Friday 25 November 2011

Visual Modelling and Ontologies

Just some papers with the Visual Modelling Group in Brighton:

Howse, J., Stapleton, G. and Oliver, I. (2010) Visual reasoning about ontologies In: International Semantic Web Conference, November 2010, China.
We explore a diagrammatic logic suitable for specifying ontologies using a case study. Diagrammatic reasoning is used to establish consequences of the ontology.

Oliver, O, Howse, J., Stapleton, G., Nuutlia, E and Torma, S (2009) Visualizing and Specifying Ontologies using Diagrammatic Logics In: Proceedings of the Australasian Ontology Workshop, 1 December 2009, Melbourne, Australia.(Best Paper)
This paper proposes a diagrammatic logic that is suitable for specifying ontologies. We take a case study style approach to presenting the diagrammatic logic, and draw contrast with RDF graphs and description logics. We provide specications of two ontologies and show how to depict instances. Diagrammatic reasoning is used to show that an instance conforms to a specification. We also include examples to show how diagrammatic rules can be used to (a) constrain ontology specifications and (b) define mappings between ontologies. The framework also allows the specification of queries. The positive features of the diagrammatic logic are discussed, supporting a claim that the new logic is intuitive and appropriate for ontology specification. Finally, we discuss the possibilities for developing tools to support the use of the diagrammatic logic, including automated diagram drawing and reasoning procedures.

Howse, J., Schuman, S., Stapleton, G. and Oliver, I. (2009) Diagrammatic Formal Specification of a Configuration Control Platform In: 2009 Refinement Workshop, 3rd November 2009, Eindhoven.
This paper presents a diagrammatic logic framework that is suitable for use in formal specification and for reasoning about and refining formal software models. We take a case study style approach to presenting the framework by developing, in some detail, an abstract model for a transparent configuration control platform. The model is built up by stages, corresponding to separate concerns of configuration control. Each successive level is a refinement of the previous level. We discuss the possibilities for developing tools to support the use of the diagrammatic logic, including automated diagram drawing and reasoning procedures. Our wider goal is to make a formal specification easier for its clients to understand.

S Törmä and E Nuutila are from Aalto University, Finland.

Keywords: Modelling, Modeling, Visual, Diagram, Diagrammatic, Logic, Semantic Web, Ontologies, Reasoning, Ontology, Formal Specification

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