Several currently used definitions
(
Recomended
)
www-ksl.stanford.edu
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Knowledge Sharing
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"...
a specification of a conceptualization.
This definition is consistent with the usage of ontology
as set-of-concept-definitions, but more general. That is,
an ontology is a description (like a formal specification of
a program) of the concepts and relationships that can exist
for an agent or a community of agents. This definition is
consistent with the usage of ontology as
set-of-concept-definitions, but more general. And it is
certainly a different sense of the word than its use in
philosophy
..."
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dict.die.net
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Philosphy
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"...
A systematic account of Existence
...
An explicit formal specification of how to represent the
objects, concepts and other entities that are assumed to
exist in some area of interest and the relationships that
hold among them ..."
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Artificial Intelligence
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"...
what "exists" is that which can be represented.
When the knowledge about a domain is represented in a
declarative language, the set of objects that can be
represented is called the universe of discourse
...
We can describe the ontology of a program by defining
a set of representational terms. Definitions associate
the names of entities in the universe of discourse
(e.g. classes, relations, functions or other objects)
with human-readable text describing what the names mean,
and formal axioms that constrain the interpretation and
well-formed use of these terms
..."
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OWL Web Ontology Language
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OWL Overview
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"...
This document is written for readers who want a first
impression of the capabilities of OWL. It provides an
introduction to OWL by informally describing the features
of each of the sublanguages of OWL. Some knowledge of
RDF Schema
is useful for understanding this document, but not essential
..."
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OWL Guide
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"...
This document demonstrates the use of the OWL language to
-
...
formalize a domain by defining classes and properties of those classes
-
...
define individuals and assert properties about them, and
-
-
...
reason about these classes and individuals to the degree
permitted by the formal semantics of the OWL language
..."
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OWL Reference
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"...
This document contains a structured informal description
of the full set of OWL language constructs and is meant to
serve as a reference for OWL users who want to construct
OWL ontologies
..."
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OWL Semantics and Abstract Syntax
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"...
This document contains a structured informal description
of the full set of OWL language constructs and is meant to
serve as a reference for OWL users who want to construct
OWL ontologies
..."
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OWL Language Test Cases
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"...
This document contains and presents test cases for the
Web Ontology Language (OWL) approved by the Web Ontology
Working Group
..."
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OWL Use Cases and Requirements
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"...
This document specifies usage scenarios, goals and
requirements for a web ontology language. An ontology
formally defines a common set of terms that are used to
describe and represent a domain. Ontologies can be used
by automated tools to power advanced services such as
more accurate web search, intelligent software agents
and knowledge management
..."
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jfsowa.com
| Subject | Extension |
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Philosphy
|
"...
A systematic account of Existence
...
An explicit formal specification of how to represent the
objects, concepts and other entities that are assumed to
exist in some area of interest and the relationships that
hold among them ..."
|
|
Artificial Intelligence
|
"...
what "exists" is that which can be represented.
When the knowledge about a domain is represented in a
declarative language, the set of objects that can be
represented is called the universe of discourse
...
We can describe the ontology of a program by defining
a set of representational terms. Definitions associate
the names of entities in the universe of discourse
(e.g. classes, relations, functions or other objects)
with human-readable text describing what the names mean,
and formal axioms that constrain the interpretation and
well-formed use of these terms
..."
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ontologyworks.com
| Subject | Extension |
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Short Answer
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"...
The American Heritage Dictionary (4th ed.) provides the
following definition: "The branch of metaphysics that
deals with the nature of being." In short, ontology is
the centuries-old branch of philosophy that has as its
subject the unchanging features of the universe ..."
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Slightly Longer Answer
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"...
Barry Smith provides the following definition:
Ontology is the science of what is, of the kinds and
structures of objects, properties, events, processes and
relations in every area of reality. For an information
system, an ontology is a representation of some
pre-existing domain of reality which:
-
reflects the properties of the objects within its domain
in such a way that there obtains a systematic correlation
between reality and the representation itself
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is intelligible to a domain expert
-
is formalized in a way that allows it to support automatic
information processing
...
An ontology in this sense is a thing made by a
scientist or other domain expert. This thing is a
formal theory, which accurately recapitulates the domain in
light of the kinds of entities contained within it; that is,
it is not ad-hoc, but in conformance with the world. Thus,
an ontology is a true-to-the-world representation of its
domain (SIGINT, calcium-regulated pathways, aircraft parts,
etc.). This stands in contrast to the more popular usages by
many in the fields of information and computer science,
which see an ontology as merely an ad-hoc model built for
some specific purpose
...
The Ontology Works
IODE
is software designed to produce ontologies - true-to-the-world
information models. In the IODE, the ontologies are actually
extensions of an existing body of knowledge, which is the
fruit of the discipline of ontology
..."
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Gruber's Definition
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"...
Tom Gruber says that
"an ontology is a specification of a conceptualization."
His definition is incomplete and vague
...
Gruber�s definition allows for the reduction of the meaning
of "an ontology" to "a model", where what is being modeled
are the concepts or ideas people have in their minds.
This reductive error has its roots in the recent tendency to
use the word "ontology" to mean little more than a controlled
vocabulary with hierarchical organization.
Gruber's definition fails to stipulate that if the theory or
model in question is to be useful (for the integration and
processing of real-world data and information), it must be
about the universe and not merely about the concepts in
people's heads*.
Such modeling is a perfectly reputable activity, but it
belongs not to ontology but to linguistics, or psychology, or
to another venerable field of philosophy: epistemology.
Moreover, Gruber's definition does not account for the
existence of good and bad ontologies
, where the former are the more accurate descriptions of
the relevant domain of real-world entities
...
Ontology is not about peoples� conceptions or interpretations,
but about the world
..."
(Emphasis Added)
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Modelling
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"...
*To read about what happens when people model the ideas and
concepts in their minds, see
Wuesteria
..."
Non-Author Comments:
The reference to
Wuesteria
is significant because it directly addresses ontologies for
Healthcare and Electronic Healthcare Records (EHRS). The
Summary is repeated below.
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Wuesteria Summary
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"...
Applying a sound realist ontology to the domain of healthcare
can make coding systems more coherent, both internally in
their relation to the EHRs which they are designed to support,
and externally in relation to the patients, physicians,
nurses, etc. towards whom they are directed. For coding
systems built with the aid of a robust realist ontology will
be consistent with those commonsensical intuitions about the
objects and processes in reality which are shared by patients
and healthcare providers.
And as we have shown in earlier papers a precise and formally
rigorous ontology that is coherent with the ontology of the
healthcare record is for this reason able not only to help in
detecting errors in existing coding systems but also, by
ensuring intuitive principles for the creation and
maintenance of coding systems such as SNOMED [17] and the
Gene Ontology [18], able to help in avoiding such errors in
the future.
To achieve the requisite coding systems and the associated
EHR architecture will of course require a huge effort, since
the relevant standards need to be reviewed and overhauled by
experts who are familiar with the appropriate sort of
ontological thinking (which will require some corresponding
effort in training and education). Even before that stage is
reached, however, there is the problem of making all
constituent parties - including patients (or at least the
organizations that represent them), healthcare providers,
system developers and decision makers - aware of how
deep-seated the existing problems are.
..."
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GLOSSARIES
| Subject | Extension |
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jfsowa.com
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"...
This glossary summarizes the terminology of methods and
techniques for defining, sharing, and merging ontologies
..."
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