The document discusses challenges in collaborative ontology building and proposes package-based description logics (P-DL) as an ontology language to address these challenges. P-DL allows for modular ontologies with localized terminology and semantics. This enables partial ontology reuse and selective knowledge sharing while avoiding inconsistencies. Efficient collaborative ontology building tools can be realized with the modularity and access control provided by P-DL.

1. Towards Collaborative Environments for Ontology Construction and Sharing Jie Bao, Doina Caragea and Vasant Honavar Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory Computer Science Department Iowa State University, Ames, IA USA 50011 Email: {baojie, dcaragea, honavar}@cs.iastate.edu May 15, 2006

11. P-DL P 3 protected 1. Whole ontology consists of a set of packages 2. Packages are organized in hierarchies 3. Terms and axioms are defined in packages with scope limitations P 1 P 2 public private P 1 P 2 public private

15. SLM: example(TBC) A schedule ontology Hidden: details of the activity Visible: there is an activity Hidden semantics may still be used in reasoning

17. Local Interpretation Ontology: Carnivore Animal Interpretation: In any world that conforms to the ontology, for any instance x of Carnivore, x is also an instance of Animal . Carnivore I P Animal I P Δ I P eats I P goofy I P

18. Local and Global Interpretations Animal I Carnivore I Dog I I PetDog I goofy I Pet I eats I g g g g g g g foo I g DogFood I g Animal I Carnivore I Dog I goofy I foo I Dog I Pet I PetDog I pluto I eats I 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 DogFood I 2 Animal I 2 =

22. The INDUS DAG Editor The COB Editor