The common vision of pervasive computing environments requires a very large range of devices and software components to interoperate seamlessly. From the assumption that these devices and associated software permeate the fabric of everyday life, a massive increase looms in the number of software developers deploying functionality into pervasive computing environments. This poses a very large interoperability problem for which solutions reliant solely on interoperability standards will not scale. An interoperability problem of a similar scale is presented by the desire for a Semantic Web supporting autonomous machine communication over the WWW. Here, solutions based on service-oriented architectures and ontologies are being actively researched, and we examine how such an approach could be used to address pervasive computing's interoperability problem. The paper outlines the potential role that semantic techniques offer in solving some key challenges, including candidate service discovery, intelligent matching, service adaptation and service composition. In particular the paper addresses the resulting requirement of semantic interoperability outlining initial results in dynamic gateway generation. In addition the paper proposes a roadmap identifying the different scenarios in which semantic techniques will contribute to the engineering and operation of pervasive computing systems.

Abstract Ontologies are of increasing popularity for the evaluation of modelling methods in Systems Analysis and Design. However, at this stage only limited guidance is provided regarding the selection and evaluation of ontologies. The aim of this paper is to propose meta models for evaluating, comparing and engineering ontologies. It discusses an approach for analysing and evaluating the meta models of two well-known ontologies that had been used previously in Systems Analysis and Design research – the BWW representation model and Chisholm’s ontology. Our approach provides a theoretical evaluation technique for evaluating ontologies according to their equivalence, depth of structure, and comprehensiveness of scope. 1

As the e-government domain is about to become a field of application for Semantic Web technologies, the actors involved still lack reasoning to decide on critical issues such as organisational cost/benefit, "user" involvement, technical integration, and implementation strategy. Firstly, the paper seeks to identify "semantic problems" in e-government as prerequisite for discussing the requirements for the application of Semantic Web technologies. Secondly, experiences from an ongoing project are discussed to identify critical issues from the systems development perspective. Thirdly, taking into account the problems identified and the case findings, a research agenda is laid out aiming to guide and support the application of Semantic Web technologies in e-government.

Abstract The COntext INterchange (COIN) strategy is an approach to solving the problem of interoperability of semantically heterogeneous data sources through context mediation. COIN has used its own notation and syntax for representing ontologies. More recently, the OWL Web Ontology Language is becoming established as the W3C recommended ontology language. We propose the use of the COIN strategy to solve context disparity and ontology interoperability problems in the emerging Semantic Web – both at the ontology level and at the data level. In conjunction with this, we propose a version of the COIN ontology model that uses OWL and the emerging rules interchange language, RuleML.

This survey is aimed at analyzing some among the most relevant ontological modeling approaches. The semantic role of ontologies is emphasized. Classification of ontological models and languages focusing on their basic features is presented. Examples of applications of ontologies in different areas are also provided. 1

Abstract. This paper describes a new approach to the automatic discovery of domain-specific ontologies from textual descriptions of domain entities. The approach is based on application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). 1.

We present a simple application of semantic integration using the RDF model of metadata, namely, the construction and maintenance of a yearbook. It can be built and used by organizations which already have their information on the Web and require to keep yearbooks to service advanced searching facilities. Unlike traditional approaches, ours ensures wide interoperability, extensibility and historical recording by using RDF and a decentralized approach.

The exponential increase in new knowledge that characterizes our modern age of information technology precludes depending solely on scholarly individual effort to keep up with new information. We must therefore develop new ways of “keeping up, ” and we must develop them quickly.

Diplomarbeit Semi-automatic ontology engineering and ontology supported document indexing in a multilingual environment Heimatanschrift:

Ontologies currently are a hot topic in the areas of knowledge management and enterprise application integration. In this thesis, we investigate how ontologies can also be used as an infrastructure for developing applications that intelligently support a user with various tasks. Based on recent developments in the area of the Semantic Web, we provide three major contributions. We introduce inference engines, which allow the execution of business logic that is speci ed in a declarative way, while putting strong emphasis on scalability and ease of use. Secondly, we suggest various solutions for interfacing applications that are developed under this new paradigm with existing IT infrastructure. This includes the rst running solution, to our knowledge, for combining the emerging areas of the Semantic Web and Web Services. Finally, we introduce a set of intelligent applications, which is built on top of ontologies and Semantic Web standards, providing a proof of concept that the engineering eort can largely be based on standard components.