Semantic Network Analysis of Ontologies

A key argument for modeling knowledge in ontologies is the easy re-use and re-engineering of the knowledge. However, beside consistency checking, current ontology engineering tools provide only basic functionalities for analyzing ontologies. Since ontologies can be considered as (labeled, directed) graphs, graph analysis techniques are a suitable answer for this need. Graph analysis has been performed by sociologists for over 60 years, and resulted in the vivid research area of Social Network Analysis (SNA). While social network structures in general currently receive high attention in the Semantic Web community, there are only very few SNA applications up to now, and virtually none for analyzing the structure of ontologies. We illustrate in this paper the benefits of applying SNA to ontologies and the Semantic Web, and discuss which research topics arise on the edge between the two areas. In particular, we discuss how different notions of centrality describe the core content and struc...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: ESWS
• Authors: Bettina Hoser, Andreas Hotho, Robert Jäschke, Christoph Schmitz, Gerd Stumme
• Keywords: Centrality, ESWS 2006, Internet Technology, Knowledge In Ontologies, Ontologies