Monday, 5/21/2007
8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Level:

Effective communication requires a common vocabulary.  An ontology provides a description of the terminology, concepts and relationships for a particular area of interest.  An ontology may be viewed as a declarative encoding of the meaning of the domain vocabulary terms, thus making it  akey to enabling communication.  For systems that are used by people whose understanding of a domain is not necessarily consistent, an explicit description of the important terms can be extremely useful.

OWL – the Web Ontology Language - is the main W3C standard for defining ontologies, and a key building block of the Semantic Web.  This tutorial provides an overview of knowledge representation and ontology development using OWL.  In other words, it’s the place to start if you want to learn how to develop Semantic Web applications. 

The presentation will explain the basics of ontologies and attempts to de-mystify some of the ‘black art’ of ontology development.  Examples from several business domains will be provided.  We will also demonstrate appropriate use of OWL DL, OWL Full, and more expressive languages such as Common Logic, to help potential users understand both the power and limitations they impose on applications in making such choices.

Feedback from last year indicated that this tutorial provides a great introduction for those who are just beginning to “get their feet wet” in the field, and was helpful in setting the stage for the rest of the conference.

Ms. Kendall’s formal training in Situation Semantics coupled with extensive systems integration experience led her to architect Sandpiper's innovative, standards-based approach to knowledge sharing through the use of ontologies. She is an active participant in the Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment effort of the W3C and a key contributor to standards such as the Object Management Group’s Ontology Definition Metamodel (ODM). Prior to Sandpiper, Ms. Kendall consulted for Lockheed Martin where she drove the reuse strategy for the DARPA / TRI-Services RASSP program. Ms. Kendall served as product development manager for Aspect Development, a provider of component and supplier management systems. She started her career in development, integration, and deployment of ground-based communications, signal, and data processing systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space. She holds an MA in Linguistics from Stanford University and a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Deborah McGuinness is the acting director and senior research scientist of the Knowledge Systems - Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (KSL) at Stanford University and CEO of McGuinness Associates Consulting. Deborah's research focuses on the Semantic Web, Explanation and Trust, Ontologies and Ontology Evolution Environments, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, and Semantic Integration of Information. Deborah's consulting focuses on helping companies utilize artificial intelligence research and semantic technologies in applications such as semantically-enabled scientific data integration, smart search, ontology management, and online commerce.