A theoretical framework for ontology evaluation and validation

2nd Italian Semantic Web Workshop

Aldo Gangemi ; Carola Catenacci ; Massimiliano Ciaramita ; Jos Lehmann

Others  :  http://CEUR-WS.org/Vol-166/9.pdf
PID  :  11975

来源: CEUR

【 摘 要 】

The need for evaluation-methodologies emerged very early in the field of ontology development and reuse and it has grown steadily. Yet, no comprehensive and global approach to this problem has been proposed to date. This situation may become a serious obstacle for the success of ontology-based Knowledge Technology, especially in the industrial and commercial sectors. In this paper we look at existing ontology-evaluation methods from the perspective of their integration in one single framework. Based on a catalogue of qualitative and quantitative measures for ontologies, we set up a formal model for ontology. The proposed formal model consists of a meta-ontology -O2- that characterizes ontologies as semiotic objects. The meta-ontology is complemented with an ontology of ontology evaluation and validation - oQual. Based on O2 and oQual, we identify three main types of measures for ontology evaluation: structural measures, that are typical of ontologies represented as graphs; functional measures, that are related to the intended use of an ontology and of its components, i.e. their function; usability-related measures, that depend on the level of annotation of the considered ontology.