Masterclass "Ontology-Driven Conceptual Modeling with Applications" Giancarlo Guizzardi Ontologies and Conceptual Modeling Research Group (NEMO) Computer Science Department, Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES), Vitória, Brazil guizzardi@loa-cnr.it; gguizzardi@gmail.com http://www.loa-cnr.it/Guizzardi/ In cooperation with Freeband A-MUSE (BSIK 03025) and SIKS, the Dutch Research School for Information and Knowledge Systems 1. Course Short Description The main objective of this course is to introduce students and researchers to the theory and practice of advanced conceptual modeling in general, and domain ontology engineering, in particular, through the application of a new emerging discipline named Ontology-Driven Conceptual Modeling. Conceptual Modeling is a discipline of great importance to several areas in Computer Science such as Software and Knowledge Engineering, Enterprise Modeling, Information Systems Design, Database Design, Knowledge Management, among many others. In particular, what is termed a Domain Ontology in Computer Science is a special type of Conceptual Model. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the development and use of domain ontologies, strongly motivated by the Semantic Web initiative. However, as we demonstrate in this course, an approach for ontology representation uniquely based on the modeling languages adopted in the Semantic Web (e.g., OWL, RDF) is insufficient to address a number of semantic interoperability problems that arise in open and dynamic scenarios (such as, for instance, the Semantic Web itself). We then show that these languages should be complemented by a language and methodology based on a Foundational Ontology, i.e., a domain-independent common-sense theory constructed by aggregating suitable contributions from areas such as philosophical ontology and logics, cognitive science and linguistics. In this course we give an introduction tofa theoretically well-founded conceptual modeling language designed to meet the desiderata for a general conceptual modeling and ontological engineering language. Moreover, we present a number of advanced conceptual modeling techniques (such as design patterns and methodological guidelines) based on the foundations of this language and show how they can be used to solve some classical and recurrent conceptual modeling problems that (re)appear in concrete application scenarios. 2. Topics to be Covered First Day (March, 4th) 09:00 -12:00 – Part I Welcome (15 minutes) Language Evaluation and Design (1 hour) - Elements of Language Design – what constitutes a modeling language? - Language Evaluation and (Re)Design – Criteria for Evaluating (designing) quality in a modeling language - What is Conceptual Modeling? - A brief Historical Overview Coffee Break (15 minutes) Ontology (1.5 hour) - Ontology in Philosophy - Ontology in Computer and Information Sciences - Ontology, Conceptual Modeling and Metamodelling – What is the difference between and Ontology, a Metamodel and a Conceptual Model? - The criteria for a Theoretically Well-Founded General Conceptual Modeling Language - Why philosophical ontology, cognitive science, philosophical logics and linguistics are fundamental for conceptual modeling and domain ontology engineering in computer science - Why The Semantic Web languages do not satisfy the aforementioned criteria 12:00 -13:30 - Lunch 13:30 -16:30 – Part II Types and Taxonomic Structures (1 hour and 15 minutes) - Theory of Types: Philosophical and Psychological Foundations - An Ontologically Well-Founded Profile for modeling types and their taxonomic relations in Conceptual Modeling - Role Modeling - Comments on Psychological Evidence and Formal Characterization - An Ontological Design Pattern for Role Modeling - Examples of use of this Design Pattern Coffee Break (15 minutes) Parts and Wholes (1.5 hour) - Formal Theories of Parts - Problems with Mereology as a Theory of Conceptual Parts - Secondary Properties of Part-Whole relations - Part-Whole Theories in Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences - The Problem of Transitivity Revisited - Visual Patterns for Addressing the Problem of Transitivity in Complex Part-Whole relations - Parts of Roles Second Day (March, 5th) 09:00 -12:00 – Part III Welcome (15 minutes) Intrinsic, Relational Properties and Conceptual Spaces (1 hour and 15 minutes) - The Problem of Universals - Basic Ontological Categories - Conceptual Spaces - An Ontological Foundation for Conceptual Modeling most Basic Concepts: Attributes, Associations, Weak Entities and Datatypes - Qua Individuals Coffee Break (15 minutes) Preliminary Works on the Extensions of the Original Foundational Ontology (1.5 hours) - An Ontology of Situations and Temporal Entities - An Ontology of Social Concepts: Goals, Norms, Future Actions (Appointments), Plans, Social Binding Relations (e.g., Dependency, Delegation) 12:00 -13:30 - Lunch 13:30 -16:30 – Part IV Examples in Concrete Application Domains (3 hours) - At this part of the course relevant fragments of domain ontologies modeled in this approach will be presented. Examples can include ontologies in the Health Domain (Eletrocardiography), Petroleum, Collaboration, Software Engineering, Software and Enterprise Service Management (ITIL). The focus is on demonstrating a number of modeling cases in reality which cannot be expressed in languages such as standard UML, ER, OWL and RDF. 3. Bibliography The course is chiefly based on the material presented in the work entitled “Ontological Foundations for Structural Conceptual Models”, which can be accessed online in the following address: http://www.telin.nl/index.cfm?type=doc&handle=55835&language=nl. Additional Material can be found in the following articles among others available online at http://www.loa-cnr.it/Guizzardi/: - Guizzardi, G.; Wagner, G., “Using the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) as a Foundation for General Conceptual Modeling Languages”, Theory and Application of Ontologies, Roberto Poli (editor), Volume 2, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2008. - Guizzardi, G.; Falbo, R., Guizzardi, R.S.S., Grounding Software Domain Ontologies in the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO): The case of the ODE Software Process Ontology”, 11th Iberoamerican Workshop on Requirements Engineering and Software Environments, Recife, Brazil, 2008. - Guizzardi, R.S.S.; Guizzardi, G. “Integrating Agent-Oriented Modeling Languages Using a Foundational Ontology”, in Social Modeling for Requirements Engineering, P. Giorgini, N. Maiden, J. Mylopoulos, E. Yu (eds.), Cooperative Information Systems Series, MIT Press, 2008. - Guizzardi, G., “Modal Aspects of Object Types and Part-Whole Relations and the de re/de dicto distinction”, 19th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAISE’07), Trondheim, 2007, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4495, Springer-Verlag. - Guizzardi, G., “On Ontology, ontologies, Conceptualizations, Modeling Languages, and (Meta)Models”, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, Databases and Information Systems IV, Olegas Vasilecas, Johan Edler, Albertas Caplinskas (Editors), ISBN 978-1-58603-640-8, IOS Press, Amsterdam, 2007. - J.P.A. Almeida, G. Guizzardi, “On the Foundation for Roles in RM-ODP: Contributions from Conceptual Modelling”, 4th International Workshop on ODP for Enterprise Computing (WODPEC 2007), IEEE International EDOC Conference (EDOC 2007), Maryland, USA, IEEE Computer Society Press. - Guarino, N.; Guizzardi, G., “In the Defense of Ontological Foundations for Conceptual Modeling”, Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, Vol.18, No. 1, ISSN 0905-0167, 2006. - Guizzardi, G. “The Role of Foundational Ontology for Conceptual Modeling and Domain Ontology Representation”, Companion Paper for the Keynote Speech, 7th International Baltic Conference on Databases and Information Systems, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2006. - Guizzardi, G.; Ferreira Pires, L.; van Sinderen, M. “Ontology-Based Evaluation and Desing of Domain-Specific Visual Modeling Languages”, Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems Development (ISD), Karlstad, Sweden, 2005. - Guizzardi, G.; Wagner, G. “Towards Ontological Foundations for Agent Modeling Concepts using UFO”, Agent-Oriented Information Systems (AOIS), selected revised papers of the Sixth International Bi-Conference Workshop on Agent-Oriented Information Systems. Lecture Notes on Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) 3508, Springer-Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-540-25911-2. - Guizzardi, G.; Wagner, G. “Some Applications of a Unified Foundational Ontology in Business Modeling”, Ontologies and Business Systems Analysis, Michael Rosemann and Peter Green (Eds.), IDEA Publisher, 2005. - Guizzardi, G.; Wagner, G.; Guarino, N.; van Sinderen, M. “An Ontologically Well-Founded Profile for UML Conceptual Models”, 16th International Conference on Advances in Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE), Latvia, 2004. Springer-Verlag , Berlin, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3084, ISBN 3-540-22151-4. - Guizzardi, G.; Wagner, G.; Herre, H. “On the Foundations of UML as an Ontology Representation Language”, 14th International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management (EKAW), Northamptonshire, UK, 2004. Springer-Verlag , Berlin, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3257 Springer 2004, ISBN 3-540-23340-7. - Guizzardi, G.; Herre, H.; Wagner G.. "Towards Ontological Foundations for UML Conceptual Models", 1st International Conference on Ontologies, Databases and Application of Semantics (ODBASE'02), Irvine, USA, 2002. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2519, ISBN 3-540-00106-9. - Guizzardi, G.; Herre, H.; Wagner G.. "On the General Ontological Foundations of Conceptual Modeling", 21st International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER-2002), Tampere, Finland, 2002. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2503, ISBN 3-540-44277-4.