Suggested Upper Merged Ontology
Encyclopedia
The Suggested Upper Merged Ontology or SUMO is an upper ontology intended as a foundation ontology
for a variety of computer information processing systems. It was originally developed by the Teknowledge Corporation and now is maintained by Articulate Software. It is one candidate for the "standard upper ontology
" that IEEE working group 1600.1 is working on. It can be downloaded and used freely.
SUMO originally concerned itself with meta-level concepts (general entities that do not belong to a specific problem domain), and thereby would lead naturally to a categorization scheme for encyclopedias. It has now been considerably expanded to include a mid-level ontology and dozens of domain ontologies.
SUMO was first released in December 2000. It defines a hierarchy of SUMO classes and related rules and relationships. These are formulated in a version of the language SUO-KIF which has a LISP
-like syntax. A mapping
from WordNet
synsets to SUMO has also been defined.
SUMO is organized for interoperability of automated reasoning engines. To maximize compatibility, schema
designers can try to assure that their naming convention
s use the same meanings as SUMO for identical words (for example, "agent" or "process"). SUMO has an associated open source Sigma knowledge engineering environment
.
Ontology (computer science)
In computer science and information science, an ontology formally represents knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain, and the relationships between those concepts. It can be used to reason about the entities within that domain and may be used to describe the domain.In theory, an ontology is...
for a variety of computer information processing systems. It was originally developed by the Teknowledge Corporation and now is maintained by Articulate Software. It is one candidate for the "standard upper ontology
Standard upper ontology
Standard upper ontology is a IEEE P1600.1 term for a near-universal upper ontology .The following ontologies are now competing to be used as the foundation for standard:* IFF Foundation Ontology...
" that IEEE working group 1600.1 is working on. It can be downloaded and used freely.
SUMO originally concerned itself with meta-level concepts (general entities that do not belong to a specific problem domain), and thereby would lead naturally to a categorization scheme for encyclopedias. It has now been considerably expanded to include a mid-level ontology and dozens of domain ontologies.
SUMO was first released in December 2000. It defines a hierarchy of SUMO classes and related rules and relationships. These are formulated in a version of the language SUO-KIF which has a LISP
Lisp
A lisp is a speech impediment, historically also known as sigmatism. Stereotypically, people with a lisp are unable to pronounce sibilants , and replace them with interdentals , though there are actually several kinds of lisp...
-like syntax. A mapping
Map (mathematics)
In most of mathematics and in some related technical fields, the term mapping, usually shortened to map, is either a synonym for function, or denotes a particular kind of function which is important in that branch, or denotes something conceptually similar to a function.In graph theory, a map is a...
from WordNet
WordNet
WordNet is a lexical database for the English language. It groups English words into sets of synonyms called synsets, provides short, general definitions, and records the various semantic relations between these synonym sets...
synsets to SUMO has also been defined.
SUMO is organized for interoperability of automated reasoning engines. To maximize compatibility, schema
Logical schema
A Logical Schema is a data model of a specific problem domain expressed in terms of a particular data management technology. Without being specific to a particular database management product, it is in terms of either relational tables and columns, object-oriented classes, or XML tags...
designers can try to assure that their naming convention
Naming convention
A naming convention is a convention for naming things. The intent is to allow useful information to be deduced from the names based on regularities. For instance, in Manhattan, streets are numbered, with East-West streets being called "Streets" and North-South streets called "Avenues".-Use...
s use the same meanings as SUMO for identical words (for example, "agent" or "process"). SUMO has an associated open source Sigma knowledge engineering environment
Sigma knowledge engineering environment
In the computer science fields of knowledge engineering and ontology, the Sigma knowledge engineering environment is an open source computer program for the development of formal ontologies. It is designed for use with the Suggested Upper Merged Ontology...
.