Key questions on Common Upper Ontology
4/20/2004 7:20
AM
Note from Mike,
So, let's talk specifics:
1. Having developed domain-level
ontologies both with and without hooking them into an upper level ontology, my
experience is that use of an upper-level ontology focuses the thinking and provides
multiple perspectives on the domain ontology that would have been lost otherwise.
2. In its simplest expression an
upper-level ontology provides a bridge between domains. So, what is the
benefit of a bridge?
a. similarity
measure via subsumption testing
b. ability to draw
new associations between nodes (possibly asymmetric ones)
c. ability to
inherit characteristics and axioms from parent nodes.
3. Since the introduction of
pragmatics is so essential to the effectiveness of a specific ontology, there
will never be just one upper-level ontology; however, even given this; it is certainly
acceptable to standardize on one for a particular use like "cross-domain
interoperability".