Using Ontology Server to Support Interoperation of Information Systems
Speaker: Mohammad Nazir Ahmad, ITEE
When: 2006-11-14 10:00:00
Venue: 78-420
Host: Robert Colomb
Abstract:An ontology is a complex information object. When we want to manage
complex information objects, we generally turn to information
systems technology. An information system intended to manage an
ontology is called an ontology server. It is generally built around
a database core, since the complex information objects being managed
need to be stored and desired parts retrieved. The database core of
an ontology server is called an ontology repository. Unfortunately,
most of the ontology server literature is intended to support
ontology development or more precisely ontology reuse rather than
ontology use. In the context of institutional world, there are
situations where many players with different roles use ontology to
interoperate. However, when the ontology is large and complex, most
players most of the time do not do most things. To interoperate,
those players need to be assisted to commit to only a portion of the
large ontology. Therefore, hypothetically, the complexity of
interoperating information systems using large ontologies may be
simplified by assisting players to commit to a portion of
ontologies. This is a focus on ontology use. We will develop the
design using an engineering approach to (i) design modular ontology
to support the use of part of the whole ontology, (ii) design server
software requirements to assist players commit to part of the
ontology. This will lead to research into ontology modularization
and server functional requirements. Furthermore, we argue that most
of ontology servers reported are the result of ad hoc
implementation. None of the projects seem to have taken a software
engineering approach. Consequently, we do not have any guidance
(i.e. design profiles, specific methodology, reference model, etc)
to develop this kind of information system in contrast with common
information systems like web applications, hypermedia systems, and
so on. As a result, the aim of this research is to develop an
ontology server metamodel using a Model-Driven Architecture approach
to ontology and ontology server development. This will involve the
use of initiatives from the OMG such as the Ontology Definition
Metamodel (ODM) and the UML MOF to model both the conceptualization
and specification of institutional worlds as well as the ontology
which is the resulting specification.
Biography:(biography unavailable)
Type: Ph.D confirmation
Contact:Robert Colomb, seminar host (colomb@itee.uq.edu.au)
or Guido Governatori (ITEE seminar co-ordinator)
(guido@itee.uq.edu.au)