Object-Oriented Modelling of RDF Schema Ontologies

E. Kontopoulos, K. Kravari, N. Bassiliades, “Object-Oriented Modelling of RDF Schema Ontologies”, 11th Panhellenic Conference on Informatics (PCI 2007), pp. 479-489, Patras, Greece, 18-20 May, 2007.

11th Panhellenic Conference on Informatics (PCI 2007), pp. 479-489, Patras, Greece, 18-20 May, 2007.

Ontologies are the primary knowledge representation tool in the Semantic Web and are mainly used in defining common vocabularies, used in the exchange of information among Semantic Web applications. In the process of encoding ontologies, appropriate ontology languages are applied; such a language is RDF Schema, one of the dominant standards. A variety of commercial and educational tools that address the tasks of developing and manipulating RDF Schema ontologies has been developed. None of them, however, is specifically destined for the inexperienced Semantic Web user. In this paper we present RDFSbuilder, a Java-built visual authoring tool for developing RDF Schema ontologies. The system helps users to develop their model quickly and efficiently, without being concerned about syntax or semantic errors. Furthermore, it adopts a purely object-oriented representation of the RDF Schema model, emphasizing on functional flexibility and simplicity of use. As a result, the model produced is easy to understand and equally easy to handle.