Ontology

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this is seriously under construction

kalli 13:59, 19 January 2007 (MET)

Definition

From the KS, AI Lab at Stanford University: “An ontology is an explicit specification of some topic. For our purposes, it is a formal and declarative representation which includes the vocabulary (or names) for referring to the terms in that subject area and the logical statements that describe what the terms are, how they are related to each other, and how they can or cannot scourse (e.g., classes, relations, functions, or other objects) with human-readable text describing what the names mean, and formal axioms that constrain the interpretation and well-formed use of these terms.”

Tom Gruber's short answer: “An ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization.”

• http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/kst/what-is-an-ontology.html

The following is from KSL

Why?

Why Develop an Ontology?

   * To enable a machine to use the knowledge in some application.
   * To enable multiple machines to share their knowledge.
   * To help yourself understand some area of knowledge better.
   * To help other people understand some area of knowledge.
   * To help people reach a consensus in their understanding of some area of knowledge. 

• http://www-ksl-svc.stanford.edu:5915/doc/frame-editor/guided-tour/why-develop-an-ontology.html

How

How to Design an Ontology Before you use the editor to create an ontology, you first need to design your ontology. Following are a few suggestions to help you with this process:

  1. Write a few sentences describing your ontology. You should include the general subject area that you intend to cover with your ontology. You should also include any simplifying assumptions you are making.
  2. Make a list of what you would like to state in your ontology.
  3. Make a list of the concepts that you think should be included in your ontology.
  4. Look for ontologies in the library of ontologies that may contain terms which you can use to develop your ontology.
  5. Review and make modifications to your lists as needed throughout these steps.