What Is Ontology Merging? – A Category-Theoretical Perspective Using Pushouts

Pascal HitzlerPascal Hitzler, Markus KrötzschMarkus Krötzsch, Marc EhrigMarc Ehrig, York SureYork Sure

Pascal Hitzler, Markus Krötzsch, Marc Ehrig, York Sure
What Is Ontology Merging? – A Category-Theoretical Perspective Using Pushouts
In Pavel Shvaiko, Jerome Euzenat, Alain Leger, Deborah L. McGuinness, Holger Wache, eds., Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Contexts and Ontologies: Theory, Practice and Applications (C&0). Workshop at the 20th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AAAI-05, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 2005, Technical Report WS-05-01, 104-107, July 2005. AAAI Press, Menlo Park, California

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KurzfassungAbstract
Ontology merging describes the process of integrating two (or more) ontologies into a single one. How this is done best is a subject of ongoing research in the Semantic Web community. We propose a generic solution to the question, what the result of a merging should be in the ideal case. We will do this independent of a specific choice of ontology representation language, and thus provide a sort of blueprint for the development of algorithms applicable in practice. Our methods are taken from category theory. More precisely, we will argue that ontology merging is best captured by the notion of categorical pushout. Our paper is a first step towards the development of practically applicable algorithms.
Forschungsgruppe:Research Group: Wissensbasierte SystemeKnowledge-Based Systems

@inproceedings{HKES2005,
  author    = {Pascal Hitzler and Markus Kr{\"{o}}tzsch and Marc Ehrig and York
               Sure},
  title     = {What Is Ontology Merging? {\textendash} A Category-Theoretical
               Perspective Using Pushouts},
  editor    = {Pavel Shvaiko and Jerome Euzenat and Alain Leger and Deborah L.
               {McGuinness} and Holger Wache},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Contexts and
               Ontologies: Theory, Practice and Applications (C\&0). Workshop at
               the 20th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence,
               {AAAI-05,} Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 2005},
  series    = {Technical Report {WS-05-01}},
  publisher = {AAAI Press, Menlo Park, California},
  year      = {2005},
  month     = {July},
  pages     = {104-107}
}