Easy Keys for OWL

One of the commonly requested features for OWL is some form of key support, generally phrased as allowing inverse-functional datatype properties. For a variety of technical reasons, these were not included in OWL DL (though they were available in OWL Full). OWL 2--a revision to OWL which is under development by the W3C--introduces a form of key representation, so-called "Easy Keys", which avoids much of the implementational pain of general inverse-functional datatype properties, "dumbs down" nicely to weaker languages (like RDFS), and can be specified (or even implemented) in terms of DL-safe rules. The Easy Key approach also allows for a form of compound key. In this paper we explicate the design and rationale of Easy Keys, sketch a decision procedure for them, and compare them with alternative possibilities, including general inverse-functional datatype properties.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: OWLED
• Authors: Bijan Parsia, Ulrike Sattler, Thomas Schneider 0002
• Keywords: Easy Keys, General Inverse-functional Datatype, Inverse-functional Datatype Properties, Natural Language Processing, OWLED 2008