Title: Approach and tool to evolve ontology and maintain its coherence

Authors: Wassim Jaziri, Najla Sassi, Faiez Gargouri

Addresses: Laboratoire Miracl, Institut Superieur d'Informatique et de Multimedia de Sfax, Pole Technologique de Sfax, BP 242, 3021, Sakiet Ezzit, Sfax, Tunisia. ' Laboratoire Miracl, Institut Superieur d'Informatique et de Multimedia de Sfax, Pole Technologique de Sfax, BP 242, 3021, Sakiet Ezzit, Sfax, Tunisia. ' Laboratoire Miracl, Institut Superieur d'Informatique et de Multimedia de Sfax, Pole Technologique de Sfax, BP 242, 3021, Sakiet Ezzit, Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract: The concept of ontology is more and more used to provide a shared understanding of a domain of interest and to enhance communication among humans, computers and software. However, ontologies are often used in changing environments and, therefore, must be adapted to evolution requirements. This paper proposes an approach to manage the ontology evolution and to maintain its coherence after changing. This approach anticipates incoherencies that can be generated and proposes additional operations to correct them. To assist users in expressing and applying evolution requirements, an ontology evolution tool has been developed and applied to develop the Tunisian Education system.

Keywords: ontology evolution; changes; coherence; additional operations; Tunisia; higher education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMSO.2010.033284

International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies, 2010 Vol.5 No.2, pp.151 - 166

Received: 10 Sep 2009
Accepted: 04 Jan 2010
Published online: 16 May 2010 *

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