John Florian Sowa, also known as John F. Sowa (born 1940), is an American computer scientist, an expert in artificial intelligence and computer design, and the inventor of conceptual graphs.^[4] He earned a Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962, a Master of Arts from Harvard University in 1966, and a PhD from Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 1999. He is associated with Cora Angier Sowa and maintains the website JFSowa.com.

Sowa received a BS in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962, an MA in applied mathematics from Harvard University in 1966, and a PhD in computer science from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 1999 with a dissertation titled "Knowledge Representation: Logical, Philosophical, and Computational Foundations".^[6] He spent most of his professional career at IBM, beginning in 1962 in IBM's applied mathematics group. Over the decades, he has researched and developed emerging fields of computer science spanning compilers, programming languages, and system architecture to artificial intelligence and knowledge representation. In the 1990s, Sowa was associated with the IBM Educational Center in New York. Over the years, he taught courses at the IBM Systems Research Institute, Binghamton University, Stanford University, the Linguistic Society of America, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. He is also a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

After early retirement from IBM, Sowa cofounded VivoMind Intelligence, Inc. with Arun K. Majumdar in 2001, where he developed data-mining and database technology, specifically high-level "ontologies" for artificial intelligence and automated natural language understanding. He currently works with Kyndi Inc., which was also founded by Majumdar. John Sowa is married to the philologist Cora Angier Sowa, and they live in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.^[8]

Since the 1970s, Sowa's research interests have been in the fields of artificial intelligence, expert systems, and database query linked to natural languages.^[7] In his work, he combines ideas from numerous disciplines and eras, both modern and ancient, such as applying ideas from Aristotle, the medieval scholastics, and Alfred North Whitehead, including database schema theory, and incorporating the model of analogy of Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyyah.^[9]

Sowa invented conceptual graphs, a graphic notation for logic and natural language, based on the structures in semantic networks and on the existential graphs of Charles S. Peirce. He introduced the concept in the 1976 article "Conceptual graphs for a data base interface" in the IBM Journal of Research and Development.^[10] He elaborated upon it in the 1983 book Conceptual structures: information processing in mind and machine.

In the 1980s, this theory had been adopted by a number of research and development groups throughout the world.^[7,11] International Conferences on Conceptual Structures (ICCS) have been held since 1993, following a series of conceptual graph workshops that began in 1986.^[7,11]

In 1991, Sowa first stated his Law of Standards: "Whenever a major organization develops a new system as an official standard for X, the primary result is the widespread adoption of some simpler system as a de facto standard for X." Like Gall's law, the Law of Standards is essentially an argument in favour of underspecification.

Examples include the introduction of PL/I resulting in COBOL and FORTRAN becoming the de facto standards for business and scientific programming respectively, the introduction of Algol-68 resulting in Pascal becoming the de facto standard for academic programming, and the introduction of the Ada language resulting in C becoming the de facto standard for US Department of Defense programming. Further examples include the introduction of OS/2 resulting in Windows becoming the de facto standard for desktop OS, the introduction of X.400 resulting in SMTP becoming the de facto standard for electronic mail, and the introduction of X.500 resulting in LDAP becoming the de facto standard for directory services.

Sowa published Conceptual Structures - Information Processing in Mind and Machine in 1984 as part of The Systems Programming Series by Addison-Wesley. He followed this with Principles of Semantic Networks through Morgan Kaufmann in 1991 and Conceptual Graphs for Knowledge Representation in 1993. In 1994, he co-edited the conference proceedings Conceptual structures, current practices : Second International Conference on Conceptual Structures, ICCS'94, College Park, Maryland, USA, August 16–20, 1994 alongside William M. Tepfenhart and Judith P. Dick. His later books include Conceptual Structures: Applications, Implementation and Theory in 1995, Conceptual Structures: Fulfilling Peirce's Dream in 1997, and Knowledge representation : logical, philosophical, and computational foundations, published in 2000 by Brooks Cole Publishing Co. in Pacific Grove.

His selected articles include "Conceptual Graphs for a Data Base Interface," published in the IBM Journal of Research and Development in July 1976. In 1992, he co-authored "Extending and formalizing the framework for information systems architecture" with J. A. Zachman in the IBM Systems Journal, and contributed "Conceptual Graph Summary" to Conceptual Structures: Current Research and Practice, edited by T. E. Nagle et al. and published in Chichester by Ellis Horwood. He also published "Top-level ontological categories" in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies in November 1995 (Vol. 43, Iss. 5–6, pp. 669–685) and "Semantic Networks" in the Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science by John Wiley & Sons in 2006.