Ontology-driven editing Group projects

1. Ontology-driven editingGroup projects Steve Pepper pepper.steve@gmail.com Oslo University College, 2007-10-20 www.ontopedia.net

2. Week 37 – 09-08 Introduction to Topic Maps – Part 1 Week 38 – 09-15 Creating a topic map Week 39 – 09-22 Introduction to Topic Maps – Part 2 Week 42 – 10-13 Modelling issues (LTM) Week 43 – 10-20 Ontology-driven editing Week 46 – 11-10 (Semantic Web) Week 48 – 11-24 (Ontologies) Terminology: Topic Maps: The technology and the standard topic maps: The artefacts (documents) we create Course agenda www.ontopedia.net

3. Today’s agenda • Review of personal topic maps • Identity (see slides from 3rd lecture) • Ontology-driven editing • Discussion of group projects • Please use the breaks to finalize groupsand discuss subject domains www.ontopedia.net

4. Ontology-driven editing www.ontopedia.net

5. What is ontology? (philosophy) “In philosophy, ontology (from the Greek ον = being and λόγος = word/speech) is the most fundamental branch of metaphysics. It studies being or existence as well as the basic categories thereof – trying to find out what entities and what types of entities exist. Ontology has strong implications for the conceptions of reality.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology • Originally a branch of metaphysics (or philosophy) • The study of being, or existence • Founded by Plato and Aristotle • Deals with questions such as • “What exists?” (for example, does the idea of a “horse” exist?) • “What are subjects, objects, and their relationships?” • Has a specialized meaning in informatics • Among other things, it is possible to talk of an ontology www.ontopedia.net

6. What is an ontology? (informatics) “In both computer science and information science, an ontology is a data model that represents a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts. It is used to reason about the objects within that domain. Ontologies are used in artificial intelligence, the semantic web, software engineering, biomedical informatics and information architecture as a form of knowledge representation about the world or some part of it.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology_(computer_science) • Used (and abused) to mean almost any form of conceptual classification scheme • Ranges from simple type hierarchies to more complex models; should also include other semantic relations describing relationships between concepts • In Topic Maps an ontology is • The set of typing topics that is used within a topic map, or that defines a class of topic maps • In the Semantic Web “ontologies” means OWL • Web Ontology Language www.ontopedia.net

7. What is ontology-driven editing? • A user-friendly way to create topic maps! • The principle is simple • The ontology describes what kind of things can exist in the topic map • It also includes constraints on • Which types of statement are used with which types of topics • What cardinality they have • Based on this, the interface is automatically configured for data entry • The benefits • Easier user interface – no need to understand syntax • More consistent topic maps • Ontopoly is such an editor www.ontopedia.net

8. How to use Ontopoly • Read the Ontopoly User Guide! • It will save you a lot of grief in the long run • http://localhost:8080/ontopoly0/doc/user-guide.html • Start the program from OKS Samplers • Open an existing Ontopoly topic map • Import an existing non-Ontopoly topic map • Or create a new topic map • Use the Description tab to describe the topic map • Also to validate it and a few other things • Use the Ontology tab to define the ontology • topic types, type hierarchy, association types, role types, name types, occurrence types • “fields” (names, identifiers, occurrences, and associations) that apply to each topic type, their order and cardinality • Use the Instances tab to populate the data • Uses an automatically configured forms-based interface www.ontopedia.net

9. Demo: Creating a topic map www.ontopedia.net

10. Some tips on ontology creation • When starting a new Ontopoly topic map • Sketch out the basic ontology on paper before using Ontopoly • Create the type hierarchy first. Keep it simple. • Create association types and role types (where necessary) • Specify what the role-playing topic types are • Create occurrence types and name types • Go to each topic type in turn, starting at the top of each type hierarchy, and assign additional fields • Make sure you are satisfied with the ontology before you add too much data, otherwise it can be a lot of work to change things • When importing an existing non-Ontopoly topic map • Check name types and occurrence types first • Then check association types (and role types) • Then check each topic type in turn (top down) www.ontopedia.net

11. Some comments on Ontopoly • Takes a little getting used to • But it’s well worth the effort • Does not (yet) support scope or variant names • Use typed names instead of scoped names • Does not allow topics to have multiple types • Except for supertypes • Includes system information in the topic map • The topic map can be exported without this information • It can be hidden in the Omnigator • Customize  Nontopoly model • Important points to remember • Clicking on any link submits the HTML form, but does not save to disk • You MUST click on the Save button regularly www.ontopedia.net

12. Deciding on the domain • Criteria • The domain should interest all the members and should help to add some value in terms of knowledge sharing; • Content and information resources about the domain should be available; • The associations in the topic map shall provide new and valuable information, as in the example of all the dead men in Milan, in the Opera topic map; • There should be a domain expert in our group; • The topic map could be developed later as a portal • Think associative richness! • Some domains lend themselves better to this than others www.ontopedia.net

13. Phuong, Nga, Szu-Ping Andrea, Juan-Daniel, Mehrnoosh, SaraDILL Program Pussadee, Roriana, WachirapornNobel Prizes Nickson, Florence, MonicaTopic Maps Bibliography Alice, Barulaganye, EstherAfrican Writers Muluken, YibeltalTopic Maps Tools Anja, Clara, Kanita, Trude Isaac, WilfredAfrican Football (?) ChristianWhisky Groups www.ontopedia.net

14. Bibliographic languages in a Topic Maps perspective General overview but with more detail than presented here Topic Maps and thesauri Dig into the details of the thesaurus standards and develop an ontology for representing them as topic maps Topic Maps and MARC Develop an ontology for representing MARC records as TMs Topic Maps and FRBR Investigate the relationship of Topic Maps to IFLA’s Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records Topic Maps and faceted search Show how the ideas of faceted search can be applied through topic maps and examine the efficacy of web sites that do this Topic Maps and subject classification systems What are the benefits of using TMs, e.g. with multiple systems? Real world library applications of Topic Maps In depth case study of a particular application, e.g. Kongelig Bibliotek (Royal Danish Library), New Zealand Electronic Text Centre Modelling knowledge with Topic Maps Discuss issues relating to modelling knowledge with Topic Maps, and some common errors that people make. Cover as much ground as possible, but don’t go into too much depth. (Use our first LTM topic maps as base material?) The Problem of Names in Topic Maps Investigate the purpose of typed names, scoped names and variant names. Look into how they are supported and used today, and propose conventions for when to use what. Roles in Topic Maps and elsewhere Compare the notion of association roles with roles in other paradigms, including ORM and UML in data modelling, thematic roles in linguistics, and the treatment of roles in knowledge representation paradigms such as Conceptual Graphs. Hierarchical Relationship Types Investigate different forms of hierarchical structure i knowledge organization (including type and various forms of partitive) and propose PSIs sets for expressing them in Topic Maps. Topic Maps Usability Study Compare a Topic Maps-driven web site with a web site that is not based on Topic Maps and identify the key differences in terms of structure, navigation, searching, maintenance, connectivity, etc. Some thesis ideas www.ontopedia.net

15. Home assignment • Form a group of 2–4 people • Decide on a domain for a topic map • Delimit its scope – i.e., what’s in and what’s out • Start small, you can always extend it later • Send me a short description by email with names of group members • Deadline October 22 • Design the basic ontology on paper as a group • Topic types, type hierarchy, association types • Keep it really simple (KISS) to begin with • Deadline October 26 • Create the initial ontology in Ontopoly • Min. 12 TTs, 8 ATs, 10 OTs. Send to me by email. • Deadline: October 26 • Start to populate the topic map • Do not proceed too quickly • Make a note of any issues that arise for discussion in class www.ontopedia.net

16. Identifiers • Use an identifier for every typing topic • Use the prefix http://psi.ontopedia.net/ • Reuse existing identifiers wherever possible • Choice of suffix for topic types and role types: • A short name, preferably the same as Wikipedia uses • Start with a capital letter; accented letters are OK • Replace spaces by underscores • Examples: Composer, Fairy_tale, Work_of_art, Place • For association types, occurrence types and name types: • Use a verb (association types) or a noun (occurrence and name types) • Start with a lower-case letter (to indicate a property) • Examples: composed_by, date_of_birth, given_name www.ontopedia.net

17. More tips for your ontology • Provide a description for every topic type: • Give a short definition • Comments (if necessary) on the way in which the type is (intended to be) used in the topic map • For examples of recommended best practice • Refer to the Norwegian Opera Topic Map • See http://www.ontopedia.net/NorwegianOpera/ontology.jsp • Use the Omnigator version listed under Topic Maps at www.ontopedia.net • Download it to your machine using the Export plug-in • This query lists all subject identifiers for typing topics: select $TYPE, $SID from { instance-of($T, $TYPE) | type($T, $TYPE) }, subject-identifier($TYPE, $SID) order by $TYPE? www.ontopedia.net

18. Next lecture • Monday October 27 • Same time, same place • Agenda • Identity • Ontologies • Project review www.ontopedia.net