ONSET: Automated foundational ontology selection and explanation

Abstract

It has been shown that using a foundational ontology for domain ontology development is beneficial in theory and practice. However, developers have difficulty with choosing the appropriate foundational ontology, and why. In order to solve this problem, a comprehensive set of criteria that influence foundational ontology selection has been compiled and the values for each parameter determined for DOLCE, BFO, GFO, and SUMO. This paper-based analysis is transformed into an easily extensible algorithm and implemented in the novel tool ONSET, which helps a domain ontology developer to choose a foundational ontology through interactive selection of preferences and scaling of importance so that it computes the most suitable foundational ontology for the domain ontology and explains why this selection was made. This has been evaluated in an experiment with novice modellers, which showed that ONSET greatly assists in foundational ontology selection.