OIL and UPML: a unifying framework for the Knowledge Web

Abstract

Currently computers are changing from single isolated devices to entry points in a world wide network of information exchange and business transactions called the World Wide Web (WWW). A prerequisite for successfully integrating various information sources are standardized and machine-processable descriptions of their semantics. In this paper, we will briefly describe two proposals and will discuss how both can be combined. First, we discuss OIL that is proposed as description language for ontology interchange. That is, it is designed for specifying static information. Second, we sketch UPML, which is developed for describing reasoning components. UPML helps to automatically configure distributed reasoning components that can be used as inference service via networks. Integrating both description types is a necessary step in the direction of a knowledge web where the distinction between static and dynamic information sources will become transparent for the user. The main contribution of the paper is the comparison of both approaches. We achieve this comparison by discussing severals ways of combining OIL and UPML. We analyze the meaning of each perspective and stress what enhancements would be necessary to improve their usefulness.