1. © 2004 Vrije Universiteit 1 Ontologies improve the design and interoperability of the networked enterprise Jaap Gordijn (gordijn@cs.vu.nl) Yao-Hua Tan (ytan@feweb.vu.nl) Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2. © 2004 Vrije Universiteit 2 What is an Ontology? In philosophy: theory of what exists in the world (Aristotle, scholastics, Quine) consensual & formal description of shared concepts in a domainIn IT: consensual & formal description of shared concepts in a domain Aid to human communication and shared understanding, by specifying meaning Machine-processable (e.g., agents use ontologies in communication) Ontology = key technology in semantic information processing Applications: knowledge management, electronic business, multi- agent systems, industrial engineering, semantic world wide web Courtesy slide: Hans Akkermans Source: Financial Times, e-procurement, Oct. 2000

3. © 2004 Vrije Universiteit 3 Create common understanding with all stakeholders That’s what ontologies are about Source: Financial Times, e-procurement, Oct. 2000 Courtesy slide: Hans Akkermans

4. © 2004 Vrije Universiteit 4 Multiple ontologies for multiple purposes e 3 -value ontology e 3 -service ontology ebXML, DAML-S ontologies Configuration Ontology What do you want to do with your ontology?

5. © 2004 Vrije Universiteit 5 Example 1: Analysis of Bundles in the Electricity Domain (1) Elementary outcomes & inputs Bundles of outcomes & inputs Profitability assessment Deliverables

6. © 2004 Vrije Universiteit 6 Example 1: Analysis of Bundles in the Electricity Domain Step 2 Find service elements Step 3 Configure bundles Step 4 Analyse profitability Step 1 Design initial value proposition

7. © 2004 Vrije Universiteit 7 Example 2: Analysis of the Letter of Credit Procedure Shared understandig of service (LoC) Analysis: Illegal claimant Goals: Understanding Fraud analysis

8. © 2004 Vrije Universiteit 8 Ontologies are gonna get you Ontologies are a new mechanism for theory formation in Information Science: conceptualize business issues in a formal way They can be computer-implemented, and so give rigorous foundations to Information Systems They can thus be empirically tested and validated (the usual conceptual-level business talk you cannot) At the same time they show that statistics is not the only way for empirical research And their results are practically useful in business and industry (see our case studies)