Authors: Jeffrey Parsons, Roman Lukyanenko
Tags: 2011, conceptual modeling
Domain ontologies can promote shared understanding of a domain using standardized constructs to represent domain semantics. Building upon this promise, libraries of domain-specific ontologies have been created. However, we argue that adopting any particular domain ontology can in fact hinder domain understanding and reduce the quality of data made available through a shared ontology. This paper examines unintended consequences of class-based ontological commitment and advocates instead an instance-and-property ontological foundation. The proposed approach can better inform the practice of information sharing and can, in participative domains, enable users to contribute higher quality information with fewer constraints.Read the full paper here: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-24574-9_28
