Ontology and the Semantic Web

Macgregor, George (2009) Ontology and the Semantic Web. [Review] (https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530910936998)

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Abstract

Ontology and the Semantic Web is an attempt to bring together developments in philosophy, artificial intelligence, information systems and the Semantic Web in order to formalise a "collection of functional requirements for ontology development". Author Robert M. Colomb takes the reader through nine chapters laying the theoretical groundwork of ontology, before exploring in detail a variety of ontology representation languages. During his theoretical exposition, Colomb does a sterling job at deconstructing complex ontological concepts (brute and institutional facts, subclasses and sub‐ properties, complex objects, formal upper ontologies, etc.), but also those concepts that might be unfamiliar to the reader, such as data interoperability and semantic heterogeneity. Each of these chapters is expertly annotated with examples and illustrated with Unified Modelling Language graphical notation.