts:

  1. UFO Essentials
  2. Taxonomy and Type Rules
  3. Relationships and Relators Guide
  4. Events and Temporal Change Guide
  5. Mitigation / Interference Extension Note
  6. Enterprise Architecture Ontology Mapping
  7. Knowledge Ontology Runtime Model
  8. Ontology Glossary

The best immediate next step is probably:

  • read the UFO core and types/taxonomy papers first
  • extract only the concepts that clearly change the Knowledge Ontology design
  • then draft the first Knowledge Ontology Runtime Model