The knowledge reengineering bottleneck

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Hoekstra, Rinke^;

Affiliations: Department of Computer Science, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: hoekstra@few.vu.nl | Leibniz Center for Law, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: hoekstra@uva.nl

Abstract: Knowledge engineering upholds a longstanding tradition that emphasises methodological issues associated with the acquisition and representation of knowledge in some (formal) language. This focus on methodology implies an ex ante approach: “think before you act”. The rapid increase of linked data poses new challenges for knowledge engineering, and the Semantic Web project as a whole. Although the dream of unhindered “knowledge reuse” is a technical reality, it has come at the cost of control. Semantic web content can no longer be assumed to have been produced in a controlled task-independent environment. When reused, Semantic Web content needs to be remoulded, refiltered and recurated for a new task. Traditional ex ante methodologies do not provide any guidelines for this ex post knowledge reengineering; forcing developers to resort to ad hoc measures and manual labour: the knowledge reengineering bottleneck.

Keywords: Knowledge engineering, ontology reuse, design patterns, linked data, dirty data, data reuse, provenance

DOI: 10.3233/SW-2010-0004

Journal: Semantic Web, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 111-115, 2010