Ontology Engineering in a Networked World

The Semantic Web is characterized by the existence of a very large number of distributed semantic resources, which together define a network of ontologies. These ontologies in turn are interlinked through a variety of different meta-relationships such as versioning, inclusion, and many more. This scenario is radically different from the relatively narrow contexts in which ontologies have been traditionally developed and applied, and thus calls for new methods and tools to effectively support the development of novel network-oriented semantic applications.

This book by Suárez-Figueroa et al. provides the necessary methodological and technological support for the development and use of ontology networks, which ontology developers need in this distributed environment. After an introduction, in its second part the authors describe the NeOn Methodology framework. The book’s third part details the key activities relevant to the ontology engineering life cycle. For each activity, a general introduction, methodological guidelines, and practical examples are provided. The fourth part then presents a detailed overview of the NeOn Toolkit and its plug-ins. Lastly, case studies from the pharmaceutical and the fishery domain round out the work.

The book primarily addresses two main audiences: students (and their lecturers) who need a textbook for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses on ontology engineering, and practitioners who need to develop ontologies in particular or Semantic Web-based applications in general. Its educational value is maximized by its structured approach to explaining guidelines and combining them with case studies and numerous examples. The description of the open source NeOn Toolkit provides an additional asset, as it allows readers to easily evaluate and apply the ideas presented.

Table of Contents

Part I: NeOn Methodology Framework
Chapter 2: The NeOn Methodology for Ontology Engineering
Chapter 3: Pattern-Based Ontology Design
Chapter 4: The NeOn Ontology Models

Part II: Ontology Engineering Activities
Chapter 5: Ontology Requirements Specification
Chapter 6: Reusing and Re-engineering Non-ontological Resources for Building Ontologies
Chapter 7: Ontology Development by Reuse
Chapter 8: Ontology Localization
Chapter 9: Ontology Evaluation
Chapter 10: Modularizing Ontologies
Chapter 11: Ontology Evolution

Part III: The NeOn Toolkit
Chapter 12: Methodological Guidelines for Matching Ontologies
Chapter 13: Overview of the NeOn Toolkit
Chapter 14: Scheduling Ontology Engineering Projects Using gOntt
Chapter 15: Customizing Your Interaction with Kali-ma
Chapter 16: Visualizing and Navigating Ontologies with KC-Viz

Part IV: Case Studies
Chapter 17: Reasoning with Networked Ontologies
Chapter 18: Knowledge Management at FAO: A Case Study on Network of Ontologies in Fisheries
Chapter 19: Electronic Invoice Management in the Pharmaceutical Sector: The PharmaInnova Case
Chapter 20: Integrating Product Information in the Pharmaceutical Sector