September 25, 2008

Upper Mapping and

Binding Exchange Layer

UMBEL: A Lightweight Subject Reference Structure for the Web

Ontolog Forum

Michael K. Bergman

Editor, UMBELCEO, Zitgist LLC

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UMBEL is . . .

. . . a lightweight reference structure for placing Web content and data in context with other data.

. . . comprised of about 20,000 subject concepts and their relationships — with one another and with external

vocabularies and named entities.

. . . free, non-commercial and open source under a Creative Commons Share Alike ver. 3.0 license.

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Early Objectives

Provide subject matter “glue” to the semantic Web what is content about ?

Build from, leverage the success of user-generated content (e.g., Wikipedia)

Keep flat; no structure, no concept relationships

But:

Only first objective withstood diligence

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Later Observations

Coherence essential for use as a reference framework

Coherence: Internally, logically consistent Adequate, testable representation of the world as we know it

Current UGC (user-generated content) lacks structural coherence

Flat was not desirable; structure brings other benefits (search, discovery, inference)

Thus:

What should be the basis of this coherent structure?

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Candidates Investigated

Topic Maps

SUMO

BFO

PROTON

Library classification systems

Wikipedia, DMOZ, etc.

WordNet

Gellish

DOLCE

Eventual choice: Cyc

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Derived from OpenCyc

. . . 90% reduction

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UMBEL is a Meta Layer for Metadata

Provides a standard set of subjects for tieing in content and datasets

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UMBEL is Middleware

UMBEL ontology is based on RDF RDF Schema vocabulary of SKOS (Simple Knowledge

Organization System) OWL Full to aid class, domain and range relationships with

external ontologies

Cyc

(inferencing, structure and other tools)

UMBEL

Any external content

(ontologies + named entities)

Any external content

(ontologies + named entities)

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UMBEL is a Roadmap

A set of roadsigns to help find related content

A contextual way to get from one concept space to another

More detailed maps used for specific domains

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UMBEL is a Backbone

The backbone to UMBEL is the relationships amongst its subject concepts

The backbone provides the contextual graph for inter-relating content

The backbone is a reference structure for more specific domains or ontologies

The backbone is contextual, and relatively stable and constant

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UMBEL is an Ontology

The UMBEL ontology is based on RDFS, SKOS and OWL-Full 1

The UMBEL ontology is a binding vocabulary and relationships for tieing Web datasets together

The UMBEL ontology introduces: 3 new classes 9 new properties (predicates)

1 RDFS – Resource Description Framework Schema; SKOS – Simple Knowledge Organization System; OWL – Web Ontology Language

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Subject Concepts

20,000 defined reference points in information space

Means to assert what a given chunk of content is about

Enable similar content to be aggregated

Place content in context with other content

Aggregation points for tying in named entities

Totally derived and a subset of OpenCyc, the open source version of the Cyc knowledge base

http://www.opencyc.com http://www.cycorp.com

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Named Entities

The places, events, people, objects, and specific things of the real world

Literally millions of notable instances

Each belongs to one or more subject concept(s)

Currently, the predominate basis for Linked Data

Important sources include Wikipedia (Yago) and other public sources

Can be readily mixed-and-matched with private entities

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‘Exploding the Domain’

Each subject concept is an individual of the skos:Concept class, which are themselves OWL classes

Since subject concepts are classes, can relate to external ontology classes using rdfs:subClassOf and owl:equivalentClass

Under right circumstances, can also inherit properties

Through inferencing, silo data now can inherit open world understanding, therefore:

exploding the domain

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A Deep Dive into the Backbone . . .

. . . all 20,000 nodes

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A Deep Dive into the Backbone . . .

. . . top 750 nodes

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A Deep Dive into the Backbone . . .

. . . top 350 nodes

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A Deep Dive into the Backbone . . .

. . . zeroing in on ‘automobiles’

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A Deep Dive into the Backbone . . .

. . . zeroing in on ‘Saabs’

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Re-use of Existing Ontologies Properties of the Dublin Core ontology:

dcterms:language

Properties of the SKOS ontology: skos:prefLabel skos:altLabel skos:definition skos:broader skos:narrower skos:related skos:broaderTransitive skos:narrowerTransitive seven other minor ones

Properties of the RDFS ontology: rdfs:subClassOf

Properties of the OWL ontology: owl:equivalentClass

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New UMBEL Classes

umbel:SubjectConcept – concrete, subject-related, and non-abstract “things” with members or instances that are part of the real world

umbel:AbstractConcept – abstract or ephemeral notions often used solely for organization or categorization; used only internally for graph interconnectivity

umbel:Semset – sematically close terms or phrases synonymous or nearly so with subject concepts or named entities; may embrace jargon and contemporary tags

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New UMBEL Predicates

umbel:isAligned – associative class to subject concept link

umbel:isAbout – associative named entity to subject concept link

umbel:isLike – associative link between individuals where similar, but exact sameness uncertain

umbel:hasSemset – links a subject concept to its semset

umbel:linksConcept – inverse property of isAligned

umbel:linksEntity – inverse property of isAbout

umbel:superClassOf – inverse to rdfs:subClassOf

umbel:withAlignment – degree of alignment estimate for isAligned

umbel:withLikelihood – degree of alignment estimate for isAbout

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Sample Specification

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Linkage to External Ontologies FOAF (Friend-of-a-Friend

Ontology)

FOAF Yandex (Friend-of-a-Friend Yandex extension Ontology)

RSS 1.0 (Really Simple Syndicate Ontology)

SIOC (Socially Interlinked Online Communities Ontology)

DOAP (Description of a Project Ontology)

BIBO (Bibliographic Ontology)

GEO WGS84 (Geo wgs84 Ontology)

GEONAMES (Geonames Ontology)

CC (Creative Commons Ontology)

EVENT (Event Ontology)

PO (Programme Ontology)

MO (Music Ontology)

FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records)

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UMBEL’s Web Services

Find Subject Concepts

Subject Concept Report

Subject Concept Detailed Report

List Sub-Concepts & Sub-Classes

List Super-Concepts & Super-Classes

List Equivalent External Classes

Discover Subject Concepts

Verify Sub-Class Relationship

Verify Super-Class Relationship

Verify Equivalent Class Relationship

Subject Concepts Explorer

DBpedia Linkage

Yago Ontology

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Demos, Docs & APIs

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Subject Concept Explorer

Conclusion and Further Information

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Why Important to the Semantic Web?

Context, Context, CONTEXT

For Linked Data Context !

For Web Search: Infinite facets Disambiguation Cleaner navigation

For Legacy Data Stovepipes: Making the connections Closed World schemas become Open World information Context !

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Ongoing Efforts

SPARQL endpoints and APIs

Now creating domain-specific ontologies Analogous to OBO (Open Biomedical Ontologies),

except: Central role of subject concept reference ontology (UMBEL) Exposure as linked data Some may be proprietary, enterprise-specific

Following same design as UMBEL: Lightweight Use of UMBEL vocabulary (predicates) Structural consistency with UMBEL, Cyc

Use Cyc, other tools for consistency and coherence checks for new relationships

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For Further Information Main Web site:

http://www.umbel.org UMBEL Web services:

http://umbel.zitgist.com Download ontology:

http://umbel.org/ontology/umbel.n3 Documentation:

http://www.umbel.org/documentation.html Wiki:

http://wiki.umbel.org/ Google group:

http://groups.google.com/group/umbel-ontology Slide presentations:

http://www.slideshare.net/mkbergman

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Contributions and Thanks

Zitgist LLC – staff time and hosting services

OpenLink Software – infrastructure, financing and software

Cycorp – OpenCyc and revisions and tailoring

YAGO – named entities from Wikipedia

The Cyc Foundation – design assistance and Web services

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Contact Information

Mike Bergman, editorZitgist LLCmike@zitgist.com

Fred Giasson, editorZitgist LLCfred@zitgist.com

Thanks to for hosting us !