State of the Art : Patterns in Ontology Engineering

This report brings together three different areas, Ontology Learning, ontology reuse and patterns in Computer Science in general. These three areas may not seem to have much in common but the report aims to illustrate the potential of bringing them together and to outline research possibilities in the field. Patterns have been successfully applied as a means for facilitating reuse and managing complexity in many areas. So far not many pattern approaches have emerged in Ontology Engineering especially when considering patterns for use with Ontology Learning systems or patterns to facilitate reuse of ontologies. This report is concluded by a discussion about future research possibilities in the field. Among other things more exchange between Ontology Engineering and Software Engineering is suggested. Researchers should draw from already existing knowledge when creating ontology patterns. The most interesting applications of ontology patterns in the future are to further facilitate Ontology Learning, by for example using the patterns as construction templates, and to facilitate reuse of ontologies by using the patterns to search and sort ontology libraries