Robert Muetzelfeldt
Email: <robertm AT SPAMFREE ed DOT ac DOT uk>
I'm interested in the development of software tools for ecological and environmental modelling based on the principle of declarative modelling. In this approach, models are represented as a specification of the mathematical structure of the model rather than as a program in a conventional programming language, such as Fortran or C++. A convenient metalanguage to use for representing the models is XML (though we have also Prolog), mainly because of its ubiquity and the range of web-based tools available for processing XML.
I am currently involved in setting up a comprehensive directory of all available terrestrial biosphere models, an important component of the latest generation of climate change models. The idea is to gradually re-cast as many as possible in a standard XML-based language, so that they can be processed by a common set of tools (mainly based on XSLT). This web site is a wiki, to encourage contribution by all members of the terrestrial biosphere modelling community. (It's name and URL is still under discussion, so please email me if you would like to know more.)
As this project develops, we would like to link the models to formal ontologies of variables, objects, units etc. To begin with, the ontologies will link to metadata associated with each of the models. As models get to be re-cast in XML, then the ontologies will link to the individual variables in the actual model itself.
If you find this interesting, and would like to get involved in the ontology development, please do contact me. In particular, if you would like to join in an experiment in collaborative ontology development in a Web 2.0-ish way, do get in touch. I don't know much about it, or even if it's a sensible idea (a constantly changing ontology??), but it would be fun to explore.
We have hands on experience developing Web 2.0 applications and can help you develpo these.