Dynamic is-a hierarchy generation system based on user's viewpoint

Abstract

In ontological theories, is-a hierarchy must represent the essential property of things and hence should be single-inheritance, since the essential property of things cannot exist in multiple. However, we cannot avoid multiperspective issues when we build an ontology because the user often want to understand things from their own viewpoints. Especially, in the Semantic Web, the variety of users causes the variety of viewpoints to capture target domains. In order to tackle this multi-perspective issue, we adopt an approach of dynamically generating is-a hierarchies according to the viewpoints of users from an ontology using single-inheritance. This article discusses a framework for dynamic is-a hierarchy generation with ontological consideration on is-a hierarchies generated by it. Then, the author shows its implementation as a new function of Hozo and its applications to a medical ontology for dynamically generation of is-a hierarchies of disease. Through the function, users can understand an ontology from a variety of viewpoints. As a result, it could contribute to comprehensive understanding of the ontology and its target world. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.