Using visualization and a collaborative glossary to support ontology conceptualization

Abstract

Although there are tools that support the ontology construction, such tools do not necessarily take heed to the conceptualization phase in its need of execution resources. The objective of this paper is to present the use of visualization and collaborative glossary as an effective means of enhancing the conceptualization phase of the ontology construction. These resources are being applied through the process named ONTOP (ONTOlogy conceptualization Process) which is supported by the ONTOP-Tool that provides an iterative way to defining the collaborative glossary and uses a visual metaphor to facilitate the identification of the ontology components. Once the components are defined, it is possible to generate an OWL file that can be used as an input to other ontology editors. The paper also presents an application of the both process and the tool, which emphasizes the contributions of this proposal. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.