Re: Cross-ontologies reasoning

> We stated that with some axioms, the use of OWL with
> inferencing algorithms can maintain the logical consistency, and answer
> cross ontology queries (which was the original question).  I think Jim 
> &
> Bijan did a good job discussing the issues.  We do have tools that 
> allow
> some use of algorithms that do indeed suggest bridging axioms and 
> generate
> the appropriate OWL, but due to the different nature of these 
> algorithms
> (probabilistic among other techniques) as opposed to OWL-DL (deductive
> logic), we advise some person-in-the loop work to ensure continuity.
> Again, once checked, cross ontology reasoning and querying works fine. 
>  In
> addition, the precision of these algorithms is greatly increased if
> constrained within domains (i.e, not trying to compare a bookselling
> webservice with a type of cancer, but only against other e-commerce
> services)

I'm new to this thread of discussion, so I don't know whether somebody 
already replied to this question.
The question is the following. We all know that the problem of query 
answering cross ontology queries is a tough problem (in terms of 
devising a proper algorithm and in terms of data complexity). It is 
already very tough the problem of correctly answering queries by just 
having one ontology (even in OWL-LITE). Can you tell the details of the 
technology that you use to answer such queries (you mention deductive 
techniques)? Which theoretical results are you applying?  Which are the 
assumptions on the query language, the ontology language, the mapping 
rules language and semantics, the nature of the data (OWA or CWA), 
sound or exact views over the data? If the query answering algorithm is 
not complete, which are the answers that it would miss, and which were 
the design decisions that led you to have an incomplete algorithm?

cheers
--e.

Enrico Franconi                  - franconi@inf.unibz.it
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano - http://www.inf.unibz.it/~franconi/
Faculty of Computer Science      - Phone: (+39) 0471-315-642
I-39100 Bozen-Bolzano BZ, Italy  - Fax:   (+39) 0471-315-649

Received on Friday, 19 December 2003 05:32:44 UTC