This technology is a patented computer program and method for secure, version-controlled coordination of ontologies in a knowledge base. Ontologies are formal specifications of the terms in a domain and the relations among them; they define the structure of knowledge in the domain. Ontologies are common on the World Wide Web and can categorize items ranging from medical information to websites to products for sale. This technology describes a knowledge base coordinator that provides seamless inclusion of multiple ontologies in a secure, traceable and location transparent design. Its functionalities include determining if one ontology should include another, controlling user access to individual ontologies, hiding details of data source locations, determining the source of the ontology, controlling versions to prevent concurrent modifications, and syncing the offline cache of authorized users. This knowledge base tool can be used for a wide variety of applications ranging from business to scientific and engineering applications.
Related TechnologyThe original software was developed as an improvement to
Protege.
