Our Semantic Terminology

As one might expect, the terminology for Semantic Integration is in itself extremely important - it represents our "meta-semantics."

Let’s also explore what these terms signify for us in their enterprise integration
context:

• Vocabulary – This is the atomic level view and is analogous to a data entity.

• Taxonomy – This includes the vocabulary, is a straight forward hierarchy and is analogous to earlier DBMS design paradigms.

• Ontology – This includes both of the above and represents a structure that expresses both a hierarchy and a set of relationships between vocabulary ‘elements’ within that hierarchy. This is roughly analogous to the design paradigms involved in Relational Database technology, although a schema is not necessarily an ontology and tends to be restricted to the system level.

• Semantic Set – This is the recognition that data design (in fact all design) for the enterprise extends beyond the bounds or scope of any one system. The enterprise must deal with multiple ontologies, taxonomies, and vocabularies and reconcile them on an ongoing or evolutionary basis.

Copyright 2008, Semantech Inc.