How to populating Ontology at runtime?

Question

Hi,

I have a configuration file with a lot of data like sensor locations, type, rules for activating devices etc. Basically related to a pervasive system. I plan to design an ontology for this domain. The doubt in my mind is how should I populate the ontology with the information in the configuration file, as the configuration files are going to change every now and then. Earlier I was planning to use XML, so I can just read the configuration file at runtime and create an XML as per the XSD. Do we use the same technique for Ontologies? If yes then what is the format of the populated ontology?

Thanks Chan

Answer 1

Hi Chan,

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but it sounds a lot like your configuration files contains a lot of your ontology and what you plan to do with it.

It roughly sounds as though the concepts (sensor names, locations, types) and their rules are all in the config file. Depending on the reasoning / modeling task at hand, you should pick a formalism that has the requisite expressivity. The question of changes is ontology evolution.

As you noted, you could read from XML into an ontology formalism like Common Logic or OWL, and then reason / query etc. there.

Also, you should also try posting your question here: http://ontolog.cim3.net/