Enhancing comprehension of ontologies and conceptual models through abstractions
C.Maria Keet
The 10th Congress of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIIA 2007)
Roma, Italy, September 10-13, 2007
Abstract
In addition to the Database Comprehension Problem, where diagrammatic conceptual data models are too large for a modeller or domain expert to comprehend or manage, an Ontology Comprehension Problem is emerging. The latter faces not only the same visualization issues, but also that the logical theories are less accessible to the domain expert. Formal ontologies are, however, more amenable to automated abstractions to improve understandability. Three ways of abstractions are introduced with corresponding abstraction functions that take into account foundational ontology categories. Usability of both the abstraction functions and the more and less detailed (views of) ontologies is enhanced by associating abstraction functions with a basic framework of levels, thereby facilitating querying and visualizing ontologies.