A Language for Defining and Detecting Interrelated Complex Changes on RDF(S) Knowledge Bases

Abstract

The dynamic nature of web data brings forward the need for maintaining data versions as well as identifying changes between them. In this paper, we deal with problems regarding understanding evolution, focusing on RDF(S) knowledge bases, as RDF is a de-facto standard for representing data on the web. We argue that revisiting past snapshots or the differences between them is not enough for understanding how and why data evolved. Instead, changes should be treated as first-class-citizens. In our view, this involves supporting semantically rich, user-defined changes that we call complex changes, as well as identifying the interrelations between them. In this paper, we present our perspective regarding complex changes, propose a declarative language for defining complex changes for RDF(S) knowledge bases, and show how this language is used to detect complex change instances among dataset versions.

OWL ontology evolution: understanding and unifying the complex changes

“…All 34 documents that mention complex changes have at least one mention of complex change applied to classes. Almost half of the analyzed documents mentioned both changes applied to classes and to properties (Stojanovic et al , 2002; Klein, 2004; Rogozan and Paquette, 2005; Stuckenschmidt and Van Harmelen, 2005; Tang and Yang, 2007; Khattak et al , 2008; Najla et al , 2009; Rogozan and Paquette, 2009; Djedidi and Aufaure, 2010; Gröner et al , 2010; Kondylakis et al , 2010; Javed et al , 2012, 2013; Khattak et al , 2013; Papavasileiou et al , 2013; Rahnama and Barforoush, 2015; Mahfoudh et al , 2015; Djamel et al , 2015; Galani et al , 2015; and Herrmannsdoerfer et al , 2010). A small number of documents Klein (2004), Hartung et al (2010, 2013), Dos Reis et al (2013), Papavasileiou et al (2013), Dos Reis et al (2014), Dinh et al (2014), and Kondylakis et al (2010) mentioned changes applied to annotations.…”

“…From the set of 34 documents, only 8 documents Rahnama and Barforoush (2015), Xie et al (2011), Liu et al (2014), Hartung et al (2010), Mahfoudh et al (2015), Kondylakis et al (2010), Khelladi et al (2015), and Galani et al (2015) present some formalization about the changes they mention and 9 documents Rogozan and Paquette (2005), Najla et al (2009), Khattak et al (2008, 2013), Kirsten et al (2011), Maedche et al (2002), Palma et al (2009), Noy et al (2004), and Khattak et al (2013) do not present any textual description or formalization for the changes. In addition, even the 15 documents that present some textual description of the changes do not do so for all the mentioned changes.…”

“…The numbers in these tables refer to the following references: [1](Stojanovic, 2004);[2](Stojanovic et al, 2002);[3](Klein & Alexander, 2004);[4](Rahnama & Barforoush, 2015);[5](Papavasileiou et al, 2013); [6](Hartung et al, 2013);[7](Rogozan & Paquette, 2005); [8](Najla et al, 2009); [9](Xie et al, 2011); [10](Dos [11](Khattak et al, 2008);[12](Tang & Yang, 2007);[13](Kirsten et al, 2011); [14](Javed et al, 2013);[15](Maedche et al, 2002);[16](Gröner et al, 2010);[17](Stuckenschmidt & Van Harmelen, 2005); [18](Palma et al, 2009);[19](Liu et al, 2014);[20] [21](Dinh et al, 2014); [22](Dos Reis et al, 2013); [23](Javed et al, 2012); [24](Hartung et al, 2010); [25](Mahfoudh et al, 2015);[26](Rogozan & Paquette et al, 2009); [27](Kondylakis et al, 2010);[28](Djedidi & Aufaure, 2010); [29](Khelladi et al, 2015) [30](Galani et al, 2016) [31](Galani et al, 2015) [32] [33] [34](Herrmannsdoerfer et al, 2001).…”

“… 12 The references used in Figure 4 are defined as follows: [A](Klein, 2004), [B](Kondylakis et al , 2010), [C](Papavasileiou et al , 2013), [D](Rogozan & Paquette, 2009), [E][C7](Herrmannsdoerfer et al , 2010) [F][C4](Falani et al , 2015) [G](Gröner et al , 2010), [H](Hartung et al , 2013), [I](Stojanovic, 2004), [J](Stojanovic et al , 2002), [K](Javed et al , 2013), [L](Tang & Yang, 2007), [M](Rahnama & Barforoush, 2015), [N](Dos Reis et al , 2014), [O](Dinh et al , 2014), [P](Javed et al , 2012), [Q](Hartung et al , 2010), [R](Dos Reis et al , 2013), [S](Najla et al , 2009), [T](Liu et al , 2014), [U](Djedidi & Aufaure, 2010), [V](Khattak et al , 2008), [W][C3](Khelladi et al , 2015) [X](Stuckenschmidt & Van Harmelen, 2005), [Y](Khattak et al , 2013) [Z](Rogozan & Paquette, 2005), [A1](Khattak et al , 2013), [A2](Xie et al , 2011), [A3](Kirsten et al , 2011), [A4](Maedche et al , 2002), [A5](Palma et al , 2009), and [A6](Mahfoudh et al , 2015) [A7](Noy et al , 2004), and [A8](Galani et al , 2016). …”