Julio Cesar Nardi

Organizing Ontology Design Patterns as Ontology Pattern Languages

Ontology design patterns have been pointed out as a promising ap- proach for ontology engineering. The goal of this paper is twofold. Firstly, based on well-established works in Software Engineering, we revisit the notion of ontology patterns in Ontology Engineering to introduce the notion of ontolo- gy pattern language as a way to organize related ontology patterns. Secondly, we present an overview of a software process ontology pattern language.

An ontology pattern language for service modeling

The notion of service spans several domains, such as healthcare, education, and information and communication technology (ICT). In this context, service ontologies are very useful for establishing a common understanding of the main concepts and relations involved, as well as for serving as basis for modeling services in different domains. In this paper, we present an Ontology Pattern Language, called S-OPL, providing a network of interconnected ontology modeling patterns covering the core conceptualization of services. S-OPL builds on UFO-S, a commitment-based core ontology for services. S-OPL patterns support modeling types of customers and providers, as well as the main service life-cycle phases, namely: service offering, service negotiation/agreement, and service delivery. The use of S-OPL is demonstrated in a real case in the ICT service domain.

Foundational Ontologies for Semantic Integration in EAI: A Systematic Literature Review

Despite (i) the recognized benefits of using ontologies in semantic EAI initiatives, (ii) the benefits of using foundational ontologies for promoting meaning negotiation and common understanding, and (iii) the importance of the semantic integration issue in EAI area, foundational ontologies have not yet become widely adopted in EAI initiatives for dealing with semantic conflicts. This has led us to investigate, through a systematic review of the literature, the adoption of foundational ontologies in EAI initiatives, with the purpose of understanding the current role of these ontologies in EAI and identifying gaps for future research, in which the potential benefits of such ontologies could be explored. We consider: (i) the role of foundational ontologies as part of the integration approach; (ii) the use of ontologies at development time and/or at run time; and (iii) the adoption of systematic approaches for semantic EAI.

Towards Better Semantics for Services in eHealth Standards: A Reference Ontology Approach

Responding to a wide range of interoperability requirements for eHealth, the HL7 standardization organization has recently published an initial version of the SOA Healthcare Ontology (SHO). The purpose of this effort is to serve as a shared reference conceptual model, which can guide the definition of service-related aspects of future eHealth standards and solutions. In this paper, we analyse the SOA Healthcare Ontology using a well-founded ontological approach referred to as UFO-S. UFO-S is a reference ontology that characterizes the notion of service by applying the concepts of commitments and claims and harmonizing several views of services from a broad perspective. Our objective is to provide an ontological foundation to this new HL7 standardization effort. Given that UFO-S is formalized and defined according to a sound foundational ontology, we believe this paper can serve as a basis for further improvement in the formalization and revision of SHO and its conceptual representation.

Towards a Service Ontology Pattern Language

In this paper we partially present an initial version of an Ontology Pattern Language, called S-OPL, describing the core conceptualization of services as a network of interconnected ontology modeling patterns. S-OPL builds on a commitment-based core ontology for services (UFO-S) and has been developed to support the engineering of ontologies involving services in different domains. S-OPL patterns address problems related to the distinction of general kinds of customers and providers, service offering, service negotiation and service delivery. In this paper, we focus on the first two. The use of S-OPL is demonstrated in a real case study in the domain of Information and Communication Technology services.

Revealing Service Commitments in Service-Oriented Enterprise Architecture

In this paper we analyze the structuring principles underlying Service-oriented Enterprise Architecture (SoEA) in the light of a core reference ontology for services (UFO-S). The ontology provides a broad account for services and is centered on the service commitments/claims that are established by service participants throughout the service lifecycle. UFO-S is applied as theory to support the analysis of SoEA structuring techniques and thereby reveal social aspects inherent to service phenomena in SoEA (e.g., commitments/claims, and delegations) that remain underexplored due to the current prevailing capability-based S oEA view. From that, we advocate for a commitment-based SoEA view, which can be harmonized to the capability-based SoEA view in order to establish richer SoEA structuring principles. Implications of our analysis are discussed taking as basis widely adopted service-oriented approaches (SOA-RM by OAS IS, ITIL, and ArchiMate).

A Panorama of the Semantic EAI Initiatives and the Adoption of Ontologies by these Initiatives

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) plays an important role by linking heterogeneous applications in order to support business processes within and across organizations. In this context, semantic conflicts often arise and have to be dealt with to ensure successful interoperation. In recent years, many EAI initiatives have aimed at addressing semantic interoperability challenges by employing ontologies in various ways. This paper aims to reveal, through a systematic review method, some aspects associated with semantic EAI initiatives and the adoption of ontologies by them, namely: (i) the business application domains in which these initiatives have been conducted; (ii) the focus of the initiatives regarding integration layers (data, message/service, and process); (iii) the adoption of ontologies by EAI research along the years; and (iv) the characteristics of these ontologies. We provide a panorama of these aspects and identify gaps and trends that may guide further research.