Supporting evolving ontologies on the internet

Abstract

The idea of a "Semantic Web" has created a lot of interest in the use of ontologies - formal descriptions of a part of the world - for describing the meaning of information on the web. However, when ontologies are used on the web, several problems appear: how can different ontologies be combined, what happens when they are changed, and how should they be adapted for new tasks. Those questions require the management of ontologies, their use and their evolution. This paper describes a research project that will investigate the management of ontologies in an web-based setting. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002.