Ontologies and semantics for seamless connectivity

TLDR

Seamless connectivity among people, software agents, and IT systems remains elusive, as early efforts focused on physical and syntactic layers and commercial tools have not addressed the semantic gaps. The authors argue that ontologies and semantics‑based technologies are essential for achieving seamless connectivity. They provide a detailed introduction to ontologies, review the state of the art for applying them to semantic connectivity, and outline key challenges.

Abstract

The goal of having networks of seamlessly connected people, software agents and IT systems remains elusive. Early integration efforts focused on connectivity at the physical and syntactic layers. Great strides were made; there are many commercial tools available, for example to assist with enterprise application integration. It is now recognized that physical and syntactic connectivity is not adequate. A variety of research systems have been developed addressing some of the semantic issues. In this paper, we argue that ontologies in particular and semantics-based technologies in general will play a key role in achieving seamless connectivity. We give a detailed introduction to ontologies, summarize the current state of the art for applying ontologies to achieve semantic connectivity and highlight some key challenges.