Antonio De Nicola

A software engineering approach to ontology building

Ontologies are the backbone of the Semantic Web, a semantic-aware version of the World Wide Web. The availability of large-scale high quality domain ontologies depends on effective and usable methodologies aimed at supporting the crucial process of ontology building. Ontology building exhibits a structural and logical complexity that is comparable to the production of software artefacts. This paper proposes an ontology building methodology that capitalizes the large experience drawn from a widely used standard in software engineering: the Unified Software Development Process or Unified Process (UP). In particular, we propose UP for ONtology (UPON) building, a methodology for ontology building derived from the UP. UPON is presented with the support of a practical example in the eBusiness domain. A comparative evaluation with other methodologies and the results of its adoption in the context of the Athena EU Integrated Project are also discussed.

A proposal for a unified process for ontology building: UPON

Ontologies are the backbone of the Semantic Web, a semantic-aware version of the World Wide Web. To the end of making available large-scale, high quality domain ontologies, effective and usable methodologies are needed to facilitate the process of Ontology Building. Many of the methods proposed so far only partly refer to well-known and widely used standards from other areas, like software engineering and knowledge representation. In this paper we present UPON, a methodology for ontology building derived from the Unified Software Development Process. A comparative evaluation with other methodologies, as well as the results of its adoption in the context of the Athena Integrated Project, are also discussed.

A lightweight methodology for rapid ontology engineering

UPON Lite focuses on users, typically domain experts without ontology expertise, minimizing the role of ontology engineers.

Towards an Ontological Support for eLearning Courses

An ontological system integrated with an eLearning platform can support teachers in building courses and students in accessing courses content. To this end we propose an ontological approach to semantically enrich eLearning courses. In particular the association of semantics to the learning resources can greatly improve their organization and management, both for students and teachers. This paper proposes a method for creating eLearning courses based on repositories of semantically annotated learning objects. The proposed method supports teachers in flexibly building learning paths and students in customising and extending the courses according to their needs.

eGovernment Ontologies: Social Participation in Building and Evolution

eGovernment has the aim of developing computer-based solutions to support the interaction of citizens with the public institutions and, more in general, to improve their participation in the public and social life. Semantic technologies, used to develop advanced eGovernment solutions, require eGovernment ontologies. The latter, to be effective, must be built within a participative, social process. Such a socially participative method must be adopted also in later phases, when the ontology needs to be periodically updated and maintained. In this paper we present the SOBE (Social Ontology Building and Evolution) Methodology, based on a clearly defined social process, with clearly defined intermediate steps, actors and roles, and outcomes produced.

An open platform for business process modeling and verification

In this paper we present the BPAL platform that includes a logic-based language for business process (BP) modeling and a reasoning mechanism providing support for several tasks. Firstly, the definition of a BP meta-model (MM) consisting of a set of rules that guide the BP designers in their work. Secondly, given a BP, the BPAL platform allows for the automatic verification of the compliance (well-formedness) of a given BP w.r.t. the defined MM. Finally, the execution semantics of a BP is given in term of its instances (referred to as traces) to provide services for i) checking if the actual execution of a BP has been carried out in accordance with the corresponding definition, ii) simulating executions by trace generation. The proposed platform is open since it can easily be enhanced by adding other logic-based modeling, reasoning, and querying functionalities.

Practical Issues in Ontology Modeling: The Case of Defence Conceptual Modeling Framework-Ontology

One of the main objectives of defence modeling and simulation is the support to effective training programs through simulations of mission operations. At the base of simulations there are the re-usable Mission Space Models (MSMs). MSMs are conceptual models that describe the real world abstractions capturing not only the semantics of a static scenario but also the dynamics, behavioural patterns and the pragmatics of each defence action involved. The Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI2) conducts research in the field of methods and technologies for modeling and simulation. Furthermore, it participates in activities concerning the development of compound and complex computer models. One of its current projects, the Defence Conceptual Modeling Framework (DCMF) project [1] started in 2001, is based on the initial US proposal of Conceptual Models of the Mission Space (CMMS) [2]. Since then, FOI has been involved in knowledge extraction, models representation and design, development of reusable knowledge components including a reusable ontology called the Defence Conceptual Modeling

Social Validation in the Ontology Evolution Process

Ontology building is a social process requiring, as a first step, the collaborative work of a group of people to create a shared understanding of a specific domain of interest. This process typically involves an heterogeneous group of people: from ontology engineers to domain experts, to end users. A crucial aspect of ontology building is to reach consensus among all the involved actors. For this reason, it is important that every step of the process is clearly defined and the roles played by the members of a community of interest (COI) are precisely assigned. In this paper we present the guidelines for social validation in the ontology evolution process. In particular, we describe the process and we identify the milestones where the COI is asked to reach a consensus. Then, we present the different roles to be played in the COI, the procedures to reach consensus and the result of a first experimentation in the domain of semantic technologies.