Approximate metrics for autonomous semantic web ontology merging

The Semantic Web is the next step in the Internet's evolution. The existing Web contains a considerable amount of data; most is weakly structured. Broadly accessing the data is difficult. Previously unseen data cannot be easily autonomously understood with out a consistent semantic framework. Viewing and organizing data using shared ontologies is essential for both sharing data and for web site interoperability. Full autonomous or semi-autonomous discovery and development of ontologies is the only feasible way to transition the existing Web to the Semantic Web. One strategy is to merge existing, vetted ontologies. The pre-merger ontologies would likely be similar in some respects and different in others. When comparing ontologies, a necessarily imprecise, approximate similarity metric will be necessary. Possibly, soft computing will provide useful tools.