SEMANTIC WEB, OWL &

PROTG
Matthew J Wood
CS 570 Topics in Artificial Intelligence
Spring 2013

Todays Web

Most of todays Web content is suitable for human

consumption

Even Web content that is generated automatically from

databases is usually presented without the original structural
information found in databases

Typical Web uses today peoples

seeking and making use of information, searching for and getting

in touch with other people, reviewing catalogs of online stores
and ordering products by filling out forms

Keyword-Based Search
Engines
Current

Web activities are not particularly

well supported by software tools

Except for keyword-based search engines (e.g.

Google, AltaVista, Yahoo)

The

Web would not have been the huge

success it was, were it not for search engines

Problems of Keyword-Based
Search Engines
High

recall, low precision.

Low or no recall
Results are highly sensitive to vocabulary
Results are single Web pages
Human involvement is necessary to interpret
and combine results
Results of Web searches are not readily
accessible by other software tools
4

The Key Problem of Todays

Web
The

meaning of Web content is not machineaccessible: lack of semantics

It is simply difficult to distinguish the meaning
between these two sentences:
I am a professor of computer science.
I am a professor of computer science,
you may think. Well, . . .

The Semantic Web Approach

Represent

Web content in a form that is more

easily machine-processable.
Use intelligent techniques to take advantage
of these representations.
The Semantic Web will gradually evolve out
of the existing Web, it is not a competition to
the current WWW

What is Semantic Web?

Semantic web is a term used more specifically

to refer to format and technologies that enable
it.

It defines the collection, structuring and

recovery of linked data that are enabled by the
technologies that provide a formal description
of concepts, terms, and relationships within a
given knowledge domain.

What is Semantic Web?

Sematic Web is the extension of the World Wide

Web that enables people to share content beyond
the boundaries of applications and websites

Semantic web was term coined by Tim BernersLee, the inventor of World Wide Web and the
director of the World Wide Web Consortium.

He defines it as a web of data that can be

processed directly and indirectly by machines .

Why Semantic Web?

Semantic Web is about common formats for

integration and combination of data from
diverse sources.

Secondly, it is about language for recording

the relationship data and the real world
objects.

Semantic Web Components

Resource Description Framework (RDF)

RDF Schema (RDFS)
Simple Knowledge Organization System
(SKOS)
SPARQL, an RDF query language
Notation3 (N3)
N-Triples
Turtle (Terse RDF Triple Language)
Web Ontology Language (OWL)

Explicit Metadata
This

representation is far more easily

processable by machines
Metadata: data about data

Metadata capture part of the meaning of data

Semantic

Web does not rely on text-based

manipulation, but rather on machineprocessable metadata

11

On HTML
Web

content is currently formatted for human

readers rather than programs
HTML is the predominant language in which
Web pages are written (directly or using
tools)
Vocabulary describes presentation

12

An HTML Example
<h1>Agilitas Physiotherapy Centre</h1>
Welcome to the home page of the Agilitas Physiotherapy Centre. Do
you feel pain? Have you had an injury? Let our staff Lisa Davenport,
Kelly Townsend (our lovely secretary) and Steve Matthews take care
of your body and soul.
<h2>Consultation hours</h2>
Mon 11am - 7pm<br>
Tue 11am - 7pm<br>
Wed 3pm - 7pm<br>
Thu 11am - 7pm<br>
Fri 11am - 3pm<p>
But note that we do not offer consultation during the weeks of the
<a href=". . .">State Of Origin</a> games.

13

Problems with HTML

Humans

have no problem with this

Machines (software agents) do:

How distinguish therapists from the secretary,

How determine exact consultation hours
They would have to follow the link to the State Of
Origin games to find when they take place.

14

XML (eXtended Markup

Language)
A

better representation of data

XML is a flexible text format that is widely used
to structure, store, and transport data.
XML is different from HTML because it is not
about displaying data.
In XML (differently from HTML) you create your
own tags to annotate data.
XML is used to create other languages such as:
XHTML, RSS, RDF, OWL, etc.
15

An XML Example
<bookstore>
<book category="COOKING">
<title lang="en">Everyday
Italian</title>
<author>Giada De
Laurentiis</author>
<year>2005</year>
<price>30.00</price>
</book>
<book category="CHILDREN">
<title lang="en">Harry Potter</title>
<author>J K. Rowling</author>
<year>2005</year>
<price>29.99</price>
</book>
</bookstore>
16

RDF (Resource Description

Framework)

RDF: a standard for describing resources on the Web

The meaning of data is encoded in sets of triples.
Triples are subject, predicate, object statements.
Each element of a triple is identified by a URI.
URIs represent both resources and relations.
RDF is written in XML
RDF is to Semantic Web what HTML was to the Web.
Harry Potter has as author J. K. Rowling.

17

An RDF Example
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling
dc:creator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Harry_Potter

<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf=
http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
xmlns:dc=http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
<rdf:Description
rdf:about=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter>
<dc:creator=
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
18

Ontologies and OWL

An ontology is an explicit description of things and
their relations.
OWL serves to write ontologies for the Web.
OWL is written in XML and built on top of RDF.
You can think of OWL as an object-oriented language
that defines classes, hierarchy of classes, attributes,
relations, etc.
OWL is designed to support inference (subsumption
and classification)
OWL is more expressive than RDF.

19

Typical Components of
Ontologies

Terms denote important concepts (classes of objects) of

the domain

e.g. professors, staff, students, courses, departments

Relationships between these terms: typically class

hierarchies

a class C to be a subclass of another class C' if every object in C

is also included in C'
e.g. all professors are staff members

20

Further Components of
Ontologies

Properties:

Value restrictions

e.g. only faculty members can teach courses

Disjointness statements

e.g. X teaches Y

e.g. faculty and general staff are disjoint

Logical relationships between objects

e.g. every department must include at least 10 faculty

21

Example of a Class Hierarchy

22

The Role of Ontologies on the

Web
Ontologies

provide a shared understanding of

a domain: semantic interoperability

overcome differences in terminology

mappings between ontologies

Ontologies

are useful for the organization and

navigation of Web sites

23

The Role of Ontologies in Web

Search

Ontologies are useful for improving the accuracy of Web

searches

search engines can look for pages that refer to a precise concept
in an ontology

Web searches can exploit generalization/ specialization

information

If a query fails to find any relevant documents, the search engine

may suggest to the user a more general query.
If too many answers are retrieved, the search engine may
suggest to the user some specializations.

24

Web Ontology Languages (2)

OWL
A richer ontology language
relations between classes

e.g., disjointness

cardinality

e.g. exactly one

richer

typing of properties
characteristics of properties (e.g., symmetry)
25

Software Agents

Software agents work autonomously and proactively

They evolved out of object oriented and compontent-based

programming

A personal agent on the Semantic Web will:

receive some tasks and preferences from the person

seek information from Web sources, communicate with other
agents
compare information about user requirements and preferences,
make certain choices
give answers to the user

26

Intelligent Personal Agents

A Semantic Web Primer

27

Semantic Web Agent Technologies

Metadata

Identify and extract information from Web sources

Ontologies

Web searches, interpret retrieved information

Communicate with other agents

Logic

Process retrieved information, draw conclusions

28

Drawbacks of XML

XML is a universal metalanguage for defining markup

It provides a uniform framework for interchange of data
and metadata between applications
However, XML does not provide any means of talking
about the semantics (meaning) of data
E.g., there is no intended meaning associated with the
nesting of tags

It is up to each application to interpret the nesting.

29

Requirements for Ontology

Languages
Ontology

languages allow users to write

explicit, formal conceptualizations of domain
models
The main requirements are:

a well-defined syntax
efficient reasoning support
a formal semantics
sufficient expressive power
convenience of expression
30

Tradeoff between Expressive Power

and Efficient Reasoning Support
The

richer the language is, the more

inefficient the reasoning support becomes
Sometimes it crosses the border of
noncomputability
We need a compromise:

A language supported by reasonably efficient

reasoners
A language that can express large classes of
ontologies and knowledge.
31

Reasoning About Knowledge in

Ontology Languages
Class

membership

If x is an instance of a class C, and C is a

subclass of D, then we can infer that x is an
instance of D

Equivalence

of classes

If class A is equivalent to class B, and class B is

equivalent to class C, then A is equivalent to C,
too

32

Reasoning About Knowledge in

Ontology Languages (2)

Consistency

X instance of classes A and B, but A and B are

disjoint
This is an indication of an error in the ontology

Classification

Certain property-value pairs are a sufficient

condition for membership in a class A; if an
individual x satisfies such conditions, we can
conclude that x must be an instance of A
33

Uses for Reasoning

Reasoning support is important for

checking the consistency of the ontology and the knowledge

checking for unintended relationships between classes
automatically classifying instances in classes

Checks like the preceding ones are valuable for

designing large ontologies, where multiple authors are involved

integrating and sharing ontologies from various sources

34

Reasoning Support for OWL

Semantics is a prerequisite for reasoning support

Formal semantics and reasoning support are usually
provided by

mapping an ontology language to a known logical formalism

using automated reasoners that already exist for those
formalisms

OWL is (partially) mapped on a description logic, and

makes use of reasoners such as FaCT and RACER
Description logics are a subset of predicate logic for
which efficient reasoning support is possible

35

Three Species of OWL

W3CsWeb

Ontology Working Group defined

OWL as three different sublanguages:

OWL Full
OWL DL
OWL Lite

Each

sublanguage geared toward fulfilling

different aspects of requirements

36

OWL DL

OWL DL is so named due to its

correspondence with description logic.
Description logic (DL) is a family of formal
knowledge representation languages. It is
more expressive than propositional logic
It models concepts, roles and individuals, and
their relationships
It is used in AI for formal reasoning on the
concept of application domain known as
Terminological knowledge

Protege Tutorial

What is protege?

Protege is a free, open-source platform to construct

domain models and knowledge-based applications
with ontologies.
Ontologies range from taxonomies, classifications,
database schemas to fully axiomatized theories.
Ontologies are now central to many applications
such as scientific knowledge portals, information
management and integration systems, electronic
commerce and web services

What can you do with

Protg?
Create

a new ontology from scratch

Download and extend an existing ontology
Export ontologies in a variety of formats

OWL
RDF
XML Schema

How it works
Objects in the domain are expressed through a
series of interrelated classes
Class hierarchy is similar to that used by objectoriented languages such as Java

Superclasses
Subclasses
Sibling Classes
Ancestor Classes, etc.

Heavy reliance on inheritance

Unlike Java, Protg supports multiple inheritance

Individuals and Properties

Individual domain objects are expressed as
class members
Class members have object properties that
relate them to members of the same class or
other classes
Also have data properties

Expressed by data type integer, String, etc.

If particular data property does not fit a predefined
data type it can be entered as text

Ex. Members of the class Soccer_Players have has

fanpage data property that is expressed as a URL

Annotations
Provide

definitions and comments on the

ontology and its contents
Can provide annotations for the entire
ontology, a specific class, a member of a
class, etc.

How It Works (cont.)

Using

Protg in conjunction with GraphViz

software allows users to view the ontology as
a semantic network
Protg relies on semantic reasoners to
implement description logic

Semantic Reasoners
Inference

engine for description logics

Inference process is carried out via forward
and backward chaining
Protg supports various reasoners such as
FaCT++ and HermiT

FaCT++
Semantic reasoner used for OWL DL
ontologies
Implemented in C++ and supported by
Protege
Converts the KB into an internal
representation using various optimization
techniques
Uses dependency directed backtracking to
check satisfiability of the KB

Install Protege

Go to
http://protege.stanford.edu/doc/owl/getting-started.h
tml
to download protege (version 3.x)
Protege OWL editor is built with the full installation of
protege platform. During the install process, choose
the Basic+OWL option.
For more details:
http://protege.stanford.edu/doc/owl/gettingstarted.html

Protege

There are two main ways of modelling ontologies:

Frame-based
OWL

Each has its own user interface

Protege Frames editor: enables users to build and populate ontologies that
are frame-based, in accordance with OKBC (Open Knowledge Base
Connectivity Protocol).

Classes
Slots for properties and relationships
Instances for class

Protege OWL editor: enables users to build ontology for the Semantic Web,
in particular to OWL

Classes
Properties
Instances
reasoning

Building an OWL Ontology

E2:

Create a new OWL project

Start protege
File New Project OWL/RDF files Ontology
URI (http://www.pizza.com/ontologies/pizza.owl)
OWL DL Properties View
A new empty Protege-OWL project has been
created.
Save it in your local file as pizza.owl

Named Classes

Go to OWL Classes tab

The empty class tree contains one class called owl:Thing,
which is superclass of everything.
E3: Create subclasses Pizza, PizzaTopping and
PizzaBase. They are subclasses of owl:Thing.
Naming convention

no special naming convention

consistency

Disjoint classes
E4:

How to say that Pizza, PizzaTopping and

PizzaBase classes are disjoint.

1. Select the class Pizza

2. Press add siblings button
on the disjoint classes
widget
3. Add PizzaBase and
PizzaTopping
4. Select the class
PizzaTopping,
5. Add Pizza and PizzaBase
to the disjoint class

E5: Create group of classes

Create

ThinAndCrisyBase and DeepPanBase

as the subclasses of PizzaBase, and each of
them are disjointed.
Select PizzaBase, right click the mouse,
select create subclasses
Follow the wizard to create these two disjoint
classes.
It will save lots of time when there is need to
create lots of disjoint classes.

E6: Create some subclasses of

PizzaTopping

Select PizzaTopping,

Select the class MeatTopping,

Create subclaesses as MeatTopping, VegetableTopping,

CheeseTopping and SeafoodTopping. Make sure that these
classes are disjoint to each other.
Add disjoint subclasses: SpicyBeefTopping,
PepperoniTopping, SalamiTopping and HamTopping

Select VegetableTopping:

Add disjoint subclasses: TomatoTopping, OliveTopping,

MushroomTopping, PepperTopping, OnionTopping,
CaperTopping

E6: Creating disjoint

subclasses
Select

Add disjoint subclasses: RedPepperTopping,

GreenPepperTopping, JalapenoPepperTopping

Select

CheeseTopping

Add disjoint subclasses: MozzarellaTopping,

ParmezanTopping

Select

PepperTopping

SeafoodTopping

Add disjoint subclasses: TunaTopping,

AnchovyTopping and PrawnTopping

OWL Properties
OWL

Properties represent relationships

between two objects.
There are two main properties:

Object properties: link object to object

datatype properties: link object to XML Schema
datatype or rdf:literal

OWL

has another property Annotation

properties, to be used to add annotation
information to classes, individuals, and
properties

E7: Create an object property

Switch

to the Properties tab,

Use Create Object Property button to create
a new object property.
Rename it to hasIngredient

E8: Creating sub-properties

Select

hasIngredient property

Add hasTopping and hasBase as the

subproperties

Inverse Properties
Each

object property may have a

corresponding inverse property.
If some property links individual a to
individual b, then its inverse property will link
individual b to individual a.

E9: Create inverse properties

Create a new object property called isIngredientOf

Select hasBase

Press Set inverse property button,

Select hasIngredient
Then the inverse relation has been set up.
Create the isBaseOf as the inverse property of hasBase
isBaseOf is the subproperty of isIngredientOf

Select hasTopping

create isToppingOf as the inverse property.

isToppingOf is the subproperty
of isIngredientOf

Functional Properties

If a property is functional, for a given individual,

there can only be at most one individual to be
related via this property.

For a given domain, range must be unique

Functional properties are also known as single

valued properties.

Inverse Functional Properties

If

a property is inverse functional, then its

inverse property is functional.

For a given range, domain must be unique.

Functional vs. inverse

functional properties

FunctionalProperty vs InverseFunctionalProperty
domain

range

Functional
Property

For a given
domain

Range is
unique

InverseFunctional
Property

Domain is
unique

For a given
range

example
hasFather: A hasFather
B, A hasFather C B=C
hasID: A hasID B, C
hasID B A=C

Transitive Properties

If a property is transitive, and the property related individual a

to individual b, and also individual b to individual c, then we
can infer that individual a is related to individual c via property
P.

Symmetric Properties
If

a property P is symmetric, and the property

relates individual a to individual b, then
individual b is also related to individual a via
property P.

E10: Make the hasIngredient

property transitive
Select

the hasIngredient property

Tick the transitive tick box
Select the isIngredientOf property, make sure
that the transitive tick box is ticked.

E11: Make the hasBase

property functional
Select

the hasBase property

Tick the functional tick box
OWL-DL does not allow datatype properties
to be transitive, symmetric or have inverse
properties.

Property domains and ranges

Properties

link individuals from the domain to

individuals from the range.
OWL uses domain and range as axioms in
reasoning.

E12: Specify the range of

hasTopping
Select

hasTopping

Press range button

Select PizzaTopping
Press OK button
PizzaTopping should be displayed in the range
list.

When

multiple classes are added to the

range, they represent the union of all classes.

E13: Specify Pizza as the domain

of the hasTopping property
Select

hasTopping property

Press add domain button

Select Pizza
Press OK
Pizza is displayed in the domain list.

When

multiple classes are added as domain,

they represent as the union of these classes.

E14: Specify the domain and range for

the isToppingOf property
Select

the isToppingOf property

Set the domain of the isToppingOf property to
PizzaTopping
Set the range of the isToppingOf property to
Pizza.

E15: Specify the domain and range for the hasBase

property and its inverse property isBaseOf
Select

Specify the domain as Pizza

Specify the range as PizzaBase

Select

the hasBase property

the isBaseOf property

Specify the domain as PizzaBase

Specify the range as Pizza

Property restrictions

In OWL, properties are used to create restrictions.

Restrictions are used to restrict the individuals that
belong to a class
Three restrictions:

Quantifier restrictions
Existential quantifier ( )
Universal quantifier ( )
Cardinality restrictions
hasValue restrictions

E16: Add a restriction to Pizza

Add

a restriction to Pizza that specifies a

Pizza must have a PizzaBase

Select Pizza
Select Necessary header to create a necessary
condition
Select create a restriction wizard

Select hasBase as restricted property

Select someValueFrom as restriction
Put PizzaBase into the filler

Add a restriction to Pizza

E18: Creating different kinds of

Pizzas
Create

a subclass of Pizza called

NamedPizza, and a subclass of NamedPizza
called MargheritaPizza.
Add comment to MargheritaPizza: A pizza
that only has Mozarella and Tomato toppings

E19: Adding restrictions to

MargheritaPizza

To specify that MargheritaPizza has at least one

MozzarellaTopping.

Select MargheritaPizza
Go to Asserted Conditions, create new restriction.
Select someValueFrom
Select hasTopping as the property to be restricted.
Enter MozzarellaTopping as the filler
Press OK button

E20: Adding restrictions to

MargheritaPizza

To specify that MargheritaPizza has at least one

TomatoTopping.

Select MargheritaPizza
Go to Asserted Conditions, create new restriction.
Select someValueFrom
Select hasTopping as the property to be restricted.
Enter TomatoTopping as the filler
Press OK button

E21: Create AmericanPizza

Create

AmericanPizza with toppings of

pepperoni, mozzarella and tomato.
Through cloning and modifying the
description of MargheritaPizza.

Select MargheritaPizza
Select create clone
Add additional restriction to AmericanaPizza

Adding PepperoniTopping

Press OK.

E22: Create an AmericanHotPizza

and a SohoPizza

An AmericanHotPizza is almost the same as an

AmericanaPizza, but has JalapenoPepperTopping
on it.
A SohoPizza is almost the same as a
MargheritaPizza, but has additional OliveTopping
and ParmezanTopping

E23: Make subclasses of NamedPizza

disjoint from each other
Select

MargheritaPizza
Press add all siblings button on the
Disjoints widget to make the pizzas disjoint
from each other.

Using a reasoner

Ontology described in OWL-DL can be processed by a reasoner.

Go to owlpreference, to make sure that OWL-DL is selected.
The main services offered by a reasoner is to test whether or not
one class is a subclass of another class.
By performing such tests on all of the classes, it is possible for a
reasoner to compute the inferred ontology class hierarchy.
Another reasoning service is consistency checking to check
whether or not it is possible for the class to have any instances.
A class is deemed to be inconsistent if it cannot possibly have
any instances.

Using Racer
In

order to reason over the ontology in

Protege-OWL, a DIG compliant reasoner
should be installed and started.
In this example, we use Racer,

Download at:
http://www.racer-systems.com/products/download/
index.phtml
Double click RacerPro to start Racer.

Invoking the reasoner

Having started Racer, the ontology can be sent to the reasoner

to automatically compute the classification hierarchy, and also
check the logical consistency of the ontology.
In Protege, the manually constructed class hierarchy is called the
asserted hierarchy. The automatically computed by the
reasoner is called the inferred hierarchy.
Go to OWL classify taxonomy to invoke the reasoner
If a class has been reclassified, then the class name will appear
in a blue color in the inferred hierarchy.
Go to OWL Check consistency to invoke the reasoner
If a class has been found to be inconsistent, its icon will be
circled in red color.
Computing the inferred class hierarchy is also known as
classifying the ontology.

Invoke the reasoner

E24: Inconsistent classes

In order to demonstrate the use of the reasoner to detect

inconsistencies in the ontology, we will create a class
ProbeInconsistentTopping,

Which is the subclass of CheeseTopping

Select ProbeInconsistentTopping, go to asserted condition to add
named classes, select VegetableTopping and then press OK.
Go to OWL check consistency

E25: Classify the ontology again

To

see ProbeInconsistentTopping is
inconsistent.

E26: Remove the disjoint statement

Between

CheeseTopping and
VegetableTopping to see what happens

Select CheeseTopping
Go to Disjoint part
Select VegetableTopping, right click and Delete
the selected row.
Classify taxonomy
The inconsistency no longer exists.

E27: Fix the ontology

By

making CheeseTopping and

VegetableTopping disjoint from each other.

SPORTS ONTOLOGICAL EXTENSION

IN PROTG

Project #1
Used

Protg to extend a general sports

ontology (sptcsem.owl)
Focused on adding classes, individuals, and
properties related to the game of soccer
Used Fact++ for DL queries