Talk "DOL - the distributed ontology, specification and modeling language"

by Till Mossakowski

Thu, 09 January 2014 at 11:30 am in Theddingworth near Leicester, UK

Joint work with: Oliver Kutz, Mihai Codescu, Christoph Lange

Abstract: There is a diversity of ontology languages in use, among them OWL, RDF, OBO,Common Logic, and F-logic. Modeling languages such as UML, entity-relationship diagrams and object role modelling provide bridges from ontology modelling to applications, e.g. in software engineering and databases. Also in specification (for formal software and hardware development), a variety of languages is used, e.g. VDM, Z, B, CASL, various temporal logics, higher-order logics etc. Let us abbreviate ontologies, specifications and models as OSMs. Another diversity appears at the level of OSM modularity and relations among OSMs. There is OSM matching and alignment, module extraction, interpolation, OSM linked by bridges, interpretation and refinement, and combination of OSMs. The Distributed Ontology, Modelling and Specification Language (DOL) aims at providing a unified meta language for handling this diversity. In particular, DOL provides constructs for "as-is" use of OSMs formulated in a specific logical language, OSMs formalised in heterogeneous logics, modular OSMs, and links between OSMs. This work sketches the design of the DOL language and its institution-independent semantics. DOL will be submitted as a proposal within the (Ontology, Specificationa and Modeling Integration and Interoperability, see http://www.ontoiop.org) standardisation activity of the Object Management Group (OMG). A correspondingrequest for proposals has been issued by the OMG in December 2013, available at http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/2013-12-02