Emilio M. Sanfilippo

Ontological Analysis and Engineering Standards: An Initial Study of IFC

There is an increasing interest in developing ontological versions of engineering standards. In general, this amounts to restating a given standard in some ontological language like OWL. We observe that without an ontological analysis of the standard, the conversion neither improves the clarity of the standard nor facilitates its coherent application. In this chapter we begin to study the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), a standard providing an open vendor-independent file format and data model for data interoperability and exchange for Architecture/Engineering/Construction and Facility Management. We first look at IFC and at an existing OWL version of IFC; then, we highlight the implicit assumptions and we apply ontological analysis to discuss how to best grasp the type/occurrence distinction in IFC. The goal is to show what has been done in IFC and the contribution of ontological analysis to help increasing the correct understanding of a standard. With this approach, we reach a deeper understanding, which can guide the translation from the original language to OWL with increased conceptual clarity while ensuring both logical coherence and ontological soundness.

Business Processes and Their Participants: An Ontological Perspective

Business process modelling (BPM) notations, such as BPMN, UML-Activity Diagram (UML-AD), EPC and CMMN describe processes using a graphical representation of process-relevant entities and their interplay. Despite the wide literature on the comparison between different modelling languages, the BPM community still lacks an ontological characterisation of process elements, among which process participants, that is, the main entities involved in a business process. Purpose of this paper is to start filling this gap by providing an ontological analysis of business processes from the standpoint of process participants. In particular, by discussing participants common to languages such as BPMN, EPC, UML-AD, and CMMN we characterize them on the basis of their ontological properties.

Diverse perspectives on ontology: A joint report on the First IAOA Interdisciplinary Summer School on Ontological Analysis

The aim of the following report is to outline the content of the lectures given during the First IAOA Interdisciplinary Summer School on Ontological Analysis July 16--20, 2012, Trento, Italy. The report emphasizes some of the hot topics or open questions discussed during the sessions, while reflecting a variety of perspectives on the goals of ontological analysis and the importance of interdisciplinarity in dealing with certain problems.