Onto Clean - Overview and History

Overview and History

OntoClean was the first attempt to formalize notions of ontological analysis for information systems. The idea was to justify the kinds of decisions that experienced ontology builders make, and explain the common mistakes of the inexperienced. Alan Rector, during a debate at the KR-2002 conference in Toulouse, said, "What you have done is reduce the amount of time I spend arguing with medics."

The notions Guarino & Welty focused on were drawn from philosophical ontology. They were not after the seemingly endless arguments about what the right ontology of the universe is, but rather the techniques these philosophers use to analyze, support, and criticize each other's arguments. These techniques make very little, if any, commitment to a particular ontology, instead they expose what are often very subtle distinctions.

The ideas underlying OntoClean appeared first in the literature in a series of three papers published in 2000 The name OntoClean does not appear in the literature until 2002. According to Thompson-ISI, work on OntoClean was the most cited of academic papers on Ontology. OntoClean was important as it was the first formal methodology for ontology engineering, applying scientific principles to a field whose practice was mostly art.