Re: (SeWeb) KAON - KArlsruhe ONtology and Semantic Web Infrastructure

I looked at the KAON web site and some of the material there,
and I am happy that it is an open-source project based on Java.
But I had a question about why KAON is independent from other
open-source, Java-based projects for ontology editing and
development.

I don't want to start an argument about why one system might be
better or worse than another, especially since I am not at the
moment using any of them.  But since I am working with ontologies,
I would like to consider using some such system and/or recommending
it to my colleagues.  I would like to know why there are so many
systems available that are being developed independently by different
groups.

For example, the Protege project at Stanford is also an open-source
Java-based ontology editor and development platform:

    http://protege.stanford.edu/index.html

I have also looked at that system, but I have not used it either.
But it is also available as an open-source project, and I have seen
demos and examples of other development platforms that are being
developed on top of various platforms, including Java.

Why are all these groups working on independent tools for ontology
instead of collaborating to build common tools that everyone could
use?

John Sowa