From Geo-Pragmatics to Derivation Ontologies: New Directions for the GeoSpatial Semantic Web

We currently have a wealth of geographic information on the Web that is available in different forms ranging from images, maps, spatial databases, and tables to simple texts such as informal city guides, description of landscapes, and reports of bird watching activities. One of the most recent initiatives in trying to efficiently index, retrieve, and integrate information on the Web is the Semantic Web (Berners-Lee, Hendler et al. 2001). Berners-Lee’s initial example shows the relevance of geographic information: “At the doctor's office, Lucy instructed her Semantic Web agent through her handheld Web browser. The agent promptly retrieved information about Mom's prescribed treatment from the doctor's agent, looked up several lists of providers, and checked for the ones in-plan for Mom's insurance within a 20-mile radius of her home and with a rating of excellent or very good on trusted rating services.” This vision will be put in practice with the implementation of software agents that will talk with other agents in order to get the tasks done. For the agents to understand each other it is necessary to have ontologies in place that will define the vocabulary for the agents. For instance, in the example, one agent could have used ‘close to’, ‘near’, or ‘within walking distance’ instead of ‘within a 20 miles radius’, to achieve similar results. Ontologies provide precise definitions and can be linked to different contexts so that these terms have precise meanings that can be handled by the software agents.