Promotional Information

This book addresses the important, 2,000-year-old challenge of how to soundly formalize the content and organization of scientific knowledge. As a user and teacher of ontological methods in medicine and engineering I have for years warned my students that the design of domain ontologies is a black art with no theoretical foundations and few practical principles. Without progress on the problem, I argue, many fields ranging from informatics and computer science to AI and cognitive science will struggle to achieve their enormous potential, or to do so in a way that is convincing or safe. I now have a much more positive story for my students. Arp, Smith, and Spear have combined years of experience and lessons learned in diverse application domains into this treasure trove of guidance and good practice for the ontology builder. In the journey from black art to a truly scientific theory for ontology design, this book is an important milestone. -- John Fox, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford; Director, OpenClinical knowledge sharing project The only way you can teach computers 'things' is by building an ontology. This book is an excellent guide to designing ontologies. With the help of this book, you can make computers seem to understand materials, diseases, or any concept you want. -- T. Bedirhan Ustun, M.D., World Health Organization

About the Author

Robert Arp is a researcher and analyst for the U.S. Army at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, who has worked on ontologies for the U.S. Air Force and the National Institutes of Health. He is the author of Scenario Visualization- An Evolutionary Account of Creative Problem Solving.

Barry Smith is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo and Director of the National Center for Ontological Research.

Andrew Spear is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.