Modelling and using ontology design patterns

An ODP is a modeling solution to solve a recurrent ontology design problem. It is a template that represents a schema for specific design solutions. An ODP consists of a set of “prototypical” ontology entities that constitute the “abstract form” of a pattern, and of a set of metadata about its use cases, motivations, provenance, the pros and cons of its application, the links to other patterns, etc. Design solutions based on ODPs encode ontology entities that apply, specialize, or instantiate the prototypical entities defined by the schema [2]. CPs are special networked ontologies. They cover a set of competency questions (e.g., where is located an object at a certain time?), which represent the problem they provide a solution for. A CP can be extracted (cloned) from a reference ontology, reengineered from a conceptual model (e.g., a data model), and created by composition of other CPs, or by specialization of another CP [2].