Inside Theory-Aware and Standards-Compliant Authoring System

In their paper [14], Bourdeau and Mizoguchi foresaw a framework for ontology-based intelligent systems. Although it took longer years than their expectation, the ontology they have been developing is now released for evaluation with the help of the second author. Ontology building is a labor-intensive process and it is rarely perfect. Our enterprise is not an exception. The current ontology is still very preliminary because it has been completely reconstructed from the existing one with a few new ideas. So, we hope the readers be generous when they read the ontology. The ontology presented here is not a light-weight ontology but a heavyweight ontology. It is built based on philosophical consideration of all the concepts necessary for understanding learning, instruction and instructional design. Although it is full of axioms, the Hozo GUI which is based on a frame structure makes it easier to read it. However, the readers are expected to have basic knowledge of ontology and preferably be aware of the theory of role and of the Hozo way of role representation. Papers [6][7] would be helpful to grasp what we are doing with this ontology. The prototype system named SMARTIES is a totally ontology-aware system which fully utilizes the merits of ontology computationally as well as conceptually. It is so preliminary that it cannot be open to public, though you can get a rough idea of what it is from the papers.