SUO: Modular SUMO
Hi All,
Lately we at Teknowledge have been working on giving the SUMO a more
modular structure. The result of this reorganization appears in the latest
version of the SUMO source file (version 1.22), which is available at
http://ontology.teknowledge.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/SUO/Merge.txt.
If you look closely at this latest source file, you will see that the
ontology has been divided into subontologies whose interdependencies are
clearly specified. Each subontology is indicated by a section header, and
the dependencies between the subontologies are specified with statements of
the form ";; INCLUDES '<SUBONTOLOGY>'". These statements are found at the
beginning of each section. The dependencies between the various
subontologies can also be graphed informally as follows:
STRUCTURAL ONTOLOGY
+
|
|
+
BASE ONTOLOGY
/ | | \
/ | | \
/ | | \
/ | | \
/ | | \
+ + + +
SET/CLASS THEORY NUMBER TEMPORAL MEREOTOPOLOGY
| | |
| | |
| | |
+ + +
UNITS OF MEASURE PROCESSES +--+ OBJECTS
+ +
\ /
\ /
\ /
+ +
QUALITIES
Note that the "+" sign at the end of an arc indicates the direction of
dependency - the node near the "+" sign includes the subontology at the
other end of the arc. In some cases, the dependency is bidirectional, e.g.
when two subontologies use one another's concepts but are distinguished in
terms of topic. (If your email program mangles the graph above, you can
view it at the beginning of version 1.22 of the SUMO source file.)
As might be apparent from examining the graph above, the SUMO can now be
divided into three broad layers. The first, the core layer, is the BASE
ONTOLOGY plus the STRUCTURAL ONTOLOGY. This layer contains the most general
classes and relations of the ontology. The second layer, the middle layer,
consists of general, but well circumscribed theories. This layer contains
SET/CLASS THEORY, NUMERIC FUNCTIONS, UNITS OF MEASURE, TEMPORAL CONCEPTS,
and MEREOTOPOLOGY. The third layer of the ontology, the outer layer,
consists of three topically distinguished but interdependent sections:
PROCESSES, OBJECTS, and QUALITIES. This layer contains the most specific
content in the SUMO, and, thus, a user who does not want to commit to this
level of specificity is free to use the core plus middle layers or even just
the core layer.
Like the other SUMO work that we do here at Teknowledge, this is merely a
proposal. Let us know if you have general objections to this reorganization
of the content or if you have specific suggestions for improving it.
Thanks,
Ian