| Abstract: |
RDF(S) constitutes a newly emerging standard for metadata
that is about to turn the World Wide Web into a machine-understandable knowledge
base. It is an XML application that allows for the denotation of facts and
schemata in a web-compatible format, building on an elaborate object-model
for describing concepts and relations. Thus, it might turn up as a natural
choice for a widely-useable ontology description language. However, its
lack of capabilities for describing the semantics of concepts and relations
beyond those provided by inheritance mechanisms makes it a rather weak language
for even the most austere knowledge-based system. This paper presents an
approach for modeling ontologies in RDF(S) that also considers axioms as
objects that are describable in RDF(S). Thus, we provide exible, extensible,
and adequate means for accessing and exchanging axioms in RDF(S). Our approach
follows the spirit of the World Wide Web, as we do not assume a global axiom
speci cation language that is too intractable for one purpose and too weak
for the next, but rather a methodology that allows (communities of) users
to specify what axioms are interesting in their domain.
|
First posting
2001-04-05 |
In ETAI area "The Semantic Web |
Original publication
2001-04-03 |
PDF
Checksum |
This article was first posted on the Internet as specified under "First
posting", and appeared on the E-press server on the date specified under "Original
publication".
