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SUMMARY
Sources of semi-structured, overlapping, and semantically-related data on the Web are currently proliferating at a phenomenal rate. This development has created an unprecedented demand for more powerful and flexible information systems (ISs). This new generation of ISs will need to integrate incomplete and semi-structured information from heterogeneous sources, employ rich and flexible schemas, and answer queries by taking into account both knowledge and data
Ontology-based data access has recently been proposed as an architectural principle for such systems. However, such systems suffer from several critical problems. Database theory and practice can provide partial solutions to these problems. Database techniques alone do not, however, satisfy all the requirements for an ontology-based IS.
The project team believes that the next generation of ontology-based ISs should be based on a synthesis and an extension of ontology and database systems and techniques. In meeting this ambitions goal, however, a number of challenging fundamental problems must be solved. The project team hopes to overcome these challenges and help develop the next generation of information systems.
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SOLUTIONS
- Providing data handling capabilities similar to current Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS), but with schemas that are rich, flexible, and tightly integrated with the data
- Unifying ontology and dependency languages in a coherent theoretical framework
- Identifying fragments of the IS framework that are likely to exhibit robust scalability but can still support realistic use cases
- Devising effective algorithmic techniques that can form the basis of practical ISs
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LINK: http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/projects/ExODA/
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