Stéphane Jean, Guy Pierra, Yamine Aït-AmeurLISI/ENSMA-University of Poitiers{jean,pierra,yamine}@ensma.fr

Laboratory of Applied Computer Science National Engineering School for Mechanics and Aerotechnics and University of

Poitiers1, avenue Clément Ader - BP 40109 - 86961 Futuroscope cedex - France

WEBIST’06, Setubal April 12, 2006Session 5 on Web Interfaces and Applications

DOMAIN ONTOLOGIES:A DATABASE-ORIENTED ANALYSIS

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Introduction

Motivation

Database analysis

Ontologies addressed

Philosophical notion ‘a systematic account of existence’

Upper ontologies provide definition for general-purpose concepts

Domain ontologies tied to a specific universe of discourse

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Outline Notion of ontology Ontology usage Taxonomy Applications

Introduction

Analysis of the notion of domain ontologyUsage of domain ontologiesTaxonomy of domain ontologiesApplications

Conclusion

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Current definitions

T. Gruber definition

Free On-Line Dictionary Of Computing

‘an explicit specification of a conceptualization’ [Gruber 93]

‘an explicit formal specification of how to represent the objects, concepts and other entities that are assumed to exist in some area of interest and the relationships that hold among them’ [FOLDOC 06]

Person

PK id

first name last name age email

Address

PK id

street zip city country

Lives at

??

Notion of ontology Ontology usage Taxonomy Applications

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3 criteria of domain ontologies

FormalReasoningConsistency

ConsensualCover a wide range of applicationsGene / product ontologies

Capability to be referenced (concepts dictionary)Identifier for each conceptIndependent of any environment

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Proposition of a new definition of domain

ontologies

EntityAnything that exist in the domain: a

formal model of domain semantics

Dictionary Symbol1 -> Formal definition Symbol2 -> Formal definition Symbol3 -> Formal definition Symbol4 -> Formal definition Symbol5 -> Formal definition

‘a formal and consensual dictionary of categories and properties of entities of a domain and the relationships that hold among them’

Notion of ontology Ontology usage Taxonomy Applications

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Domain ontologies vs other modelling artefact

Conceptual / Knowledge representation model

formal – consensual – capability to be referenced

Exchange format

formal – consensual – capability to be referenced

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Usage of ontologies

SpecificationSoftware - Database design

Data exchangeGlobal vs local structure

Data integrationDatabase – Semantic Web – Natural language

approaches

Data access and searchBrowsing - querying

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Fundamentals of ontologies

Primitive concepts

May include necessary conditionResult from some levels of choice

Defined concepts

Include necessary and sufficient conditions

‘for which we are not able to give a complete axiomatic definition’ [Gruber 93]

‘for which the ontology provides a complete axiomatic definition by means of necessary and sufficient conditions expressed in terms of other concepts’

Notion of ontology Ontology usage Taxonomy Applications

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Canonical Conceptual Ontology (CCO)

Definition of a canonical vocabulary

CCO

Person

PK id

first name last name age email

Address

PK id

street zip city country

Lives at

Reference for Semantic Integration Access at the knowledge level Canonical vocabulary for exchange

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Non Canonical Conceptual Ontology (NCCO)

Definition of a equivalence

Person

PK id

first name last name age email

Address

PK id

street zip city country

Lives at

NCCO

F-Logic

DL

Derivationfunctions

....

CCO

Man Woman

Extends inference capability Improve flexibility and expressivity for semantic integration

French Address

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Linguistic Ontology (LO)

Support of human languages

Man Woman

Person

PK id

first name last name age email

Address

PK id

street zip city country

Lives at

Natural language support Linguistic inference

Addresses of persons living in France

French Address

Notion of ontology Ontology usage Taxonomy Applications

Adresses de personnes vivant en France

LO

NCCO

F-Logic

DL

Derivationfunctions

....

CCO

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The onion model

Domain specific view of domain ontologies CCO – data processing community NCCO – artificial intelligence community LO – computational linguistic community

Complementarities between them CCO – canonical semantics of a domain NCCO – extensive semantics of a domain LO – natural language support

Thus, the onion model

Notion of ontology Ontology usage Taxonomy Applications

LO

NCCO

CCO

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Application 1: design of a domain ontology

Agreement on a CCO What is the domain covered? Choice of the primitive concepts Define them precisely (context, unit …)

Each member may extend it to a NCCO Define its own view of the domain

Defined LO on top of this NCCO Provide (multilingual) natural language support

Example : ISO 13584-compliant (PLIB) product ontologies (www.plib.ensma.fr)

Notion of ontology Ontology usage Taxonomy Applications

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Applications 2: Exchange of data

Exchange data on a CCO

Represent other points of views with NCCO operators

Use a LO to provide natural language support

NCCO

CCO

LO

Notion of ontology Ontology usage Taxonomy Applications

CCO CCO

CCO

NCCO 1

NCCO 2

+++

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Conclusion and future work

A domain ontology Formal – consensual – capability to be referenced

Currently Three category of domain ontology (CCO-NCCO-LO)

Proposition Layered ontology

Future work Exchange format and tools for layered ontology

‘a formal and consensual dictionary of categories and properties of entities of a domain and the relationships that hold among them’