Multi-representation d'une ontologie : OWL, bases de donnees, syst\`emes de types et d'objets

TL;DR

This paper explores how ontologies can be represented using multiple paradigms like OWL, databases, and type systems, revealing their close relationships and potential for cross-domain enhancements.

Contribution

It demonstrates that different representations of an ontology are closely related, enabling the integration of concepts from other computer science domains to improve ontology engineering.

Findings

Different ontology representations are closely related.

Ontologies can benefit from features like modularity from other domains.

Representation paradigms can be unified to enhance ontology engineering.

Abstract

Due to the emergence of the semantic Web and the increasing need to formalize human knowledge, ontologie engineering is now an important activity. But is this activity very different from other ones like software engineering, for example ? In this paper, we investigate analogies between ontologies on one hand, types, objects and data bases on the other one, taking into account the notion of evolution of an ontology. We represent a unique ontology using different paradigms, and observe that the distance between these different concepts is small. We deduce from this constatation that ontologies and more specifically ontology description languages can take advantage of beeing fertilizated with some other computer science domains and inherit important characteristics as modularity, for example.