Ontologies IS 277 Spring 2005

Outline n Ontologies n Types of ontologies n Examples n Ontology engineering n Ontology standards n Machine-readable ontologies

Ontologies n Ontos logos n A theory of existence n What the world is made of n But only a theory n Machine-readable

Types of ontologies n Document n Metadata n Domain n Service

Examples n Atomism n Data models n Taxonomies / classifications n Controlled vocabularies n Cataloguing standards

Ontology engineering n Well-defined n Coherent n Extensible n Modular n Layered n Independent of applications n Minimal commitments

Ontology standards n Islands of automation n User groups n Standards organizations n Can fail n Multiple, diverse standards n Translation among them

Machine-readable ontologies n Standardized ways of writing down ontology standards n XML, RDF, and OWL n “Meaning” conferred by software