ontology

Abstract: While tags in collaborative tagging systems serve primarily an indexing purpose, facilitating search and navigation of resources, the use of the same tags by more than one individual can yield a collective classification schema. We present an approach for making explicit the semantics behind the tag space in social tagging systems, so that this collaborative organization can emerge in the form of groups of concepts and partial ontologies. This is achieved by using a combination of shallow pre-processing strategies and statistical techniques together with knowledge provided by ontologies available on the semantic web. Preliminary results on the del.icio.us and Flickr tag sets show that the approach is very promising: it generates clusters with highly related tags corresponding to concepts in ontologies and meaningful relationships among subsets of these tags can be identified.

 ontology;  semantic;  database;  folksonomy;  semanticweb;  discovery;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: Sorry no abstract available for this article

 ontology;  collaboration;  AldoGangemi ckc2007;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was a pivotal time in the history of civilization. Many difficult decisions were made by a plethora of persons having different backgrounds, motives, beliefs, and intentions—while under extraordinarily intense pressure. In our paper, we discuss an approach designed for exploratory analysis of the decisions made using ontologies and based in visual analytics. With customized software to support our work, we will demonstrate how the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolded with a novel approach.

 ontology;  Cuban Missile Crisis;  Visual Analytics;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: In information systems that support knowledge-discovery applications such as scientific exploration, reliance on highly structured ontologies as data-organization aids can be limiting. With current computational aids to science work, the human knowledge that creates meaning out of analyses is often only recorded when work reaches publication-or worse, left unrecorded altogether-for lack of an ontological model for scientific concepts that can capture knowledge as it is created and used. We argue for an approach to representing scientific concepts that reflects (1) the situated processes of science work, (2) the social construction of knowledge, and (3) the emergence and evolution of understanding over time. In this model, knowledge is the result of collaboration, negotiation, and manipulation by teams of researchers. Capturing the situations in which knowledge is created and used helps these collaborators discover areas of agreement and discord, while allowing individual inquirers to maintain different perspectives on the same information. The capture of provenance information allows historical trails of reasoning to be reconstructed, allowing end users to evaluate the utility and trustworthiness of knowledge representations. We present a proof-of-concept system, called Codex, based on this situated knowledge model. Codex supports visualization of knowledge structures through concept mapping, and enables inference across those structures. The proof-of-concept is deployed in the domain of geoscience to support distributed teams of learners and researchers.

 ontology;  situated knowledge;  Codex;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: Ontologies are being developed in many geoscientific domains. They are typically populated with two types of concepts: upper-level concepts that apply across many or all domains, and domain concepts that apply only within a specific domain. Previous work has refined this distinction by identifying a particular type of domain concept, called a situated concept, which is dependent on specific processes (natural, social, scientific, or possibly machine) for its meaning and is instantiated amongst entities within a specific geographical and historical context. In this paper we present new support for situated geoscientific concepts, building on our previous research that argues for the importance of situations in the development and use of concepts related to geoscientific field mapping. The new results are obtained by using statistical techniques to further analyze three geologists' field data over time, to better test the hypothesis that the concepts developed by the geologists to classify objects on the map are in fact situated. The field data are compared to each other, and to the concepts developed by the team. Differences found between and within individuals' data for three map concepts provide strong support for the idea that the concepts are variably influenced by data, theory, and natural and human situations. From this increased corroboration of situated concepts we suggest two implications for domain ontologies: (1) a delineation between situated domain concepts and non-situated domain concepts; and (2) recognition that representation of reliable meaning involves the capture of historical and geographical context for situated concepts.

 ontology;   situated;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: Based on a geometrical interpretation of knowledge space, this work defines relationships between data, concepts and models, and establishes a framework for their integration. Concepts encapsulate our knowledge and provide a basis for data acquisition. They change as we learn more. Every discipline operates with a specific set of concepts organized in models. In order to co-process data collected against different concepts, we need to map the underlying concepts. Modal Intentional Actual (MIA) structure, derived from knowledge representation theory, enables the separation of data from hypotheses, and provides a consistent approach for building data models, concept mapping and defining complex relationships, which are represented by morphisms in category theory. Essential data elements from enterprise modeling techniques provide specifications for storing concepts and morphisms in a database.

 ontology;  knowledge acquisition;  Knowledge Representation;  data models;  concept mapping;  data integration;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: With the advent of information technology, library services are facing tremendous changes in the form of digitalization. In addition to the digitalization of library resources, personalized systems and recommendation systems are two of highly desirable services among library patrons. This study proposes a novel recommendation system based on analysis of loan records. In our system, we use the traditional cataloging scheme, such as the Library of Congress Classification (LCC), as the reference ontology and build personal ontology by mining interested subjects and relationships among subjects from patron’s borrowing records. The proposed scheme can meet diversified demands of individual patron and provide patrons with a user-friendly interface to help them access needed information. Keywords: personalized service, personal ontology, information filtering, recommendation system.

 ontology;  Personalized recommendation;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: Ontology is a significant research theme in GIScience. While some researchers believe that the progress in GIScience is being directed through an engagement with the concept of ontology, some dismiss it as irrelevant. This paper is aimed at (i) exploring the theoretical and practical roles of ontologies; (ii) making the definitions and terminology explicit; (iii) assessing the applicability of ontology to problems in the geographical domain; and (iv) assessing whether a unified approach to ontology exists in GIScience. The results will be helpful for GIScientists in (i) understanding the validity of employing ontology within their own work, (ii) assessing what operational framework of terms and methods to use for developing their own ontology, and (iii) to assess what existing ontological models are available and applicable within their domain or application. A comprehensive and critical review will also help in identifying the signficant issues and directing future research agenda in GIScience.

 ontology;  Ontologies;  events;  geog 597 I;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: This deliverable presents a restricted variant of the OWL Lite species of the OWL ontology language, called OWL Lite¡. OWL Lite¡ is a strict subset of OWL Lite and there exists a direct translation into the deductive database language Datalog. Thus, any OWL Lite¡ ontology can be translated into Datalog in order to allow for e±cient query answering. It turns out that most current ontologies fall inside this fragment. An ontology language for which a translation to Datalog exists has several advantages. Most notably, it can bene¯t from highly optimized query answering engines and allows for easy implementation of a rule and a query language on top of the ontology. We describe the restriction on the OWL Lite abstract syntax and pro- vide an analysis of the features of OWL Lite, which are not included in OWL Lite¡ and give a rationale for not including them in the language. We present the RDF syntax and the model-theoretic semantics for OWL Lite¡ and relate OWL Lite¡ with RDFS. Finally, we indicate possible future extensions of the language.

 ontology;  limitations of ontology;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: We propose a personal knowledge publishing system called Semblog is realized with integration of Semantic Web techniques and Weblog tools. Semblog suite provides an integrated environment for gathering, authoring, publishing, and making human relationship seamlessly to enable people to exchange information and knowledge with easy and casual fashion. We use a lightweight metadata format like RSS to activate the information flow and its activities. We define three level of interest of information gathering and publishing i.e., “check”, “clip” and “post” and provide suitable ways to distribute information depending on the interest level. Our system called Semblog platform consists of two types of extended content aggregator and information retrieval / recommendation applications. We also design a new metadata module to define personal ontology that realizes semantic relations among people and Weblog sites.

 ontology;  semantic Web;  Semblog;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: As ontology development becomes a collaborative process, developers face the problem of maintaining versions of ontologies akin to maintaining versions of software code or versions of documents in large projects. Traditional versioning systems enable users to compare versions, examine changes, and accept or reject changes. However, while versioning systems usually treat software code and text documents as text files, a versioning system for ontologies must compare and present structural changes rather than changes in text representation of ontologies. In this paper, we present the PromptDiff ontology-versioning environment, which address these challenges. PromptDiff includes an efficient version-comparison algorithm that produces a structural diff between ontologies. The results are presented to the users through an intuitive user interface for analyzing the changes that enables users to view concepts and groups of concepts that were added, deleted, and moved, distinguished by their appearance and with direct access to additional information characterizing the change. The users can then act on the changes, accepting or rejecting them. We present results of a pilot user study that demonstrate the effectiveness of the tool for change management. We discuss design principles for an end-to-end ontology-versioning environment and position ontology versioning as a component in a general ontology-management framework.

 ontology;  Versioning;  Evolution;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: This paper describes a method for converting existing thesauri and related resources from their native format to RDF(S) and OWL. The method identifies four steps in the conversion process. In each step, decisions have to be taken with respect to the syntax or semantics of the resulting representation. Each step is supported through a number of guidelines. The method is illustrated through conversions of two large thesauri: MeSH and WordNet.

 ontology;  

Abstract: We propose a modular ontology of the dynamic features of reality. This amounts, on the one hand, to a purely spatial ontology supporting snapshot views of the world at successive instants of time and, on the other hand, to a purely spatiotemporal ontology of change and process. We argue that dynamic spatial ontology must combine these two distinct types of inventory of the entities and relationships in reality, and we provide characterizations of spatiotemporal reasoning in the light of the interconnections between them.

 ontology;  endurants;  time representation;  events;  Basic Formal Ontology;  continunant;  Dynamic Ontology;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: We propose a modular ontology of the dynamic features of reality. This amounts, on the one hand, to a purely spatial ontology supporting snapshot views of the world at successive instants of time and, on the other hand, to a purely spatiotemporal ontology of change and process. We argue that dynamic spatial ontology must combine these two distinct types of inventory of the entities and relationships in reality, and we provide characterizations of spatiotemporal reasoning in the light of the interconnections between them.

 ontology;  endurants;  time representation;  events;  Basic Formal Ontology;  continunant;  Dynamic Ontology;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: Ontologics are shared models of a domain that encode a view which is common to a set of different parties. Contexts are local models that encode a party's subjective view of a domain. In this paper we show how ontologics can be contcxtualizcd, thus acquiring certain useful properties that a pure shared approach cannot provide. We say that an ontology is contcxtualizcd or, also, that it is a contextual ontology, when its contents are kept local, and therefore not shared with other

 ontology;  contextual knowledge representation;  knowledge context;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: The OWL Web Ontology Language is a new formal language for representing ontologies in the Semantic Web. OWL has features from several families of representation languages, including primarily Description Logics and frames. OWL also shares many characteristics with RDF, the W3C base of the Semantic Web. In this paper we discuss how the philosophy and features of OWL can be traced back to these older formalisms, with modications driven by several other constraints on OWL. Several interesting problems have arisen where these in uences on OWL have clashed.

 ontology;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: The OWL Web Ontology Language is a new formal language for representing ontologies in the Semantic Web. OWL has features from several families of representation languages, including primarily Description Logics and frames. OWL also shares many characteristics with RDF, the W3C base of the Semantic Web. In this paper we discuss how the philosophy and features of OWL can be traced back to these older formalisms, with modications driven by several other constraints on OWL. Several interesting problems have arisen where these in uences on OWL have clashed.

 ontology;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: The Semantic Network, a component of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), describes core biomedical knowledge consisting of semantic types and relationships. It is a well established, semi-formal ontology in widespread use for over a decade. We expected to publish this ontology on the Semantic Web, using OWL, with relatively little effort. However, we ran into a number of problems concerning alternative interpretations of the SN notation and the inability to express some of the interpretations in OWL. We detail these problems, as a cautionary tale to others planning to publish pre-existing ontologies on the Semantic Web, as a list of issues to consider when describing formally concepts in any ontology, and as a collection of criteria for evaluating alternative representations, which could form part of a methodology of ontology development.

 ontology;  semantic networks;  OWL;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: According to Heraclitus, panta rhei — everything is in flux. But what gives that flux its form is the logos — the words or signs that enable us to perceive patterns in the flux, remember them, talk about them, and take action upon them even while we ourselves are part of the flux we are acting in and on. Modern physics is essentially a theory of flux in which the ultimate building blocks of matter maintain some semblance of stability only because of conservation laws of energy, momentum, spin, charge, and more exotic notions like charm and strangeness. Meanwhile, the concepts of everyday life are derived from experience with objects and processes that are measured and classified by comparisons with the human body, its parts, and its typical movements. Yet despite the vast differences in sizes, speeds, and time scale, the languages and counting systems of our stone-age ancestors have been successfully adapted to describe, analyze, and predict the behavior of everything from subatomic particles to clusters of galaxies that span the universe. Any system of ontology that is adequate for defining the concepts used in natural languages must be at least as flexible as the languages themselves: it must be able to accommodate all the categories of thought that are humanly conceivable and relate them to all possible experiences, either directly by human senses or indirectly by whatever instrumentation any scientist or engineer may invent. As a foundation for such an ontology, this paper proposes the philosophies of three logicians who understood the limitations of logic in dealing with the both the flux and the logos: Charles Sanders Peirce, Alfred North Whitehead, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

 ontology;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: Sorry no abstract available for this article

 ontology;  

Abstract: The question of a unified theory of information is addressed from the logical position of many-valued ontologies. Information is described as an operational factor which forms a trans-contextural bridge between disjunct ontological systems (or monocontextures).

 ontology;  philosophy;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: Recent work in Artificial Intelligence (AI) 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 are evaluated against the design criteria.

 ontology;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: The deep structure of an information system comprises those properties that manifest the meaning of the real-world system the information system is intended to model. In this paper we describe three models we have developed of information systems deep structure properties. The first, the representational model, proposes a set of constructs that enable the ontological expressiveness of grammars used to model information systems to be evaluated. The second, the state-tracking model, proposes four real-world system that are intended to model. The thrid, the good-decomposition model, proposes three necessary conditions that information systems must meet if they are to be well decomposed. The three models provide a theoretically based, structured way of evaluating grammars that are used to analyse, design and implement information systems and scripts that have been generated using these grammars to describe specific information systems

 Deep Structure;  ontology;  analysis and design;  decomposition;  formal models;  representation;  state tracking;  

Abstract: This book addresses the generation-old question of why the Japanese are so successful in business. The authors, professors of management at Hitosubashi University, contend that Japanese firms are successful because they are innovative, that is, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. They identify two types of organizational knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in procedures and manuals, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience. U.S. managers tend to focus on explicit knowledge and stress approaches such as benchmarking, while the Japanese focus on tacit knowledge. Using corporate examples such as Honda, NEC, Nissan, 3M, and GE, the authors provide insights that reveal how to blend the best of both worlds. This scholarly volume is highly recommended not only for academics (especially in organizational theory) but also for readers doing business in and with Japan.?Joseph W. Leonard, Miami Univ., Oxford, Ohio Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

 ontology;  Knowledge construction;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: Sorry no abstract available for this article

 ontology;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: Sorry no abstract available for this article

 ontology;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online

Abstract: Sorry no abstract available for this article

 ontology;  Abduction;  

Abstract: The paradigm of the classical Platonic subject-object dichotomy, where static objects (reducible to Democrites’ atoms) are connected by relations, is increasingly being challenged today in physics, biology and philosophy by what could be called the Heraclitean paradigm. It describes the world as a flux of pure relations, where objects emerge only as dynamic stabilities. The input-output model as information theory’s version of the object paradigm up to now was the very foundation of computer science and its separation of data and code. In view of new technical developments computer science now also becomes affected by ‘radical relationism’, which does not record or process any data in the traditional (static) sense, but only generates data dynamically from a pure relation space, like computer generated images of a video game.

 ontology;  Philosophy;;  

Checkout More Details | Available Online