AN EXTENSION OF AN ENVIRONMENT FOR BUILDING/USING ONTOLOGIES 'HOZO' TOWARD PRACTICAL ONTOLOGY ENGINEERING

摘要

Through the spread of ontological engineering, many technologies and software tool for ontology construction were developed. By using them, many ontologies have been constructed in various domains. On these backgrounds, we have been developing an ontology engineering environment "Hozo" and using the tool to construct a lot of ontologies in various domains such as medical science, bioinformatics, nano-technology, education, environment engineering and so on. Through these practical experiences, we found out many issues concerning ontology construction and have solved them by enhancing the ontological theories and technical functions of Hozo. The number of items of improvements amounts to 67 in both theoretical and practical issues. This paper focuses on the practical issues and presents the improved functions of Hozo. Then, we consider how those functions have been useful for ontology construction through actual uses in six ontology development projects and evaluation experiment of usability of Hozo. Through these extensions, usability and reliability of Hozo have been improved. It also would contribute to development of other ontology engineering environments.