Robert Meersman

Bio: Robert Meersman is an academic researcher from Graz University of Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Ontology (information science) & Ontology engineering. The author has an hindex of 37, co-authored 168 publications receiving 5393 citations. Previous affiliations of Robert Meersman include VU University Amsterdam & Starlab.

Data modelling versus ontology engineering

Abstract: Ontologies in current computer science parlance are computer based resources that represent agreed domain semantics. Unlike data models, the fundamental asset of ontologies is their relative independence of particular applications, i.e. an ontology consists of relatively generic knowledge that can be reused by different kinds of applications/tasks. The first part of this paper concerns some aspects that help to understand the differences and similarities between ontologies and data models. In the second part we present an ontology engineering framework that supports and favours the genericity of an ontology. We introduce the DOGMA ontology engineering approach that separates "atomic" conceptual relations from "predicative" domain rules. A DOGMA ontology consists of an ontology base that holds sets of intuitive context-specific conceptual relations and a layer of "relatively generic" ontological commitments that hold the domain rules. This constitutes what we shall call the double articulation of a DOGMA ontology 1.

On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2002: CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE

Abstract: COOPIS 2002 FULL PAPERS.- Developing Evolutionary Cost Models for Query Optimization in a Dynamic Multidatabase Environment.- A Conceptual Markup Language That Supports Interoperability between Business Rule Modeling Systems.- Distributed Description Logics: Directed Domain Correspondences in Federated Information Sources.- Synchronization of Concurrent Workflows Using Interaction Expressions and Coordination Protocols.- CPM Revisited - An Architecture Comparison.- Modeling Coordination and Control in Cross-Organizational Workflows.- View Propagation and Inconsistency Detection for Cooperative Mobile Agents.- On Real-Time Top k Querying for Mobile Services.- Mobile Agents in Mobile Data Access Systems.- Using Agent Control and Communication in a Distributed Workflow Information System.- An Extended Alternating-Offers Bargaining Protocol for Automated Negotiation in Multi-agent Systems.- A Human Based Perception Model for Cooperative Intelligent Virtual Agents.- A Decentralized Algorithm for Coordinating Independent Peers: An Initial Examination.- Supporting Peer-to-Peer User Communities.- Context Spaces - Self-Structuring Distributed Networks for Contextual Messaging and Resource Discovery.- Supporting Cooperative Learning in Distributed Project Teams.- Discovering Emergent Virtual Work Processes in Collaborative Systems.- Flexible Merging for Asynchronous Collaborative Systems.- A Multi-version Transaction Model to Improve Data Availability in Mobile Computing.- Finding Trading Partners to Establish Ad-hoc Business Processes.- Regulating Work in Digital Enterprises: A Flexible Managerial Framework.- Collecting and Querying Distributed Traces of Composite Service Executions.- An Architecture of a Web-Based Collaborative Image Search Engine.- Parallel Processing with Autonomous Databases in a Cluster System.- Querying XML Sources Using an Ontology-Based Mediator.- Handling Partial Matches in Semistructured Data with Cooperative Query Answering Techniques.- Efficient Querying of Distributed Resources in Mediator Systems.- Managing Data Quality in Cooperative Information Systems.- Adaptive Fault Tolerant Hospital Resource Scheduling.- COOPIS 2002 POSTERS.- Mining 'Living' Data - Providing Context Information to a Negotiation Process.- The Neem Platform: An Evolvable Framework for Perceptual Collaborative Applications.- A Model for Process Service Interaction.- Leveraging Dynamic Inheritance in Complex Ontology Representation.- A Database Approach to Global Document Spaces: Replacing Files with Shared, Connected Objects.- PROLOG/RDBMS Integration in the NED Intelligent Information System.- New Location Management for Reducing HLR Overhead Traffic in Mobile Networks.- DOA 2002 FULL PAPERS.- A Filter Object Framework for MICO.- Design and Performance of a Modular Portable Object Adapter for Distributed, Real-Time, and Embedded CORBA Applications.- Design and Performance of Asynchronous Method Handling for CORBA.- Web Services Interoperability: A Practitioner's Experience.- Cooking the Web-ERP.- Web Services and CORBA.- Composing and Deploying Grid Middleware Web Services Using Model Driven Architecture.- A Design Pattern for Efficient Retrieval of Large Data Sets from Remote Data Sources.- Replacement Policies for a Distributed Object Caching Service.- Design and Performance of a Media Gateway Trader.- Object Security Attributes: Enabling Application-Specific Access Control in Middleware.- Integrating Optimistic Virtual Synchrony to a CORBA Object Group Service.- Implementing a CORBA-Based Architecture for Leveraging the Security Level of Existing Applications.- Reconciling Replication and Transactions for the End-to-End Reliability of CORBA Applications.- Runtime Performance Modeling and Measurement of Adaptive Distributed Object Applications.- An Infrastructure for Adaptable Middleware.- A Reflective Middleware Framework for Communication in Dynamic Environments.- A Dynamic Proxy Based Architecture to Support Distributed Java Objects in a Mobile Environment.- A CORBA-Based Work .ow Management System for Wireless Communication Environments.- Customizable Deployment, Composition, and Hosting of Distributed Java Applications.- Resource Discovery for Pervasive Environments.- An Adaptive Scheduling Service for Real-Time CORBA.- The Design and Performance of the jRate Real-Time Java Implementation.- Empirical Differences between COTS Middleware Scheduling Strategies.- Adding Business Rules and Constraints in Component Based Applications.- Configuring the Communication Middleware to Support Multi-user Object-Oriented Environments.- Distributed Component System Based on Architecture Description: The SOFA Experience.- On Components with Explicit Protocols Satisfying a Notion of Correctness by Construction.- ODBASE 2002 FULL PAPERS.- Well-Founded Optimism: Inheritance in Frame-Based Knowledge Bases.- A Defeasible Ontology Language.- On the Semantics of Anonymous Identity and Reification.- Extending Datatype Support in Web Ontology Reasoning.- A Conceptual Modeling Approach for Semantics-Driven Enterprise Applications.- Towards Ontological Foundations for UML Conceptual Models.- Towards Secure Object Oriented Database Systems.- Information-Flow-Based Ontology Mapping.- The Semantics of Semantic Annotation.- A User Behavior-Based Agent for Improving Web Usage.- Usage-Oriented Evolution of Ontology-Based Knowledge Management Systems.- OntoEdit: Guiding Ontology Development by Methodology and Inferencing.- Open Mind Common Sense: Knowledge Acquisition from the General Public.- Formal Ontology Engineering in the DOGMA Approach.- A Dynamic Model for Mapping XML Elements in a Object-Oriented Fashion.- KF-Diff+: Highly Efficient Change Detection Algorithm for XML Documents.- Naming in XML Documents.- Reasoning with Ontologies by Using Knowledge Conjunction in Conceptual Graphs.- Natural Language Annotations for the Semantic Web.- A Metadata Integration Assistant Generator for Heterogeneous Distributed Databases.- Intelligent Web Search via Personalizable Meta-search Agents.- ODBASE 2002 Posters.- Defining Information System Components.- Discovering Resources in the Semantic Web.- Geodata Interoperation via Semantic Correspondences.- Extending Datatype Support inWeb Ontology Reasoning.

On The Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2003: CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE

Abstract: Process interconnection mechanisms are necessary to co-ordinate geographically distributed business processes in order to strength awareness inside virtual enterprises, to facilitate multinational e-transactions, etc Actually, existing business process modelling and enactment systems (workflow systems, project management tools, shared agendas, to do lists, etc) have been mainly developed to suit enterprise internal needs Thus, most of these systems are not adapted to inter-enterprise co-operation As we are interested in workflow processes, we aim, through this paper, to provide a model supporting dynamic heterogeneous workflow process interconnection We consider the interconnection of enterprise workflow processes as the management of a workflow of workflows in which several heterogeneous workflow systems coexist This paper introduces our process interconnection model, its implementation, and its validation through an experimentation

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

Abstract: How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

Ontology Matching

Abstract: Ontologies tend to be found everywhere. They are viewed as the silver bullet for many applications, such as database integration, peer-to-peer systems, e-commerce, semantic web services, or social networks. However, in open or evolving systems, such as the semantic web, different parties would, in general, adopt different ontologies. Thus, merely using ontologies, like using XML, does not reduce heterogeneity: it just raises heterogeneity problems to a higher level. Euzenat and Shvaikos book is devoted to ontology matching as a solution to the semantic heterogeneity problem faced by computer systems. Ontology matching aims at finding correspondences between semantically related entities of different ontologies. These correspondences may stand for equivalence as well as other relations, such as consequence, subsumption, or disjointness, between ontology entities. Many different matching solutions have been proposed so far from various viewpoints, e.g., databases, information systems, and artificial intelligence. The second edition of Ontology Matching has been thoroughly revised and updated to reflect the most recent advances in this quickly developing area, which resulted in more than 150 pages of new content. In particular, the book includes a new chapter dedicated to the methodology for performing ontology matching. It also covers emerging topics, such as data interlinking, ontology partitioning and pruning, context-based matching, matcher tuning, alignment debugging, and user involvement in matching, to mention a few. More than 100 state-of-the-art matching systems and frameworks were reviewed. With Ontology Matching, researchers and practitioners will find a reference book that presents currently available work in a uniform framework. In particular, the work and the techniques presented in this book can be equally applied to database schema matching, catalog integration, XML schema matching and other related problems. The objectives of the book include presenting (i) the state of the art and (ii) the latest research results in ontology matching by providing a systematic and detailed account of matching techniques and matching systems from theoretical, practical and application perspectives.

Ontologies: A Silver Bullet for Knowledge Management and Electronic Commerce

Abstract: This second editionsystematically introduces the notion of ontologies to the non-expert reader and demonstrates in detail how to apply this conceptual framework for improved intranet retrieval of corporate information and knowledge and for enhanced Internet-based electronic commerce He also describes ontology languages (XML, RDF, and OWL) and ontology tools, and the application of ontologies In addition to structural improvements, the second edition covers recent developments relating to the Semantic Web, and emerging web-based standard languages

Handbook on Ontologies

Abstract: An ontology is a formal description of concepts and relationships that can exist for a community of human and/or machine agents. The notion of ontologies is crucial for the purpose of enabling knowledge sharing and reuse. The Handbook on Ontologies provides a comprehensive overview of the current status and future prospectives of the field of ontologies considering ontology languages, ontology engineering methods, example ontologies, infrastructures and technologies for ontologies, and how to bring this all into ontology-based infrastructures and applications that are among the best of their kind. The field of ontologies has tremendously developed and grown in the five years since the first edition of the "Handbook on Ontologies". Therefore, its revision includes 21 completely new chapters as well as a major re-working of 15 chapters transferred to this second edition.

Ontology mapping: the state of the art

Abstract: Ontology mapping is seen as a solution provider in today's landscape of ontology research. As the number of ontologies that are made publicly available and accessible on the Web increases steadily, so does the need for applications to use them. A single ontology is no longer enough to support the tasks envisaged by a distributed environment like the Semantic Web. Multiple ontologies need to be accessed from several applications. Mapping could provide a common layer from which several ontologies could be accessed and hence could exchange information in semantically sound manners. Developing such mappings has been the focus of a variety of works originating from diverse communities over a number of years. In this article we comprehensively review and present these works. We also provide insights on the pragmatics of ontology mapping and elaborate on a theoretical approach for defining ontology mapping.