Supporting Domain Experts to Construct Conceptual Ontologies: A Holistic Approach

Abstract

A recent trend in ontology engineering research aims at encouraging the active participation
of domain experts in the ontology creation process. Ontology construction methodologies together
with appropriate tools and technologies, such as controlled natural languages, semantic wikis,
intelligent user interfaces and social computing, are being proposed to enable the direct input from
domain experts and to minimize the dependency on knowledge engineers at every step of ontology
development. The time is ripe for consolidating methodological and technological advancements to
create intuitive ontology engineering tools which can make Semantic Web technologies usable by a
wide variety of people without formal knowledge engineering skills. A novel, holistic approach to
facilitate the involvements of domain experts in the ontology authoring process is presented here. It
integrates (i) an ontology construction methodology, (ii) the use of a controlled natural language, and
(iii) appropriate tool support. The integrated approach is illustrated with the design, implementation
and evaluation of ROO - a unique ontology authoring tool which combines intelligent techniques to
assist domain experts in constructing ontologies. The benefits and limitations of the proposed
approach are analyzed based on user studies with ROO. A broader discussion is provided pointing at
issues to be taken into account when assisting the involvement of domain experts in ontology
construction.