A translation approach to portable ontology specifications

‘The Production of Space’, in: Frans Jacobi, Imagine, Space Poetry, Copenhagen, 1996, unpaginated.

The Production of Space

Recent work in Artificial Intelligence is exploring the use of formal ontologies as a way of specifying content-specific agreements for the sharing and reuse of knowledge among software entities. We take an engineering perspective on the development of such ontologies. Formal ontologies are viewed as designed artifacts, formulated for specific purposes and evaluated against objective design criteria. We describe the role of ontologies in supporting knowledge sharing activities, and then present a set of criteria to guide the development of ontologies for these purposes. We show how these criteria are applied in case studies from the design of ontologies for engineering mathematics and bibliographic data. Selected design decisions are discussed, and alternative representation choices and evaluated against the design criteria.

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Toward principles for the design of ontologies used for knowledge sharing

物件導向軟體之架構(Object-Oriented Software Construction)探討

This paper is intended to serve as a comprehensive introduction to the emerging field concerned with the design and use of ontologies. We observe that disparate backgrounds, languages, tools and techniques are a major barrier to effective communication among people, organisations and/or software understanding (i.e. an “ontology”) in a given subject area, can improve such communication, which in turn, can give rise to greater reuse and sharing, inter-operability, and more reliable software. After motivating their need, we clarify just what ontologies are and what purpose they serve. We outline a methodology for developing and evaluating ontologies, first discussing informal techniques, concerning such issues as scoping, handling ambiguity, reaching agreement and producing definitions. We then consider the benefits and describe, a more formal approach. We re-visit the scoping phase, and discuss the role of formal languages and techniques in the specification, implementation and evalution of ontologies. Finally, we review the state of the art and practice in this emerging field, considering various case studies, software tools for ontology development, key research issues and future prospects.

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Ontologies: principles, methods and applications

In his article entitled “On Ontological Foundations of Conceptual Modeling” (henceforth OFCM), Boris Wyssusek reviews several approaches that have the common objective of investigating how results from areas such as formal ontology in philosophy, cognitive science, semiotics and linguistics can be employed in the construction of a well-founded theoretical basis for the discipline of conceptual modeling in computer science. Despite the title of his essay, which may let the reader think of an analysis of what the ontological foundations of conceptual modeling are, Wyssusek wonders whether the very idea makes sense, concluding very negatively that “the project of ontology-based conceptual modeling appears to be impossible in principle”. We shall bring here arguments against such conclusion, hoping to convince the readers that the ontology-driven approach to conceptual modeling is well and alive, and that it dramatically improves the quality of information systems. Although it mentions very briefly other approaches, Wyssusek’s article is very much focused on the so-called BWW approach, an adaptation made by Ron Weber and Yair Wand of the original theory proposed by the Argentinean theoretical physicist and philosopher of science Mario Bunge. In that respect, due to the popularity of BWW, a contribution of OFCM is to make explicit the way that approach was formulated, and its differences with respect to Bunge’s original work. Three important characteristics of the “B” and the “WW” parts of the theory have been recognized in Wyssusek’s analysis: (i) Mario Bunge’s ontology commits to a materialist and, thus, reductionist worldview; (ii) Wand and Weber did not actually select Bunge’s theory in the strong sense of the term because they did not systematically compare it with other alternatives. In

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In the Defense of Ontological Foundations for Conceptual Modeling

Despite the ubiquity of services, there is still no consensus on their exact nature and structure. This consensus, however, is necessary to unambiguously describe and trade services physically as well as in an Internet of Service. To make some progress towards a shared conceptualization, we present in this paper a general service model based on the DOLCE foundational ontology. In our understanding, a service is essentially composed of a service process whose core actions (delivered by a service producer to a service consumer) comply with the exposed description of a service provider’s commitment. Each service belongs to a larger service system process which obeys legal and pricing constraints. We illustrate the model’s usefulness and relevance by the means of a continuous example.

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Towards an Ontological Foundation of Services Science: The General Service Model

In a world that is overflowing with journals and other outlets for scientific publication, the appearance of any new periodical requires some justification. There are already more journals than we can read and more conferences than we can attend. In the case of Applied Ontology, we believe that the creation of a new journal not only is completely justifiable, it is downright exciting. For too long, workers in computer science have assumed that content comes for free. “Theory” in computer science has always meant the theory of processes and of computation. We measure the complexity of computer programs in terms of how long it takes machines to execute them, not in terms of how long it takes people to understand and to represent the data on which those programs might operate. We typically describe computer code in terms of algorithms that operate on formal parameters, often without pausing to discuss where the data that might satisfy those parameters come from. This journal was founded on the premise that workers in computer science, informatics, and information science are overdue in paying as much attention to content as they do to algorithms. There are journals that emphasize methods for representing knowledge and data. There are journals that emphasize processing of knowledge and data. Applied Ontology takes the position that, before we choose representation systems or algorithms, we first must create models of the world and clarify “what exists.” Ontology is no longer perceived as an arcane branch of metaphysics, the province only of philosophers; the study of ontology now fits squarely into the study of modern computer science and informatics. Building ontologies is now an essential activity that underlies nearly everything we do in the development of computational systems. The dramatic growth of information and communication technologies in recent years has led to a new focus on information content, and to an increasingly interdisciplinary approach to research and development activities in these fields. Linguists and philosophers now work hand-in-hand with traditional computer scientists to build complex information systems with explicit, examinable conceptual models of the environments in which they are intended to operate, of the organizations in which they will be used, and of the data and knowledge that they will process. In order to be understandable and reusable, these models need to combine the precision of formal semantics with the efficacy of cognitive transparency, as they incorporate increasingly sophisticated and heterogeneous modeling paradigms. The recent explosion of interest in ontologies is a fundamental component of this trend. Researchers in disciplines such as knowledge engineering, information-systems modeling, artificial intelligence, formal and computational linguistics, information retrieval, library science, and knowledge management have come to realize that a solid foundation for their research calls for serious work in ontology, understood as a general theory of the types of entities and relations that make up their respective domains of inquiry. The unification of these diverse disciplines by a shared desire to elucidate, to evaluate, to apply, and to

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Applied Ontology: Focusing on content

The eCommerce Product Classification Challenge

The notion of service spans several domains, such as healthcare, education, and information and communication technology (ICT). In this context, service ontologies are very useful for establishing a common understanding of the main concepts and relations involved, as well as for serving as basis for modeling services in different domains. In this paper, we present an Ontology Pattern Language, called S-OPL, providing a network of interconnected ontology modeling patterns covering the core conceptualization of services. S-OPL builds on UFO-S, a commitment-based core ontology for services. S-OPL patterns support modeling types of customers and providers, as well as the main service life-cycle phases, namely: service offering, service negotiation/agreement, and service delivery. The use of S-OPL is demonstrated in a real case in the ICT service domain.

Nicola Guarino

Papers

In the Defense of Ontological Foundations for Conceptual Modeling

Towards an Ontological Foundation of Services Science: The General Service Model

Applied Ontology: Focusing on content

The eCommerce Product Classification Challenge

An ontology pattern language for service modeling