Centrala begrepp
Ontologies inhabiting the middle architecture level must extend from a top-level ontology satisfying ISO/IEC 21838-1 requirements, be composed solely of content derived from the top-level, form a collection of orthogonal reference ontologies, and collectively exhaust the breadth areas specified for top-level ontologies.
Sammanfattning
This paper proposes a set of necessary and sufficient criteria for defining and evaluating ontologies that inhabit the middle architecture level. The authors begin by discussing the distinctions between top-level, middle-level, and domain-level ontologies, focusing on the scope and structure of these different ontology types.
The key constraints for middle architecture ontologies are:
TLO: Ontologies must extend from at least one top-level ontology satisfying the requirements in ISO/IEC 21838-1.
DELIMIT: Ontologies must be composed solely of content ultimately derived from the upper bound of the top-level ontology they extend.
ORTHOGONALITY: Ontologies must be a collection of reference ontologies with non-overlapping scope.
EXHAUST: Ontologies must collectively cover all the breadth areas specified for top-level ontologies in 21838-1.
The authors use examples like the Common Core Ontologies (CCO) and other prominent ontology suites to illustrate how these criteria can be applied to evaluate whether a given ontology or collection of ontologies inhabits the middle architecture. They argue that these constraints help distinguish middle-level ontologies from reference ontologies and domain ontologies, providing a rigorous foundation for this important ontology category.