Innovation and Ontologies

208 Multimethodological Background
The stage of refinement uses the top down and bottom up approach 239 to knowledge extraction,
including various sources which are treated specifically according to their particularities (Sure,
Staab & Studer, 2004; Sure, 2005).
Formalization starts with a (visualized) taxonomy of the initial semi-formal description of the
ontology. Next, relations other than the is-a relation are added by the ontology engineer,
extensively documenting the additions to make ontological commitments explicit. Depending on
the intended application to be supported, an appropriate representation language has to be
chosen (Sure & Studer, 2002; Sure, Staab & Studer, 2004; Sure, 2005).
The outcome of refinement is the target ontology which will be evaluated in the next step. Now it
has to be decided whether the target ontology is mature enough to fulfill the requirements
captured during kickoff (Sure, 2005).
Refinement is closely linked to evaluation. If the evaluation shows gaps or misconceptions, they are
used as input for the (next) refinement phase. It might be necessary to perform several iterative
steps (Sure, Staab & Studer, 2004; Sure, 2005). The On-To-Knowledge Methodology provides a
three-fold evaluation which has a technology, user and ontology focus. Outcome of this threefold
approach is an evaluated ontology, ready for roll-out:
“A systematic evaluation of ontologies might lead to a consistent level of quality and thus
acceptance by industry.“ (Sure & Studer, 2002)
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For a description of the particularities of the top down, the bottom up and the middle out approach to knowledge acquisition,
cf. paragraph 2.2.2.2.