A Few
Observations about Ontologies
uSimple ontologies can be built by
non-experts
uVerity’s Topic Editor,
Collaborative Topic Builder, GFP, Chimaera, Protégé, OIL-ED, etc.
uOntologies can be semi-automatically
generated
ufrom crawls of site such
as yahoo!, amazon, excite, etc.
uSemi-structured sites can
provide starting points
uOntologies are exploding (business pull instead of technology
push)
umost e-commerce sites are
using them - MySimon, Amazon, Yahoo! Shopping, VerticalNet, etc.
uControlled vocabularies
(for the web) abound - SIC codes, UMLS, UN/SPSC, Open Directory (DMOZ),
Rosetta Net, SUO
uBusiness interest
expanding – ontology directors, business ontologies are becoming more complicated
(roles, value restrictions, …), VC firms interested,
uDTDs are making more
ontology information available
uMarkup Languages growing
XML, RDF, DAML, RuleML, xxML
u“Real” ontologies are
becoming more central to applications