The Ontolingua Server : a Tool for Collaborative Ontology Construction

Abstract

Reusable ontologies are becoming increasingly important for tasks such as information integration, knowledge-level interoperation, and knowledge-base development. We have developed a set of tools and services to support the process of achieving consensus on common shared ontologies by geographically distributed groups. These tools make use of the world-wide web to enable wide access and provide users with the ability to publish, browse, create, and edit ontologies stored on an ontology server. Users can quickly assemble a new ontology from a library of modules. We discuss how our system was constructed, how it exploits existing protocols and browsing tools, and our experience supporting hundreds of users. We describe applications using our tools to achieve consensus on ontologies and to integrate information. The Ontolingua Server may be accessed through the URL http://ontolingua.stanford.edu:5915/ 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Need for Ontologies In order for an agent to make statements ...