Because good research needs good data

Ontologies

Martin Doerr, Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology, FORTH (Greece)

Published: January 2008

Ontologies are formal models relating to how we perceive the possible states of affairs in our domain of discourse.

Ontologies provide an effective means whereby human and electronic agents can communicate unambiguously about concepts by electronic means, which typically lack the facility for the user to ask for further clarification.

Interoperability between various ontologies will also become increasingly important in enabling members of disparate communities to reuse and understand digital information over time.

Download the Ontologies chapter (pdf)

Key Points

  • Ontologies as indexing language
  • Ontology correlation
  • Ontology presentation
  • Ontologies for schema integration
  • Formats, Standards