Dependencies between ontology design parameters

Development and use of ontologies is increasing, but hampered by new challenges, such as determining which ontologies to reuse and which language to use. Ontology development methodologies provide scenarios, but they do not address the dependencies between the permutations at the different stages in the development process. To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of this endeavour, we group inputs into parameters and examine the dependencies between them. The parameters considered are: nine main purpose(s) of the ontology, reuse of the three main types of ontologies, eight different ways for bottom-up ontology development, eight ontology languages, and four types of reasoning services. All dependencies between these parameters have been assessed and useful combinations are motivated. The dependencies are due to, primarily, computational challenges and types of subject domain of the ontologies. This analysis is assessed against a set of ontologies and a survey among ontology developers, whose results concur with the theoretical assessment. Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.