Proof Explanation in the DR-DEVICE System

N. Bassiliades, G. Antoniou, G. Governatori, “Proof Explanation in the DR-DEVICE System”, 1st International Conference on Web Reasoning and Rule Systems (RR 2007), Springer-Verlag, LNCS 4524, pp. 249-258, Innsbruck, Austria, 7-8 June 2007, 2007.

Trust is a vital feature for the Semantic Web: If users (humans and agents) are to use and integrate system answers, they must trust them. Thus, systems should be able to explain their actions, sources, and beliefs, and this issue is the topic of the proof layer in the design of the Semantic Web. This paper presents the design of a system for proof explanation on the Semantic Web, based on defeasible reasoning. The basis of this work is the DR-DEVICE system that is extended to handle proofs. A critical aspect is the representation of proofs in an XML language, which is achieved by a RuleML language extension.