Ontological Engineering: What are Ontologies and How Can We Build Them?

Abstract

Ontologies are formal, explicit specifications of shared conceptualizations. There is much literature on what they are, how they can be engineered and where they can be used inside applications. All these literature can be grouped under the term “ontological engineering,” which is defined as the set of activities that concern the ontology development process, the ontology lifecycle, the principles, methods and methodologies for building ontologies, and the tool suites and languages that support them. In this chapter we provide an overview of ontological engineering, describing the current trends, issues and problems.