Involving domain experts in authoring OWL ontologies

Abstract

The process of authoring ontologies requires the active involvement of domain experts who should lead the process, as well as providing the relevant conceptual knowledge. However, most domain experts lack knowledge modelling skills and find it hard to follow logical notations in OWL. This paper presents ROO, a tool that facilitates domain experts' definition of ontologies in OWL by allowing them to author the ontology in a controlled natural language called Rabbit. ROO guides users through the ontology construction process by following a methodology geared towards domain experts' involvement in ontology authoring, and exploiting intelligent user interfaces techniques. An evaluation study has been conducted comparing ROO against another popular ontology authoring tool. Participants were asked to create ontologies based on hydrology and environment modelling scenarios related to real tasks at the mapping agency of Great Britain. The study is discussed, focusing on the usability and usefulness of the tool, and the quality of the resultant ontologies. © 2008 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.