Developing an Ontology for Wood-related Industry : An Experience Report

Ontologies are widely used as a technique for representation and reuse of knowledge. This paper summarizes experiences and results of a project within ontology development, with wood-related industry as application sector. One major aspect of the project was the selection of a suitable methodology for ontology development. In a literature study existing methodologies were analyzed with respect to their suitability for small-scale application contexts. As no existing methodology was fully adequate, an improved methodology was proposed. The main intention was to reduce development time and effort to meet the demands of small-scale application contexts. The improved methodology was applied and evaluated in the project, i.e. in the development of an ontology for wood-related industry. The main conclusion is that the methodology was adequate for the project, but some aspects could be elaborated and further investigated, such as reuse of already existing ontologies.