An approach to conceptual ontology integration with an ontology repository and a rule base

There exist a lot of ontologies that together can enrich knowledge within a domain or cross several related domains; and can provide advanced services based on these integrated ontologies. However, the concepts are often described differently in various ontologies, which create problems for the ontology integration. In this paper, an approach of an ontology repository and a rule base is proposed to handle the various concepts descriptions. A new mapping process is proposed. The results of the mappings are ontology joints, which are ontologies composed of sets of assertions about the concepts validated in the original ontologies. Metadata are used for the description of ontology and ontology joints. A rule base of how to interpret the concepts by applying the metadata is created after the mappings. Ontologies and the ontology joints in the repository can be reused for further ontology integration. Human interaction is possible in the approach.