Ontology languages, XML and RDF

Contents
Definition of ontology
A quick survey to famous ontology languages
Graphical
Logic based

XML

XML, namespaces, XSLT

XSLT, XSL:FO

RDF

Ontology
An ontology is a hierarchically structured set of terms for
describing a domain that can be used as a skeletal foundation
for a knowledge base. (Swartout, Patil, Knight, Russ)
An ontology provides the means for describing explicitly the
conceptualization behind the knowledge represented in a
knowledge base. (Bernaras, Lasergoiti, Correra)
An ontology is a formal, explicit specification of a shared
conceptualization (Studer, Benjamins,Fensel)

(In)famous Layer Cake

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Semantics+reasoning

Relational Data
Data Exchange

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Ontology Languages

Wide variety of languages for Explicit Specification

Graphical notations
Semantic networks

Ontology Languages

Wide variety of languages for Explicit Specification

Graphical notations
Topic Maps

Ontology Languages

Wide variety of languages for Explicit Specification

Graphical notations
UML

Ontology Languages

Wide variety of languages for Explicit Specification

Graphical notations
RDF

Ontology Languages

Wide variety of languages for Explicit Specification

Logic based
Description Logics (e.g., OIL, DAML+OIL, OWL)
Rules (e.g., RuleML, LP/Prolog)
First Order Logic (e.g., KIF)

Ontology Languages

Wide variety of languages for

Explicit Specification
Logic based
Conceptual graphs

Ontology Languages
Wide variety of languages for Explicit Specification
Logic based
Conceptual graphs
(Syntactically) higher order logics (e.g., LBase)
Non-classical logics (e.g., Flogic, Non-Mon, modalities)
Bayesian/probabilistic/fuzzy

Degree of formality varies widely

Increased formality makes languages more amenable to
machine processing (e.g., automated reasoning)

Many languages use object oriented model based on:

Objects/Instances/Individuals
Elements of the domain of discourse
Equivalent to constants in FOL

Types/Classes/Concepts
Sets of objects sharing certain characteristics
Equivalent to unary predicates in FOL

Relations/Properties/Roles
Sets of pairs (tuples) of objects
Equivalent to binary predicates in FOL

Such languages are/can be:

Well understood
Formally specified
(Relatively) easy to use
Amenable to machine processing

Web Schema Languages

Existing Web languages extended to facilitate content
description
XML XML Schema (XMLS)
RDF RDF Schema (RDFS)

XMLS not an ontology language

Changes format of DTDs (document schemas) to be XML
Adds an extensible type hierarchy
Integers, Strings, etc.
Can define sub-types, e.g., positive integers

RDFS is recognisable as an ontology language

Classes and properties
Sub/super-classes (and properties)
Range and domain (of properties)

XML

Unformal definition:

XML is a markup language for representation of

documents which contain stuctured information.

Usages:
Data exchange (e.g. RSS, SOAP-envelope, ad hoc B2B
data exchange)
Web services
Data integration
Content publishing (single source multiple output)
Multimedia presentations (SMIL)

XML
Processing
Parsing
SAX: uses callback to notify occurences of each
element(e.g. StartDocument(), startElement(),
endDocument(), etc.)
DOM: Makes and object model of the document in memory
Remote procedure call: XML-RPC
SOAP (web serices)

Namespaces in XML
Namespaces avoids name conflicts
same tag for different things
same tag for different format
Example:
Document 1: <person>Tim Berners Lee</person>
Document 2: <person>Tim Berners Lee</person>

Namespaces in XML (cont.)

First try
<Document1:person> Tim Berners Lee </Document1:person>

Second try

<www.w3c.org:person>
Tim Berners Lee
</www.w3c.org:person>

Final solution

<foo xmlns:doc=www.w3c.org>
<doc:person> Tim Berners Lee </doc:person>

Namespace example
<html:html xmlns:html=... xmlns:math=...>
<html:title> George Soros </html:title>
<html:h2> Counting ... </html:h2>
<math:reln>
.....
</math:reln>
</html:html>

XML Schema: What is a Schema ?

A schema defines the content of a number of XMLdocuments

It defines

which elements and attributes can be included

the element content
the order of elements

Schema substitutes DTD

Think of classes (schema) and instances

(documents)

XML Schema

Schema is saved with postfix .xsd

A document is validated against a schema
A schema is a XML-document

XSL consist of

XSL

formatting objects
XSL Transformations (XSLT)

Formatting object: specifies presentation

XSLT: Transformations to arbitrary format
The idea of XSLT: traverse the tree and apply a specific
template at each node
Usage

XML to XML (i.e. SVG)

XML to (X)HTML
XML to text
XML to other formats (i.e CSV)

The XSLT language

Transformation in XML dialect
Example:
<xsl:transform xmlns:xsl=http://www.w3.org.>
<!-- templates rules go here-->
</xsl:transform>

A rule based language

Output handled by the enviroment

Terminology
Template rules consists of:
pattern
template

Pattern specifies nodes a template applies to

tag name
attributes
context

Template defines the transformations

XML Example
<book>
<title> chicken soup </title>
<section>
<title> Introduction </title>
<para> Ive always.. <para>
</section >
</book>

book

section

title

title

para

Template rule for book

<xsl:template match=book>
<body>
<h1> <xsl:value-of select=title/> </h1>
<xsl:apply-templates select=section>
</body>
</xsl:template>

Template rule for section

<xsl:template match=section>
<h2><xsl:value-of select=title/></h2>
<xsl:apply-template select=para/>
</xsl:template>

Formatting objects
Formatting represents common document elements
Example

block
external-graphic
table
simple-link

They are specified in XML

Attributes specify their appearance

Template rule with objects

<xsl:template match=section>
<fo:block font-size=12pt>
<xsl:value-of select=title/>
</fo:block>
<xsl:apply-template select=para/>
</xsl:template>

SMIL

SMIL

Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language

SMIL is an XML extension
used for multimedia presentations which integrate
streaming audio and video with images, text, etc.
enables to specify what should be presented when

SMIL

Introduction
About XML
XML Schema
XML
Namespaces
XSLT
Future

SMIL
<smil>
<head> </head>
<body>
<par>
<audio src="sound.rm"/>
<seq>
<textstream src="tobbe2.rt" region="videoregion"/>
<par>
<textstream src="tobbe.rt" region="textregion"/>
<video src="tobias.rm" region="videoregion"/>
</par>
</seq>
</par>
</body>
</smil>

RDF and RDFS

RDF stands for Resource Description Framework
It is a W3C candidate recommendation
(http://www.w3.org/RDF)
RDF is graphical formalism ( + XML syntax + semantics)
for representing metadata
for describing the semantics of information in a machineaccessible way

RDFS extends RDF with schema vocabulary, e.g.:

Class, Property
type, subClassOf, subPropertyOf
range, domain

The RDF Data Model

Statements are <subject, predicate, object> triples:
<Knuth,hasColleague,StanfordU>

Can be represented as a graph:

Knuth

hasColleague

StanfordU

Statements describe properties of resources

A resource is any object that can be pointed to by a URI:

a document, a picture, a paragraph on the Web;

http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/index.html
a book in the library, a real person (?)
isbn://5031-4444-3333

Properties themselves are also resources (URIs)

URIs
URI = Uniform Resource Identifier
"The generic set of all names/addresses that are short
strings that refer to resources"
URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) are a particular type of
URI, used for resources that can be accessed on the WWW
(e.g., web pages)
In RDF, URIs typically look like normal URLs, often with
fragment identifiers to point at specific parts of a
document:
http://www.somedomain.com/some/path/to/file#fragmentID

Linking Statements
The subject of one statement can be the object of another
Such collections of statements form a directed, labeled
graph
hasColleague

Knuth
hasColleague

Carole

STU
hasHomePage

http://www.stanford.edu

Note that the object of a triple can also be a literal (a

string)

How can RDF be implemented

Usally RDF/XML syntax
However other notations are possible
e.g. Notation3
<http://xyz.org/#Sean> <http://xyz.org/#name> "Sean"
<http://xyz.org/#a> <http://xyz.org/#b> <http://xyz.org/#c>

RDF Syntax

RDF has an XML syntax that has a specific meaning:

Every Description element describes a resource
Every attribute or nested element inside a Description is a property
of that Resource
We can refer to resources by using URIs
<Description about="some.uri/person/knuth">
<hasColleague resource="some.uri/STU/Math"/>
</Description>
<Description about="some.uri/STU/Math">
<hasHomePage>http://www.stanford.edu/~Math</hasHomePage>
</Description>
<Description about="some.uri/person/carole">
<hasColleague resource="some.uri/STU/Math"/>
</Description>

Rdf type

RDF predifined property

Its value a resource that represent a category or class
Its subject Instance of that category or class

prefix ex:, URI: http://www.example.org/terms

Rdf containers

Bag: (A resource having type rdf:Bag)

Represents an unordered list of resources or literals
Duplicated values are prermitted
Sequence: (A resource having type rdf:Seq)
Represents ordered list of resources or literal
Duplicated values are permitted
Alternatives: (A resource having type rdf:Alt)
Represents group of resources or literals that are alternatives

Bag example

RDF reification
association of a statement and a specific resource
representing the statement
used to make statements about statements
Vocabulary:
type rdf:Statement
properties
rdf:subject
rdf:predicate
rdf:object

Reification example
The member of project opposed the statement that
http://www.daml.org/projects/#11 is an NSF founded
project

RDF graphs

RDF Schema (RDFS)

RDF gives a formalism for meta data annotation, and a way
to write it down in XML, but it does not give any special
meaning to vocabulary such as subClassOf or type
Interpretation is an arbitrary binary relation

RDF Schema allows you to define vocabulary terms and the

relations between those terms
it gives extra meaning to particular RDF predicates and
resources
this extra meaning, or semantics, specifies how a term
should be interpreted

RDFS Examples
RDF Schema terms (just a few examples):

Class
Property
type
subClassOf
range
domain

These terms are the RDF Schema building blocks

(constructors) used to create vocabularies:
<Person,type,Class>
<hasColleague,type,Property>
<Professor,subClassOf,Person>
<Carole,type,Professor>
<hasColleague,range,Person>
<hasColleague,domain,Person>

RDFS is about creating taxonomies

Inferences in RDF and RDFS

Inferences:
Yangtze is ariver
Yangtze has a length of 6300 Kilometers

Desire for more expressiveness

Two classes same concept:
Equivalent classes: Airplane and Plane

Cardinality constraints:
Ocean has one maxDepth

RDF/RDFS Liberality
No distinction between classes and instances (individuals)
<Species,type,Class>
<Lion,type,Species>
<Leo,type,Lion>

Properties can themselves have properties

<hasDaughter,subPropertyOf,hasChild>
<hasDaughter,type,familyProperty>

No distinction between language constructors and

ontology vocabulary, so constructors can be applied to
themselves/each other
<type,range,Class>
<Property,type,Class>
<type,subPropertyOf,subClassOf>

RDFS semantic using logic

Problems with RDFS

RDFS too weak to describe resources in sufficient detail
No localised range and domain constraints
Cant say that the range of hasChild is person when
applied to persons and elephant when applied to elephants
No existence/cardinality constraints
Cant say that all instances of person have a mother that is
also a person, or that persons have exactly 2 parents
No transitive, inverse or symmetrical properties
Cant say that isPartOf is a transitive property, that hasPart
is the inverse of isPartOf or that touches is symmetrical

Difficult to provide reasoning support

No native reasoners for non-standard semantics
May be possible to reason via FO axiomatisation

RDF(S) tools
Read RDF data
Parsers: Jena, Redland, SWI-Prolog
Validators: W3C RDF validation service
Editors: IsaViz, RDF Author, RDFEd, InferEd

Store RDF data (XML format, tripples or relational/oo DB)

RSSDB, RDFLib

Use RDF data (applications, RSS news, etc.)

Manipulate RDF data (inference, query, etc.)
Jena RDQL, etc.
Example:
SELECT ?person, ?knows
WHERE (?x <http://xmlns.com/foap/knows> ?z),
(?x <http://xmlns.com/foap/name> ?person),
(?z <http://xmlns.com/foap/name> ?knows)

Web Ontology Language Requirements

Desirable features identified for Web Ontology Language:
Extends existing Web standards
Such as XML, RDF, RDFS

Easy to understand and use

Should be based on familiar KR idioms

Formally specified
Of adequate expressive power
Possible to provide automated reasoning support

From RDF to OWL

Two languages developed to satisfy above requirements

OIL: developed by group of (largely) European researchers (several
from EU OntoKnowledge project)
DAML-ONT: developed by group of (largely) US researchers (in DARPA
DAML programme)

Efforts merged to produce DAML+OIL

Development was carried out by Joint EU/US Committee on Agent
Markup Languages
Extends (DL subset of) RDF

DAML+OIL submitted to W3C as basis for standardisation

Web-Ontology (WebOnt) Working Group formed
WebOnt group developed OWL language based on DAML+OIL
OWL language now a W3C Candidate Recommendation
Will soon become Proposed Recommendation

OWL Language
Three species of OWL
OWL full is union of OWL syntax and RDF
OWL DL restricted to FOL fragment ( DAML+OIL)
OWL Lite is easier to implement subset of OWL DL

Semantic layering
OWL DL OWL full within DL fragment
DL semantics officially definitive

OWL DL based on SHIQ Description Logic

In fact it is equivalent to SHOIN(Dn) DL

OWL DL Benefits from many years of DL research

Well defined semantics

Formal properties well understood (complexity, decidability)
Known reasoning algorithms
Implemented systems (highly optimised)

(In)famous Layer Cake

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Semantics+reasoning

Relational Data
Data Exchange

?
?

Relationship between layers is not clear

OWL DL extends DL subset of RDF