Modular ontology modeling

Abstract

Reusing ontologies for new purposes, or adapting them to new use-cases, is frequently difficult. In our experiences, we have found this to be the case for several reasons: (i) differing representational granularity in ontologies and in use-cases, (ii) lacking conceptual clarity in potentially reusable ontologies, (iii) lack and difficulty of adherence to good modeling principles, and (iv) a lack of reuse emphasis and process support available in ontology engineering tooling. In order to address these concerns, we have developed the Modular Ontology Modeling (MOMo) methodology, and its supporting tooling infrastructure, CoModIDE (the Comprehensive Modular Ontology IDE – “commodity”). MOMo builds on the established eXtreme Design methodology, and like it emphasizes modular development and design pattern reuse; but crucially adds the extensive use of graphical schema diagrams, and tooling that support them, as vehicles for knowledge elicitation from experts. In this paper, we present the MOMo workflow in detail, and describe several useful resources for executing it. In particular, we provide a thorough and rigorous evaluation of CoModIDE in its role of supporting the MOMo methodology’s graphical modeling paradigm. We find that CoModIDE significantly improves approachability of such a paradigm, and that it displays a high usability.

Ontology Design Facilitating Wikibase Integration -- and a Worked Example for Historical Data

“…For additional reading on the meaning behind schema diagram edges, see [14,2]. For this paper, we have modified the traditional syntax used in the MOMo [15] methodology to better communicate the important conceptual components when modeling with Wikibase, while acknowledging the underlying complexity of what Wikibase automatically generates during RDF serialization.…”

“…A tutorial can be found online. 15 In particular, it allows for the schema developer to design a base level template for a certain concept, which can then be easily and programmatically expanded into the appropriate axiomatization. However, it cannot currently instantiate from the property graph formulation (our conceptual diagrams) to the expansions.…”

“…• Extension of OTTR [18] to allow for instantiations from the conceptual diagrams. • Develop a robust or extend a tooling system (e.g., CoMo-dIDE [15] for directly using these "Wikibase-ified" axiom patterns. • Create a MODL [16] of Wikibase-compatible patterns (e.g., by taking each pattern in MODL 1.0 and translating them using the axiom patterns above).…”

“…On the other hand, one could consider exposing data through a framework such as Wikibase. In this paper, we explore how the Modular Ontology Modeling methodology (MOMo [15]) can be applied in such a way that eventual deployment of the graph data to the Wikibase model is seamless.…”

“…Modular Ontology Modeling (MOMo) specifies the development of ontology modules for sets of tightly bound key notions that will be included in a given ontology [15]. 1 When devel-oping a module, it is generally suggested to identify applicable ontology design patterns (ODPs) [6] and adapt them to the usecase at hand through template-based instantiation [7].…”