The Multiple Applications of a Mature Domain Ontology

ONTOBRAS 2015 - Brazilian Ontology Research Seminar 2015

Abstract

Ontologies have been growing in importance regarding their reusability for distinct applications, since this allows amortizing the significant cost of development of a knowledge base. Large portions of knowledge models now are modelled as ontologies and these portions are shared through several applications. Considering the immature stage of the methodologies of Ontology Engineering and the considerable short space of time for evolving fully operational domain ontology, few reports of real cases of ontology reuse are found in the literature. This article describes a mature domain ontology for Petrographic description and the several knowledge-based applications that it supports. The ontology development started in the 90’s and it is still in evolution, both by extending vocabulary as by improving the rigor of the conceptual modelling approaches. We analyze here the impact that each new application has caused over the ontology, requiring improvements and modifications in the original model.

Authors:  Mara Abel(1), Joel Carbonera(1), Sandro Fiorini(1), Luan Garcia (1), Luiz Fernando De Ros(2)

(1) Institute of Informatics – Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre – RS – Brazil
(2) Geosciences Institute – Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre – RS – Brazil