Watson for Knowledge Reuse

Watson for Knowledge Reuse

The Watson plugin for knowledge reuse allows the developer of an ontology to query Watson to find existing descriptions of selected entities in the edited ontology, and to reuse (i.e. integrate) these descriptions into the currently edited ontology. It is an easy and integrated way to reuse knowledge that has been published on the (Semantic) Web. Indeed, with this plugin, it is possible to discover, inspect and reuse ontology statements originating from various online ontologies directly in the ontology engineering environment. In addition to the Watson Semantic Web search engine, the Watson plugin can now also interrogate the Cupboard ontology publication environment, and specific ontology spaces in this environment. Options are also available to keep track of the element reused, automatically linking entities from the local ontology to external ones.

Two main activities in the ontology life-cycle have been identified where the Watson plugin is relevant. First, at the beginning of the ontology development process, right after specification, the plugin can be used to create an initial ontology, integrating various elements from external ontologies concerning concepts and relations identified as core for the ontology to be developed. This initial, skeleton ontology can then be refined manually, or by integrating additional knowledge reused from Watson or other sources. Second, the Watson plugin can be very useful in identifying elements to add to an ontology during the ontology evolution process.