Ontologies are an area of study that is difficult to understand and apply to the world around us. My topic of spatial cognition closely ties into ontologies because it tries to categorize and understand representations of objects in the real world. For instance, spatial cognition address the same questions in Geographic Categories: An Ontological Investigation of where we end and the “outside” world begins. Trying to answer these questions of categories is very problematic because ontologies are closely related to epistemological frameworks. I’m surprised that Smith and Mark’s article did not incorporate epistemological frameworks. Cognitive geo-ontologies remind us that one can hardly discuss ontologies with out bringing up epistemologies. Better understanding of spatial cognition has the capacity to inform geo-ontologies because it examines consensus processes that contribute to constructing ontological frameworks. In addition, the interoperability of systems will depend on applying cognitive geo-ontologies in order to uncover, “the relative semantic commensurability of different models of geographic phenomena in different systems” (Montello, 2009). We can apply cognitive geo-ontologies, therefore, to devise data standards and informational schemas that better categorize geo-spatial entities.
In addition, I’m a little skeptical of the claim in Smith and Mark’s article that ontology in the information science domain is, “a neutral and computationally tractable description or theory of a given domain which can be accepted and reused by all information gatherers in that domain”. Ontologies are linked to epistemologies, and these epistemologies of course exist within the context of power hierarchies. In other words, some epistemologies dominate and marginalize other epistemologies. Therefore, as we discussed in the Rudstrom reading about mapping indigenous places with GIS, can we say that ontology in information science ever exists in a neutral context?
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Smith, Barry and David Mark. 2001. Geographical categories: an ontological investigation. International Journal of Geographical Information science 15(7): 591-612.
Montello, Daniel R. 2009. Cognitive Research in GIScience: Recent Achievements and Future Prospects. Geography Compass 3(5): 1824-840.