A distance function for ontology concepts using extension of attributes' semantics

Abstract

This paper contains presentation of our work on creating robust methodology of ontology alignment. After detailed analysis of literature we have noticed that former approaches to this task covered only the surface of the issue, skipping the possible potential of including the semantics of basic building blocks of ontologies (which are concepts' attributes). We have noticed that attributes can alter their meanings when incorporated within different concepts and giving them explicit semantics, can be utilized as criterion for identifying correspondences between them. We claim that such holistic approach can improve the reliability of yielded results and eventually move the focus from finding alignments based on labels of concepts to mapping their semantic content. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.