Reconciling implicit and evolving ontologies for semantic interoperability

This paper addresses current appraoches to the goal of semantic interoperability on the web and presents new research directions. We critically discuss the existing approaches, including RDF, SHOW, PROMPT and Chimaera, and identify the most effective elements of each. In our opinion, the ability of these primarily closed soluations to succeed on a global web scale is limited. In general, a unilateral solution to the problem on a global level seems unlikely in the foreseeable future. We review and contrast our own rsearch experiments AReXS and CASA and suggest that as yet unaddressed issues should be considered, such as recononciling implicit ontologies and evolving ontologies and task-oriented analysis. We also consider the role of semantic interoperation in multi-agent systems and describe strategies for achieving this via the ROADMAP methodology, with emphasis on building and assuring knowledge models