A Workflow Management System for Ontology Engineering

Abstract

The Semantic Web approach based on the ontological representation of knowledge domains seems very useful for improving document management practices, the formal and machine-mediated communication among people and work team and supports knowledge based productive processes. The effectiveness of a semantic information management system is set by the quality of the ontology. The development of ontologies requires experts on the application domain and on the technical issues as representation formalism, languages, and tools. In this chapter a methodology for ontology developing is presented. It is structured in six phases (feasibility study, expliciting of the knowledge base, logic modelling, implementation, test, extension, and maintaining) and highlights the flow of information among phases and activities, the external variables required for completing the project, the human and structural resources involved in the process. The defined methodology is independent of any particular knowledge field, so it can be used whenever an ontology is required. The methodology for ontology developing was implemented in a prototypal workflow management system that will be deployed in the back office area of the SIMS (Semantic Information Management System), a technological platform that is going to be developed for the research project DISCoRSO founded by the Italian Minister of University and Research. The main components of the workflow management system are the editor and the runtime environment. The Enhydra JaWE and Enhydra Shark are well suited as they implement the workflow management standards (languages), they are able to manage complex projects (many tasks, activities, people) and they are open source.