Using Analogy to Promote Conceptual Modeling Reuse

This paper argues in favor of a database conceptual schema and Semantic Web ontology design discipline that explores analogy mappings to reuse the structure and integrity constraints of conceptual models, stored in a repository. We presuppose that a team of expert conceptual designers would build a standard repository of source conceptual models, which less experienced designers would use to create new target conceptual models in other domains. The target models will then borrow the structure and the integrity constraints from the source models by analogy. The concepts are expressed in the contexts of Description Logics, the RDF model and OWL to reinforce the basic principles and explore additional questions, such as the consistency of the target model.