Site Name

MDA Standards for Ontology Development

Half-day (3 hours) tutorial

4th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2005)

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 the 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 (http://ontology.omg.org). Finally, we will describe our experiences in developing and employing an MDA-based infrastructure for ontology engineering we defined using the OMG's recommendations.
Top

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')

Top

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.
Top

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.
Top

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.
Top

Equipment

PC, projector, Windows, MS Power Point
Top

Handouts

Tutorial handouts in the pdf-zip file.
Top

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. 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.
7. S. Cranefield, Networked Knowledge Representation and Exchange using UML and RDF, Journal of Digital information 1 (8) (2001), http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk
8. 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.
9. V. Devedžić, Understanding Ontological Engineering, Communications of the ACM 45 (4) (2002) 136-144.
10. D. Djuric, MDA-based Ontology Infrastructure, Computer Science and Information Systems 1 (1) (2004).
11. D. Djuric, D. Gašević, and V. Devedžić, Ontology Modeling and MDA, Journal on Object Technology 4 (1) (2005) 109-128.
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. D. Gašević, D. Djurić, V. Devedžić, Bridging MDA and OWL ontologies, Journal of Web Engineering 4(2) (2005) 119-134.
15. D. Gašević, V. Devedžić , and V. Damjanović, Applying MDA Standards in Ontological Engineering, in: Proceedings of the 6 th International Conference on Information Technology, Bhubaneswar, India (2003) 193-196.
16. D. Gašević, D. Djuric , V. Devedžić , and V. Damjanović, Converting UML to OWL ontologies, in: Proceedings of the 13 th International WWW Conference, NY, USA (2004) 488-489
17. D. Gašević, D. Djuric , V. Devedžić , and V. Damjanović , UML for Read-To-Use OWL Ontologies, in: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference Intelligent Systems, Vrana, Bulgaria (2004) 485-490.
18. D. Gašević, D. Djurić, V. Devedžić, V. Damjanović, Approaching OWL and MDA Through Technological Spaces, in: Prceedings of the 3rd Workshop in Software Model Engineering - WiSME2004 (at 7th International Conference on the Unified Modeling Language: Modeling Languages and Applications), Lisbon, Portugal (2004)
19. 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.
20. I. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. Ontology Definition Metamodel Request for Proposal, OMG Document: ad/2003-03-40, http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/2003-03-40, 2003.
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. OMG XMI Specification, v1.2, OMG Document formal/02-01-01,http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?formal/2002-01-01, 2002.
28. E. Seidewitz, What Models Mean, IEEE Software 20 (5) (2003) 26-32.
29. B. Selic, The Pragmatics of Model-Driven Development, IEEE Software 20 (5) (2003) 19-25.

Top

Tools

• DUET (http://codip.grci.com/Tools/Tools.html)
• Xpetal (http://www.langdale.com.au/styler/xpetal)
• Protégé (http://protege.stanford.edu)
  • XMI backend (http://protege.stanford.edu/plugins/xmi/)
  • UML backend (http://protege.stanford.edu/plugins/uml)
  • RDF backend (http://protege.stanford.edu/plugins/rdf/)
  • OWL plug-in (http://protege.stanford.edu/plugins/owl/)
• IBM/Rational Rose (http://www.rational.com, http://www-306.ibm.com/software/rational/)
• Poseidon for UML (http://www.gentleware.com)
• NetBeans’ MetaData Repository – MDR (http://mdr.netbeans.org)

Top

Presenters profile

Dragan Gašević received the B.S., M.S. and PhD degrees in informatics and computer engineering 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. So far, he has authored/co-authored around 90 research papers, several book chapters, and one book. He has been a referee for a few international conferences as well as international journals. He can be reached at http://www.sfu.ca/~dgasevic.

Dragan Djurić received the B.S., M.S. degree in computer engineering from the FON - School of Business Administration, University of Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, in 2002 and 2004, respectively. He is a PhD student at the FON - School of Business Administration, University of Belgrade, as well as a researcher at the GOOD OLD AI research group. His interests mostly include Model Driven Architecture, Enterprise software architecture, Object-Oriented development, Java platform and Intelligent Information Systems. He has authored/co-authored many research papers, several book chapters, and one book on Model Driven Development. He can be reached at http://www.dragandjuric.com.

Vladan Devedžić received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electronic and computer engineering from the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, in 1982, 1988, and 1993, respectively. He is currently a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and Montenegro, Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He has worked as a Research and Senior Research Scientist with the Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Belgrade, and with “ Mihailo Pupin” Institute, Belgrade, Yugoslavia. In 2002, he was awarded a Visiting Erskine Fellow Grant and spent six months as a visiting professor of Computer Science at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. His work experience includes research and development in the areas of artificial intelligence and software engineering. His current efforts and research interests are oriented toward practical engineering aspects of developing intelligent educational systems on the Web. He has written more than 220 papers (more than 30 of them have been published in internationally recognized journals by publishers such as ACM, IEEE, Elsevier, Pergamon Press, etc.), three books on intelligent systems, and several chapters in books on intelligent systems and software engineering edited by distinguished scientists. He participates to several ongoing R&D projects, both national and international. Dr. Devedžić is a member of the International Society for Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED). He can be reached at http://fon.fon.bg.ac.yu/~devedzic.
Top