Human-centric Faceted Approach for Ontology Construction

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an ontology building method, called human-centric faceted approach for ontology construction (HCFOC). HCFOC uses the human-centric approach, improvised with the idea of selective dissemination of information (SDI), to deal with context. Further, this ontology construction process makes use of facet analysis and an analytico-synthetic classification approach. This novel fusion contributes to the originality of HCFOC and distinguishes it from other existing ontology construction methodologies. Based on HCFOC, an ontology of the tourism domain has been designed using the Protégé-5.5.0 ontology editor. The HCFOC methodology has provided the necessary flexibility, extensibility, robustness and has facilitated the capturing of background knowledge. It models the tourism ontology in such a way that it is able to deal with the context of a tourist’s information need with precision. This is evident from the result that more than 90% of the user’s queries were successfully met. The use of domain knowledge and techniques from both library and information science and computer science has helped in the realization of the desired purpose of this ontology construction process. It is envisaged that HCFOC will have implications for ontology developers. The demonstrated tourism ontology can support any tourism information retrieval system.