Basically, our group spent as much time arguing over the meaning of this word as we did discussing the questions and topics in the readings. Since the O word features so prominently in the questions, it is hard to ignore when exporing the web. The largest problem we had was in distinguishing ontology from user conceptual model. We settled on defining the ontology as the features present in a conceptual model, but is not the model itself. I.e. e-mail has a conceptual model of writing notes and letters, and receiving messages from other users, but the ontology is that of notes and messages. We think we've got this right.
Ontologies are useful structuring tools, in that they provide an organizing axis along which you can mentally mark your location in hyperspace. The problem occurs when jumping from one ontological space to another. The web as it stands today offers no warning that the axis has shifted. It suffers from being a heterogeneous information space. On the other hand, this is its greatest strength.
The Riff-Raff Early Morning Team.