From: Rich Kilmer <rich@...>
Date: 2002-09-17T00:15:58+09:00
Subject: RE: OpenCyc Formalized Common Knowledge

There is A LOT of java code that backs this OpenCyc project (see CVS).
It's basically a full implementation of a constraint-based expert system
engine to process their ontology.  Its very cool, and I've thought for a
while that doing this stuff in Ruby would whip Java's ass...but then I
am biased ;-)  I think this code is being open-sourced because Cycorp is
being partially funded through a couple of DARPA projects and they are
demanding open-source.  

The first thing to do would be to separate what you need to get a core
up and running from the DARPA project specific stuff.  If you do that
(and develop a list of Java class's functionality that would have to be
ported to Ruby) please post your findings here (or to me personally if
none other are interested)

Best Regards,

-rich

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joseph Benik [mailto:jobeicus@hotmail.com] 
> Sent: Monday, September 16, 2002 10:51 AM
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: OpenCyc Formalized Common Knowledge
> 
> 
> Has anyone taken a look at the OpenCyc project?  Here's an 
> overview I snipped from their website:
> 
> OpenCycT is the open source version of the CycR technology, 
> the world's largest and most complete general knowledge base 
> and commonsense reasoning engine. Cycorp, the builders of 
> Cyc, have set up an independent organization OpenCyc.org, to 
> disseminate and administer OpenCyc, and have committed to a 
> pipeline through which all current and future Cyc technology 
> will flow into ResearchCycT (available for R&D in academia 
> and industry) and then OpenCyc.
> 
> 
> This project seems to hold a great deal of promise, imho, as 
> teaching a computer "common sense" seems to be the first step 
> in a number of applications.  The project is still in it's 
> infancy but they have released a first version of the 
> database/application.  Unfortunately the interface is 
> entirely JAVA-based at the moment although there are plans to 
> support other languages.
> 
> From reading their messageboards it seems more people are 
> confused than inspired by this project so i'm hoping an 
> influx of ruby programmers might get the ball rolling for 
> some type of ruby-based interface!
> 
> This is the documentation webpage: http://www.opencyc.org/doc
> 
> This is the OpenCyc messageboard: 
> http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?> forum_id=85727
> 
>