Enhanced with SHOE

General Ontology (draft)

Id:general-ont
Version:1.0
Description:This ontology defines basic elements that represent commonalities between most ontologies. As such, it includes the concepts of people, organizations, actions, events, locations and physical objects. Please send any comments or suggestions to the contact listed below. This is a draft ontology and may change at any time.
Contact:Jeff Heflin (heflin@cs.umd.edu)
Revision Date:04 Oct 2000

Organization of this Document

This ontology is declared in this document both in human-readable form (what you see in front of you now) and machine-readable SHOE form (which you can see from viewing the html source of this document). The rest of this document is divided into the following sections:

Extended Ontologies

The following ontologies are extended by the current ontology:

Renames

An ontology may rename elements from another ontology in order to provide a shortcut for referencing that element or to provide an alternate term for it.



Object                  Renamed From
================================================================
name                    base.name

Categories

The following taxonomy is the collection of categories declared in this ontology. The hierarchical form is intended to show the ISA chain. Categories in [Brackets] are not defined here but are defined in an ontology extended by this one. Elements in {Braces} are additional supercategories of the category immediately before them (signifying multiple inheritance). Categories followed by an asterisk are defined in another ontology but are provided with a local alias. 

   [base.SHOEEntity]
      Address
      Agent
         Person {Organism}
            Employee 
         SocialGroup
            Organization
	       CommercialOrganization
	       EducationOrganization
	       GovernmentOrganization
	       NonprofitOrganization
         ArtificialAgent
      Activity
         Work
         Recreation
         Process
      Event
      Location
      PhysicalObject
         Substance
            Liquid
            Solid  
         Thing
            Artifact
            Organism
      WebResource
         Audio
         Image
	 Video
         WebPage

Relationships

Relationships are declared between one or more arguments, where each argument is either a type or a category. If the argument is a category, any subcategory of that category is valid as well. Relationships which have a local alias but are defined in another ontology are followed by an asterisk. 

   addressStreet(Address, .STRING)
   addressCity(Address, .STRING)
   addressState(Address, .STRING)
   addressZip(Address, .STRING)
   affiliateOf(Organization, Person)
   affiliatedOrganization(Organization, Organization)
   alumnus(Organization, Person)
   borders(Location, Location)
   emailAddress(Person, .STRING)
   encloses(Location, Location)
   engagesIn(Agent, Activity)
   eventStart(Event, .DATE)
   eventEnd(Event, .DATE)
   eventLocation(Event, Location)
   head(Organization, Person)
   homeAddress(Person, Address)
   homePhone(Person, .STRING)
   isLocated(Organization, Location)
   member(SocialGroup, Person)
   name(base.SHOEEnity, .STRING)*
   orgAddress(Organization, Address)
   orgPhone(Organization, .STRING)
   participant(Event, Agent)
   performs(Agent, Work)
   subOrganizationOf(Organization:"suborganization", Organization:"superorganization")
   workAddress(Person, Address)
   workPhone(Person, .STRING)
   worksFor(Employee, Organization)

Constants

Constants are used to identify instances that may be commonly used with an ontology. In this section, each constant is grouped under its category.

No constants are defined.

Inferences

Inference rules are used to determine what additional facts can be implied if other facts are known. They take the form of if/then rules.

Suborganizations are transitive.
If subOrganizationOf(x,y) and subOrganizationOf(y,z), then subOrganizationOf(x,z).
Affiliates are invertable.
If affiliatedOrganization(x,y), then affiliatedOrganization(y,x).
Membership transfers through suborganizations.
If member(x,m) and subOrganizationOf(x,y), then member(y,m).
A person who works for an organization is a member of that organization.
If worksFor(p,o) then member(o,p).
A person who is the head of an organization is a member of that organization.
If head(o,p) then member(o,p).
Performing work is engaging in a type of activity.
If performs(a,w) then engagesIn(a,w).
Encloses is transitive.
If encloses(x,y) and encloses(y,z), then encloses(x,z).

Definitions

Address
A designation for routing mail to an organization or person. An address is not the same thing as a Location, although usually an address is tied to a particular location.
Activity
Any specific activity or pusuit.
Agent
An entity capable of performing actions.
ArtificialAgent
An agent that is man-made.
Artifact
Something created by humans usually for a practical purpose.
Audio
A digitized sound resource, in a format such as a MP3, Real Audio, WAV etc.
CommercialOrganziation
An organization involved in the supply and distribution of commodities for profit.
EducationOrganization
An academic organization.
Employee
A person who works for an organization.
Event
Something that happens at a given place in time. This differs from Activity because Activities do not have a spatio-temporal constraint. e.g., Camping is an activity, the camp trip to West Virginia last summer is an event.
GovernmentOrganization
An organization that participates in the making and administration of policy for a nation, state, county or city.
Image
A file that visually represents something in a format such JPEG, GIF, etc.
Liquid
A substance which flows freely.
Location
A place.
NonprofitOrganization
A non-government organization that conducts its activities for purposes other than financial gain.
Organism
A living being.
Organization
One or more people who work together or have a common goal.
Person
A human being.
PhysicalObject
A tangible thing.
Process
A particular course of action intended to achieve results.
Recreation
An activity that diverts or amuses or stimulates.
SocialGroup
One or more people sharing some social relation (i.e., an organization, a club, a group of friends, a culture of people, etc.)
Solid
A substance which does not flow freely.
Substance
A physical object that cannot be referred to as an individual (a mass noun, i.e., butter, water, hydrogen, dirt, etc.)
Thing
A physical object that can be referred to as an individual (a count noun, i.e., mountain, book, car, etc.)
Video
A resource in a format for transmitting moving visual and audio components, such as MPEG, QuickTime and DVD.
WebPage
A web page.
WebResource
A file available using the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP). The properties of this object can be metadata (data about data) that describes a resource, such as author, time of creation, etc.
Work
An activity directed toward making or doing something.
addressStreet
The street name and number of an address.
addressCity
The name of a city used in an address.
addressState
The name of a state used in an address.
addressZip
The zip code used in an address.
affiliateOf
A person who is affiliated with an organization.
affiliatedOrganization
An organization that is affiliated with another organization.
alumnus
A person who used to be a member of an organization.
borders
A location that is adjacent to another location.
emailAddress
The e-mail address of a person.
encloses
A location that completely contains another location.
engagesIn
An activity that is performed by someone or something.
eventStart
The date when an event began.
eventEnd
The date when an event finished.
eventLocation
The place where an event occured.
head
The person in charge of an organization.
homeAddress
The address of a person's residence.
homePhone
The phone number of a person's residence.
isLocated
The place where an organization is located.
member
A person who participates in a social group.
orgAddress
The mailing address of an organization.
orgPhone
The phone number of an organization.
participant
An agent that is involved in an event.
performs
Work that is carried out by someone or something.
subOrganizationOf
A relation in which the first organization is part of the second organization.
workAddress
The address of a person's place of business.
workPhone
The phone number where a person can be reached at their place of business.
worksFor
An organization that employs a person.

Notes:

Change History:

 Enhanced with SHOE

Web Accessibility