# Presentation: 136101

## Using Ontologies in the Metatomix ERI Platform

## Introduction

- Ontologies are a standards-based representation of Information Models
- Technology comes from Knowledge Management and Semantic Web fields
- Ontologies can be used in an Integrated Justice application to complement GJXDM
- Enhance user experience
- Develop application faster
- Robust in the face of change

## Agenda

- Definition – What is RDF?
- Definition – What is an ontology?
- Why develop an ontology?
- What about XML & RDF?
- Using Ontologies in the mtx ERI Platform
- How do you define an ontology?
- Ontologies and GJXDM

## RDF – Resource Description Framework

- Defines a data model as a series of resources and their inter-relations.
- Model consists of a set of statements
- Each statement contains a subject, predicate and object.
**http://m3t4.com/Address#z_72716 -> http://m3t4.com/Address#townName -> “Bentonville”**
- All resources defined using unique URI’s
- Objects can be resource or literal string
- Resources can be both subjects and objects, allowing for easy linking between statements.
- Machine-readable

**http://m3t4.com/Address#*****postalCode***** **

**http://m3t4.com/Address#*****townName***

**http://m3t4.com/Address#a_1**

**http://m3t4.com/Address#*****z_72716***** **

**“****Bentonville”**

**http://m3t4.com/Address#a_2**

**http://m3t4.com/Address#*****postalCode****** ***

## What is an Ontology?

- An ontology is an explicit definition of a domain
- Concepts
- Properties and attributes of concepts
- Constraints on properties and concepts
- Individuals or instances
- An ontology defines
- A common vocabulary
- A shared understanding

## A Food and Wine Ontology

## Common Ontology Examples

- Taxonomies on the web
- Yahoo categories
- On-line shopping catalogs
- Amazon product catalog
- Domain specific standard terminology
- Unified Medical Language System (UMLS)
- UNSPSC – Products and services terminology
- Joint Battlespace Infosphere
- BPMO - Business Process Modeling Ontology
- FEF – Financial Exchange Framework

## Why Develop an Ontology?

- To share a common understanding of the structure of information
- Among people
- Among software components within (and external to) a system
- To enable reuse of domain knowledge
- Avoid re-inventing the wheel
- Introduce standards
- Share ontologies among different domains
- To make domain assumptions explicit
- Simple to update and extend domain knowledge
- Easier to understand and update legacy data
- To separate domain knowledge from the operational knowledge
- Configuration based on constraints (e.g. UI can format currency)
- To enable Inferencing and Reasoning on data
- Understanding inter-relationships among data allows software to reason against the data to infer new information (If A “is a” B and B “is a” C then A “is a” C)

## What about XML & RDF?

- XML
- Syntax for structured docs, but no semantic constraints
- XML Schema
- Language for restricting XML doc structure and includes datatypes
- RDF
- Data model for objects and relations between them; provides semantics for the data model
- Machine-readable metadata
- RDF Schema
- Vocabulary for describing properties and classes of RDF resources
- OWL
- Adds more vocabulary for defining full ontologies:
- Relations between classes
- Constraints (Cardinality, necessary/sufficient, etc)
- Equivalence
- Rich property typing
- Logic constructs (Description Logic) to allow inferencing and reasoning
- “(OWL)... is designed for use by applications that need to process the content of information instead of just presenting information to humans. OWL facilitates greater machine interpretability of Web content than that supported by XML, RDF, and RDF Schema (RDF-S) by providing additional vocabulary along with a formal semantics.” – W3C Recommendation

## Using Ontologies in the mtx ERI Platform

- A centralized place to define all concepts and associated properties for a given application
- Ontologies are stored in the Metadata Repository
- Carries both schema (ontologies) and data (instances)
- Supports interfaces for data entry and query
- They are referenced by:
- Agents, ports, services in the platform – incoming data gets mapped to an Ontology
- Rules Engine knowledge base – inference, case-based enrichment, done via ontology-based rule sets
- Dashboard Server – Panels, forms, tables & trees generated from ontologies and instance data
- They can also reference:
- Other external Ontologies on the web

## How Do You Define an Ontology?

- Define terms in the domain and the relations among them
- Concepts in the domain are objects **(Classes)**
- Arrange concepts in a hierarchy **(Sub-Class / Super-Class)**
- Define attributes of the classes **(Properties)** and any constraints on their values and relations
- Define individuals – fill in slot values **(Instances)**
- Object model allows for inheritance, imports, typing
- Explicit statements, not buried in code
- All users of model use properties and constraints
- Separates business logic from model

## Ontologies and GJXDM

- No need to create a relational database to represent/store GJXDM data.
- Manage data from non-GJXDM sources and explicitly define mapping
- Changes can be made to the ontology as changes are made to the GJXDM.
- Gives end users better query, UI, inferencing capabilities.

## Part of the GJXDM Ontology

## GJXDM Ontology Classes

**GJXDM Ontology Classes**

## GJXDM Ontology Individuals

**GJXDM Ontology Individuals**

## Leveraging Ontologies

- Rules
- Pattern matching of defined structures
- Automatic conversion from RDF to facts
- Inferencing
- Metadata Repository
- Ontologies defined using OWL and RDF.
- Natural fit for Metadata Repository
- Data Providers/Consumers
- Ontology-based configurable access to page content
- Frees UI designer from details of model, repository, programming decisions
- Allows formatting & input checking based on types

## Ontologies - Conclusion

- Builds on everything GJXDM has been doing so far
- Provides a common centralized place to define and manage knowledge and information
- Abstracts different components of the domain to allow developers & users to work in a dynamic environment

## Boston

- 404 Wyman Street
- Suite 320
- Waltham, MA 02451
- P: (781) 907-6700

**Memphis**
- 88 Union Avenue
- Suite 800
- Memphis, TN 38103
- P: (901) 261-8900

**London**
- 53 Lafone Street
- Butlers Warf
- London, SE1 2LX
- P: 44 0207 378 9600

- Email for further information: **info@metatomix.com**
- Visit our website at **www.metatomix.com**

**Dallas**
- 1950 Stetson Freeway
- Suite 5001
- Dallas, TX  75207
- P: (214) 800-8787