12.8 Validating and Modifying the Ontology 313
>1</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<rdfs:subClassOf>
</owl:Class>
Summary
- Properties can be classified in several ways:
- Attribute vs. relationship
- Property values are data or resources
- Intrinsic vs. extrinsic
- Subclassification and property values can sometimes be used interchange-
ably. Choosing between the two design possibilities can be difficult.
- One should specify the domain and range of every property. They should
be neither too general nor too specific.
- Cardinality constraints are important for ensuring the integrity of the know-
ledge base.
- Depending on the ontology language, one can specify other constraints,
but these are less important.
12.8 Validating and Modifying the Ontology
Validation is the process to determine whether a work product satisfies its
requirements. One should always validate an ontology, but the amount of
effort one should devote to validation depends on the size of the community
being served by the ontology. Validation can be performed after the ontology
has been developed, but it is usually better to validate while the ontology is
being built. There are several techniques that can be used to validate an
ontology:
- Verify that the purpose has been fulfilled.
- Check that all usage examples can be expressed in the ontology.
- Create examples from the ontology and check that they are meaningful.
