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Canadian Semantic Web Working Symposium 2006



MDA Standards for Ontology Development

2 hours-long tutorial, June 6th, 2006

Canadian Semantic Web Working Symposium 2006 (CSWWS06)

Dragan Gašević
Laboratory for Ontological Engineering, School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Simon Fraser University Surrey, Canada
dgasevic@acm.org

Dragan Djurić and Vladan Devedžić
GOOD OLD AI Research Group, FON – School of Business Administration
University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
dragandj@gmail.com, devedzic@fon.bg.ac.yu
http://goodoldai.org.yu, http://www.e-nspire.com

Abstract

The Semantic Web is the main direction of the future Web development. Domain ontologies are the most important part of Semantic Web applications. Artificial intelligence techniques are used for ontology creation, but those techniques are more related to research laboratories. Recently, there are many proposals to use software engineering techniques, especially UML since it is the most accepted software engineering standard, in order to bring ontology development process closer to wider practitioners' population. However, UML is based on object oriented paradigm, and has some limitation regarding ontology development. These limitations can be overcome using UML's extensions (i.e. UML profiles), as well as other OMG's standards (i.e. Model Driven Architecture - MDA). Currently, there is an initiative (i.e. RFP) within the OMG aiming to define a suitable language for modeling Semantic Web ontology languages in the context of the MDA.

The main goal of this tutorial is to present comprehensive introduction into MDA-based ontology development. It will provide an introduction to the field of the Semantic Web and ontology engineering, a description of several UML- and metamodeling- based solutions and tools for ontology development, an overview of the OMG's MDA effort and related standards (Meta-Object Facility - MOF, UML, XML Metadata Interchange - XMI), a detail overview of the OMG's proposal for Ontology Definition Metamodel. We will describe our experiences in developing and employing an MDA-based infrastructure for ontology engineering we defined using the OMG's recommendations. The content of the tutorial is fully covered by our book Model Driven Architecture and Ontology Development published by Springer.
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Book covering the tutorial content

Model Driven Architecture and Ontology DevelopmentThe content of the tutorial is fully covered by our book Model Driven Architecture and Ontology Development that is published by Springer in May 2006.
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Table of contents

  • Introduction (5')
  • Semantic Web and ontologies (35')
    • Ontologies: definition, purpose, and applications
    • Ontology languages - XML, RDF(S), and OWL
    • Ontology development tool: Protégé
  • Model Driven Architecture: An overview (20')
    • Four-layer architecture
    • Metamodeling
    • UML Profiles
    • MOF, UML, and XMI
  • UML-based solutions and tools for ontology development (40')
    • UML vs. ontologies
    • Solutions based on: UML, UML extensions (i.e. UML Profiles), and ontology metamodels
    • Tools: DUET, ArgoUML, Rational Rose, XPetal, Protégé's plug-ins, XSLT-based tools etc.
    • Shortcomings
  • OMG's proposal for Ontology Definition Metamodel and current joint submission (35')
    • Mandatory and optional requirements
    • ODM Preliminary Submission and proposed metamodels: Description Logics, RDF(S), OWL, Entity-Relationship, Simple Common Logics
  • The MDA-based infrastructure for ontology development (10')
    • Ontology Definition Metamodel (ODM)
    • Ontology UML Profile (OUP) - a UML Profile that supports UML notation for ontology definition
    • Two-way mappings between OWL and ODM, and ODM and OUP
  • Bridging MDA-based ontology languages (OUP, ODM) and The Web Ontology Language (OWL) (10')
    • Technological spaces (XML, ontology, and MDA)
    • Epistemological relations between MDA and OWL layers
    • Implementation of transformations: eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) and MOF Query/Views/Transformations (QVT)
  • Implemented tool support (15')
    • AIR - An MDA- and Eclipse- based platform for intelligent systems: A plugin for ontology development (ODM, OUP, and transformations)
    • Extension of current UML tools for generation of ready-to-use OWL ontologies from the OUP
      • XSLT from UML (OUP-aware) XMI to OWL XML format
      • Tested on Poseidon for UML and Protégé
    • Petri net ontology: OUP definition, sharing between Protégé and Poseidon for UML
  • Conclusion and discussion (10')
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Target audience

The tutorial will be useful for researchers as well as for practitioners aiming to develop ontologies using well-known software engineering techniques and tools. The tutorial will assume that participants are acquainted with the basic concepts of UML, Semantic Web, ontologies, and XML. Expected number of participants: 30.
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Tutorial relevance

The tutorial should introduce the Semantic Web and ontology development to software engineers. The main goal is to show how practitioners can exploit ongoing MDA standards and techniques for developing ontologies. That way we will motivate them to contribute the Semantic Web development since they will use well-known software engineering (e.g. UML) tools for ontology engineering rather then AI-specific development tools.
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Teaching methods

The style of presentation is based on the assumption that the main need of participants is to gain a coherent overview of material that is largely unfamiliar. Accordingly, the main method is lecture presentation with PowerPoint slides and brief system demonstrations. Interactive style is assumed throughout the presentations. The participants are welcome to discuss all the ideas to be presented, to suggest their own ideas, and to share their own experiences related to the tutorial topics. The amount of material to be presented will be adjusted so that an average of 5 minutes of discussion and debate can take place within each of the longer sections of the tutorial, where the need arises.
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Equipment

PC, projector, Windows, MS Power Point
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Handouts

Tutorial handouts in the pdf-zip file.
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Bibliography (a short list)

  1. Atkinson, C. and Kühne, T., Profiles in a strict metamodeling framework, Science of Computer Programming 44 (1) (2002) 5-22.
  2. Atkinson, C. and Kühne, T., Model-Driven Development: A Metamodeling Foundation, IEEE Software 20(5) (2003) 36-41.
  3. K Baclawski, M. K. Kokar, P. Kogut, L. Hart, J. E. Smith, J. Letkowski, and P. Emery, Extending the Unified Modeling Language for ontology development, International Journal Software and Systems Modeling (SoSyM) 1(2) (2002) 142-156.
  4. K Baclawski, M. M. Kokar, J. E. Smith, E. Wallace, J. Letkowski, M. R. Koethe, and P. Kogut, UOL: Unified Ontology Language, Assorted papers discussed at the DC Ontology SIG meeting, http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ontology/2002-11-02, 2002.
  5. S. Bechhofer et al, OWL Web Ontology Language Reference, W3C Recommendation, http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-owl-ref-20040210, 2004.
  6. Brockmans, S., Volz, R., Eberhart, A. & Löffler, P., isual modeling of OWL DL ontologies using UML, Proceedings of the 3rd International Semantic Web Conference, Hiroshima, Japan, 2004, 108-213.
  7. B. Chandrasekaran, J. R. Josephson, and V. R. Benjamins, What Are Ontologies, and Why Do We Need Them?, IEEE Intelligent Systems 14 (1) (1999) 20-26.
  8. S. Cranefield, Networked Knowledge Representation and Exchange using UML and RDF, Journal of Digital information 1 (8) (2001), http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk
  9. S.Cranefield, and J. Pan, Bridging the gap between the Model-Driven Architecture and ontology engineering, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 2006 (forthcoming). http://eprints.otago.ac.nz/164
  10. S. Decker, S. Melnik, F. van Harmelen, D. Fensel, M. Klein, J. Broekstra, M. Ederman, and I. Horrocks, The Semantic Web: The Roles of XML and RDF, IEEE Internet Computing 4 (5) (2000) 63-74.
  11. V. Devedžic, Understanding Ontological Engineering, Communications of the ACM 45 (4) (2002) 136-144.
  12. K. Duddy, UML2 Must Enable A Family of Languages, Communications of the ACM 45 (11) (2002) 73-75.
  13. K. Falkovych, M., Sabou, and H. Stuckenschmidt, UML for the Semantic Web: Transformation-Based Approaches, in: B. Omelayenko, and M. Klein, ed., Knowledge Transformation for the Semantic Web, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, Vol. 95 (IOS Press, 2003) 92-106.
  14. P. Kogut, S. Cranefield, L. Hart, M. Dutra, K. Baclawski, M. Kokar, and J. Smith, UML for Ontology Development, The Knowledge Engineering Review 17 (1) (2002) 61-64.
  15. Kurtev and K. van den Berg, Model Driven Architecture based XML Processing, in: Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Document Engineering, Grenoble, France, 2003, 246-248.
  16. Kurtev, I., Bézivin, J., Aksit, M., Technological Spaces: An Initial Appraisal, in: Proceedings of the Confederated International Conferences CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE 2002, Industrial track, Irvine, CA, USA, 2002.
  17. Knublauch, H., Ontology-driven software development in the context of the Semantic Web: An example scenario with Protégé/OWL, in: Proceedings of the International Workshop on the Model-Driven Semantic Web (at the 8th International Conference on Enterprise Distributed Object Computing), Monterey, CA, USA, 2004.
  18. J. Miller and J. Mukerji, (eds.), MDA Guide Version 1.0, OMG Document: omg/2003-05-01, http://www.omg.org/mda/mda_files/MDA_Guide_Version1-0.pdf, May 2003.
  19. Meta Object Facility (MOF) Specification v1.4, OMG Document formal/02-04-03, http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/apps/doc?formal/02-04-03.pdf, April 2002.
  20. Ontology Definition Metamodel Request for Proposal, OMG Document: ad/2003-03-40, http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/2003-03-40, 2003.
  21. ODM DSTC (2003), Ontology Definition Metamodel, DSTC Initial Submission, OMG Document ad/2003-08-01 [Online]. Available: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/03-08-01.
  22. ODM Gentleware (2003), Ontology Definition Metamodel, Gentleware Initial Submission, OMG Document ad/03-08-09 [Online]. Available: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/03-08-09.
  23. ODM IBM (2003), Ontology Definition Metamodel, IBM Initial Submission ad/03-07-02, OMG Document ad/03-07-02 [Online]. Available: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/03-07-02.
  24. ODM Sandpiper&KSL (2003), Ontology Definition Metamodel, Sandpiper Software Inc and KSL Initial Submission, OMG Document ad/03-08-06 [Online]. Available: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/03-08-06.
  25. OMG DAF (2005), Utility Management System Data Access Facility, v2.0.1, OMG Document formal/05-06-01 [Online]. Available: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?formal/2005-06-03.
  26. OMG ODM RFP (2005), Ontology Definition Metamodel - Third Revised Submission to OMG RFP ad/2003-03-40, OMG Document ad/05-08-01 [Online]. Available: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/apps/doc?ad/05-08-01.pdf.
  27. MOF 2.0 Query/Views/Transformations Request for Proposal, OMG Document ad/2002-04-10, http://www.omg.org/docs/ad/02-04-10.pdf, 2002.
  28. Unified Modeling Language Specification v1.5, OMG Document formal/03-03-01, http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/apps/doc?formal/03-03-01.zip, March 2003.
  29. OMG XMI Specification, v1.2, OMG Document formal/02-01-01,http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?formal/2002-01-01, 2002.
  30. Y. Pan, G. Xie, L. Ma, Y. Yang, Z. Qiu, and J. Lee, An MDA-Based System for Ontology Engineering, IBM TR RC23795, 2005.
  31. E. Seidewitz, What Models Mean, IEEE Software 20 (5) (2003) 26-32.
  32. B. Selic, The Pragmatics of Model-Driven Development, IEEE Software 20 (5) (2003) 19-25.
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Some publications of the tutorial authors covering the tutorial subject

  1. Gašević, D., Djurić, D, Devedžić, V., Model Driven Architecture and Ontology Development, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2006 (in press).
  2. Djurić, D., Gašević, D., Devedžić, V., "MDA Standards for Ontology Development," In Sharman, R., Ramesh, R., and Kishore, R. (Eds.) Ontologies in the Context of Information Systems, Springer-Verlag, 2005 (invited chapter, forthcoming).
  3. Djurić, D, Gašević, D., Damjanović, V., Devedžić, V., "MDA-Based Ontological Engineering," In Chang, S. K. (Ed.) Handbook of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering Vol.3 - Recent Advances, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 2005, pp. 203-231.
  4. Djurić, D., Gašević, D., Devedžić, V., Damjanović, V., "A UML Profile for OWL Ontologies," In Aßmann, U., Aksit, M., Rensink, A. (Eds.) Model Driven Architecture (European MDA Workshops: Foundations and Applications, MDAFA 2003 and MDAFA 2004, Twente, The Netherlands, June 26-27, 2003 and Linköping, Sweden, June 10-11, 2004. Revised Selected Papers), LNCS 3599, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2005. pp. 204-219.
  5. Djurić, D., Gašević, D., Devedžić, V., "The Tao of Modeling Spaces," Journal of Object Technology, Vol. 5, No. x, 2006 (forthcoming).
  6. Djurić, D., Devedžić, V., Gašević, D., "Adopting Software Engineering Trends in AI," IEEE Intelligent Systems, 2006 (forthcoming).
  7. Gašević, D., Djurić, D, Devedžić, V., "MDA-based Automatic OWL Ontology Development," International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer, 2006 (forthcoming).
  8. Gašević, D., Djurić, D., Devedžić, V., "Bridging MDA and OWL ontologies," Journal of Web Engineering, 2005, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 119-143.
  9. Djurić, D, Gašević, D., Devedžić, V., "Ontology Modeling and MDA," Journal of Object Technology, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005, pp. 109-128.
  10. Djurić, D., "MDA-based Ontology Infrastructure," Computer Science and Information Systems Vol. 1, No. 1, 2004, pp. 91-116.
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Tools

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Authors' profiles

Dragan Gašević received the B.S., M.S. and PhD degrees in computer science from the Department of Computer Science, University of Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, in 2000, 2002, and 2004, respectively. He is a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory for Ontological Research, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University Surrey, Canada. His current research interests are in the area of ontology development, Semantic Web, XML-based interoperability, integration between software engineering and knowledge engineering techniques, learning technologies and Petri nets. So far, he has authored/co-authored more than 110 research papers, several book chapters, and 2 books. He has been severing on editorial and reviewing boards of several international journals. He has also been a program committee member and reviewer of several international conferences. He can be reached at http://www.sfu.ca/~dgasevic.

Dragan Djurić received the B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees in computer science from the FON-School of Business Administration, University of Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, in 2002, 2004, 2006, respectively. He is a free scientist and a researcher at the GOOD OLD AI research group, University of Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro. His interests mostly include Model Driven Architecture, Enterprise software architecture, Object-Oriented development, Java platform and Intelligent Information Systems. He has authored/co-authored more than 30 research papers, several book chapters, and 2 books in Model Driven Development. He has also been a program committee member and reviewer of several international conferences. He can be reached at http://www.dragandjuric.com.

Vladan Devedžić received the B.S., M.S. and PhD degrees in computer science from the Department of Computer Science, University of Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, in 1982, 1988, and 1993, respectively. He is a professor of computer science at the Department of Information Systems and Technologies, FON - School of Business Administration, University of Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro. His main research interests include software engineering, intelligent systems, knowledge representation, ontologies, Semantic Web, intelligent reasoning, and applications of artificial intelligence techniques to education and medicine. So far, he has authored/co-authored more than 260 research papers, several book chapters and books. He has been severing on editorial and reviewing boards of several international journals. He has also been a chair, PC member, referee and for many international and conferences. He can be reached at http://fon.fon.bg.ac.yu/~devedzic.
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