Semantic Cooperation and Knowledge Reuse by Using Autonomous Ontologies

Yuting Zhao*, Kewen Wang, Rodney Topor, Jeff Z. Pan, Fausto Giunchiglia

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingPublished conference contribution

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Several proposals have been put forward to support distributed agent cooperation in the Semantic Web, by allowing concepts and roles in one ontology be reused in another ontology. In general, these proposals reduce the autonomy of each ontology by defining the semantics of the ontology to depend on the semantics of the other ontologies. We propose a new framework for managing autonomy in a set of cooperating ontologies (or ontology space). In this framework, each language entity (concept/role/individual) in an ontology may have its meaning assigned either locally with respect to the semantics of its own ontology, to preserve the autonomy of the ontology, or globally with respect to the semantics of any neighbouring ontology in which it is defined, thus enabling semantic cooperation between multiple ontologies. In this way, each ontology has a "subjective semantics" based on local interpretation and a "foreign semantics" based on semantic binding to neighbouring ontologies. We study the properties of these two semantics and describe the conditions under which entailment and satisfiability are preserved. We also introduce two reasoning mechanisms under this framework: "cautious reasoning" and "brave reasoning". Cautious reasoning is done with respect to a local ontology and its neighbours (those ontologies in which its entities are defined); brave reasoning is done with respect to the transitive closure of this relationship. This framework is independent of ontology languages. As a case study, for Description Logic we present two tableau-based algorithms for performing each form of reasonings and prove their correctness.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Semantic Web - 6th International Semantic Web Conference - 2nd Asian Semantic Web Conference, ISWC 2007 + ASWC 2007, Proceedings
EditorsKarl Aberer, Key-Sun Choi, Natasha Noy, Dean Allemang, Kyung-Il Lee, Lyndon Nixon
PublisherSpringer
Pages666-679
Number of pages14
ISBN (Print)3540762973, 9783540762973
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2007
Event6th International Semantic Web Conference, ISWC 2007 and 2nd Asian Semantic Web Conference, ASWC 2007 - Busan, Korea, Republic of
Duration: 11 Nov 200715 Nov 2007

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume4825 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference6th International Semantic Web Conference, ISWC 2007 and 2nd Asian Semantic Web Conference, ASWC 2007
Country/TerritoryKorea, Republic of
CityBusan
Period11/11/0715/11/07

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