Method and system for collaborative ontology modeling

• US 20060167946A1
• Filed: 03/13/2006
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Schreiber, Marcel Zvi, Yuval, Tom Yechiel, Hellman, Ziv Zalman
• Granted Patent: US 7,533,124 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/84 Mapping; Conversion
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A distributed ontology system including a central computer comprising a global ontology directory, a plurality of ontology server computers, each including a repository of class and relation definitions, and a server for responding to queries relating to class and relation definitions in the repository, and a computer network connecting the central computer with the plurality of ontology server computers. A method is also described and claimed.

Claims

1-118. -118. (canceled)

119. A distributed ontology system comprising:

a central computer comprising a global ontology directory; and

a plurality of ontology server computers, each comprising;

a repository of class defintions, relation definitions, superclass and subclass relationships;

a server for responding to queries relating to class and relation definitions in said repository; and

a computer network connecting said central computer with said plurality of ontology server computers,

wherein at least one relation definition within an ontology server computer references classes from a different ontology server computer, and at least one superclass and subclass relationship resides on a different ontology server computer than the ontology server computer containing the subclass and the ontology server computer containing the superclass.

120. The system of claim 119, wherein at least one of said plurality of server computers further comprise a publisher for publishing class and relation definitions in said repository to said global ontology directory.

121. The system of claim 119, wherein said central computer further comprises an agent for seeking out class and relation definitions included in said repositories.

122. The system of claim 119, further comprising an authoring tool for aid repositories.

123. The system of claim 122, wherein said authoring tool has the capability to browse repositories of a plurality of ontology server computers.

124. The system of claim 123, wherein said authoring tool comprises a validator for ensuing that updates made to said repositories maintain backward compatibility, so that expressions that are currently valid remain valid after the updates are made.

125. The system of claim 123, wherein said authoring tool further comprises a class adder for adding new class definitions to said repositories.

126. The system of claim 123, wherein said authoring tool further comprises a class editor for editing class definitions in said repositories.

127. The system of claim 123, wherein said authoring tool further comprises a relation adder for adding relation definitions to said repositories.

128. The system of claim 123, wherein said authoring tool further comprises a relation editor for editing relation definitions in said repositories, by expanding domains of relations.

129. The system of claim 119, further comprising a view generator for generating a view of a class by, by associating with the class a subset of attributes of the class.

130. The system of claim 129, wherein the subset of attributes of the class includes composed functions.

131. The system of claim 129, wherein at least one attribute in the subset of attributes is further associated with a view of the co-domain of the attribute.

132. The system of claim 129, further comprising an XML generator for generating a single XML Schema type element from the view.

133. The system of claim 129, further comprising an XML generator for generating an XML Schema from the view.

134. The system of claim 133, wherein said XML generator generates an XML Schema with aid of a user choosing which classes and relations are to be included within the XML Schema.

135. The system of claim 134 further comprising a class and relation navigation tool for guiding the user in choosing classes and relations.

136. The system of claim 129 further comprising a designator for designating classes and relations that are required and for designating classes and relations that are optional.

137. A distributed ontology method comprising:

managing a plurality of repositories of class and relation definitions, said repositories also contain superclass and subclass relationships;

managing a global ontology directory; and

responding to queries relating to class and relation definitions in at least one repository,

wherein at least one relation definition within a repository references classes from a different repository, and

at least one superclass and subclass relationship resides in a different repository than the repository containing the subclass and the repository containing the superclass.