Identifying Conceptual Layers in the Ontology Development Process

Whilst a variety of ontological engineering methodologies exist, their actual application is far from trivial, mainly due to the widely diverse nature of the steps involved, that require different forms of expertise, typically possessed by different individuals. In order to address this, in this work we propose the separation between the conceptualization and formalization parts of the process. As proof of concept we apply the proposed approach to the IKARUS methodology, develop a graphical tool to support the resulting methodology and present results from its experimental application. Early results show that the separation of the conceptualization and formalization parts of the ontological engineering methodologies can greatly facilitate the efficiency and effectiveness of the resulting methodologies.