pDOM Presentation

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© 2008 Palantir Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. Palantir and the Dynamic Ontology Asher K Sinensky, PhD Forward Deployed Engineer

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Transcript of pDOM Presentation

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© 2008 Palantir Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.

Palantir and the Dynamic Ontology

Asher K Sinensky, PhDForward Deployed Engineer

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Palantir and The Dynamic Ontology

Ontology

Ontos + Logia

(Gk) “being” + “the study of”

A Categorization of the World

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Platonic Realism

Universal vs. Particular Ontology vs. Ontic Form vs. Copy Class vs. Object

VS.

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Nice Philosophy…but useful?

From: http://www.dayah.com/periodic/

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Leo(Lion)

Species:Tigris(Tiger)

Pardus(Leopard)

Genus: Panthera

• Kingdom: Animalia• Phylum: Chordata

• Class: Mammalia • Order: Carnivora

• Family: Felidae• Genus: Panthera

• Species: ?

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Parent Object: Person

Pilot DoctorChild Object:

Lawyer

•Objects•Entities

•Living Things•Person

•?

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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?

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Person

Pilot DoctorLawyer

A person’s job-function could be classified using

an object definition.

Objects

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Person

OCCUPATION

PILOT

DOCTOR

LAWYERA person’s job-function could be classified by defining the

person’s occupation property.

Properties

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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

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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

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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

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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.