A graphical environment for ontology development

ABSTRACT

This paper presents current research on a semantically rich, graphical representation of ontologies and its utility for collaborative construction based on requirements outlined by the Agentcities initiative. A new tool, called the Visual Ontology Modeler, is described and evaluated in the context of Agentcities. Its distinguishing qualities include: ease of use, multi-user configuration management, integrated consistency and completeness checking, automated export of DAML+OIL code. The application domain is an open, dynamic test-bed for agent deployment; the ontologies are encoded in DAML+OIL and explicitly designed to be shared by several agent-based services within this environment.

REFERENCES

• 1: Dean, M., Connolly, D., van Harmelen, F., Hendler, J., Horrocks, I., McGuinness, D.L., Patel-Schneider, P.F. and Stein, L.A. OWL Web Ontology Language 1.0 Reference. W3C Working Draft 29 July 2002. Latest version is available at {http://www.w3.org/ TR/owl-ref/}.
• 2: Hendler, J. and McGuinness, D.L. The DARPA Agent Markup Language, IEEE Intelligent Systems Vol. 15 No. 6, November/December, 2000, pages 67--73.
• 3: Kogut, P., Cranefield, S., Hart, L., Dutra, M., Baclawski, K., Kokar, M. and Smith, J. UML for Ontology Development. Knowledge Engineering Review, Special Issue on Ontologies in Agent Systems, 2001.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.4 Knowledge Representation Formalisms and Methods
          Subjects: Frames and scripts

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.4 Knowledge Representation Formalisms and Methods
          Subjects: Representation languages; Semantic networks; Representations (procedural and rule-based)

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Languages, Standardization

Keywords:
DAML+OIL, agentcities, ontologies, unified modeling language (UML), web ontology language (OWL)