Cognitive support for an argumentative structure during the ontology development process

Structuring and supporting the argumentative process that takes place within the knowledge elicitation process is a major problem when developing ontologies. Knowledge elicitation relies heavily on the argumentative process amongst domain experts. The involvement of geographically distributed domain experts and the need for domain experts to lead the design process, adds an interesting layer of complexity to the whole process. We consider that the argumentative structure should facilitate the elicitation process and serve as documentation for the whole process; it should also facilitate the evolution and contextualization of the ontology. We propose the use of conceptual maps as means to support and scaffold an argumentative structure during the development of ontologies within loosely centralized communities.