BORO introduction ONTOBRAS-2013 The industrial application of ontology: Driven by a foundational ontology An introduction to the BORO BDM Topics BORO BDM from a distance Types, Type Types, Type Type Types, ..., Tuples Mereology in the BORO BDM B ORO naming pattern BORO BDM from a distance BORO BDM from a distance (1) BORO = Business Object Reference Ontology BDM = Business Domain Model We assume a realist position that distinguishes between an ontology (e.g. Business Domain) and its representation (e.g. Business Domain Model) An ontology is understood as a chunk of the reality we focus on A representantion of ontology is a representation of this chunk One ontology may be related to a number of different representations BORO BDM from a distance (2) Main ontological categories: Elements tuples Types BORO BDM from a distance ( 3 ) Main ontological relations: super-sub-type type-instance Towns is a subtype of GPRs London is an instance of Towns BORO BDM from a distance ( 4 ) Elements are four-dimensional chunks of the space-time reality They are related by the mereological relations BORO BDM from a distance ( 5 ) BORO BDM assumes the extensionalist criterion of identity for types, which makes it possible to employ set theory as a background theory BORO BDM employs a number of set-theoretical concepts. The most frequently among those are powerset singleton the union and partition of classes BORO BDM from a distance ( 6 ) Another characteristic feature of BDM is the fact that it models relationships among BDM entities. For instance, models the relation of parthood among four-dimensional objects from BDM BDM models also its set-theoretical structure This implies that if, say, Towns is a subtype of Elements, then the tuple <Tow n s, Elements> is an instance of BORO BDM from a distance ( 7 ) BUML = BORO BUML BUML is a representation format for BORO Models So the BORO BDM can be represented in the BUML format; and stored in the UML class diagrams However, these sometimes have a slightly different non-UML semantics BORO BDM from a distance ( 8 ) In particular the following UML representations are used classes generalization links dependency links association and composition association links constraints Types, Type Types, Type Type Types, ... Types, Type Types, Type Type Types, ... (1) The BORO BDM object Types collects all classes of objects that BORO BDM recognises This means that if a BORO BDM object is an instance of Types, then it is a class of BORO BDM objects For example, since Subjects is an instance of Types, this means that Subjects is a class of BORO BDM entities Types, Type Types, Type Type Types, ... (2) BORO BDM has implemented the set-theoretical notion of powerset, which is called here powertype If X is an instance of Types, then the powertype of X collects all subtypes of X For example, since Subject Types is the powertype of Subjects, therefore any subset of Subjects is an instance of Subjet Types Of course, any powertype may have its powertype, i.e. it may be powertyped For instance, Subject Type Types is the powertype of Subject Types Types, Type Types, Type Type Types, ... ( 3 ) Note that if X is an instance of Types, it is not necessary that BORO BDM contains the powertype of X For example, BORO BDM does not contain the powertype of Types As a matter of fact all BORO BDM objects that have powertypes in BDM are instances of Typing Types all BORO BDM powertypes are instances of Typed Types Tuples Tuples (1) The relationships between BORO BDM objects are modelled by means of tuples An (individual) tuple models a particular relation between a number of BDM objects. The BDM notion of (individual) tuple corresponds to the set-theoretical notion of n -tuple A class of tuples is called a tuple type and is stereotyped as <<tuples>>. The BDM notion of tuple type corresponds to the set-theoretical notion of relation E xample the relation between Paris and France due to which Paris is the capital of France is modelled as below The class of all BDM tuples is Tuples (2) A tuple has the fixed number of tuple places, i.e. it has a certain arity. Therefore, we can divide the class of all BDM tuples into couples, triples, quadruples, etc. Tuple places are occupied by objects E xample the tuple t333 has two tuple places, i.e. it is a couple one place is occupied by Paris the other place is occupied by France Any tuple places of any tuple may by occupied by any BORO BDM object. So, there may be tuples that relate other tuples Mereology in the BORO BDM Mereology (1) All mereological relations between BORO BDM elements are modelled with the help of the tuple type Wholes-parts is a couple whose both tuple type places are occupied by Elements place1 tuple type place models wholes place2 tuple type place models parts place1 tuple type place is represented by means of a composition association link Mereology (2) In the example below, Paris is modelled as a part of France Mereology (3) I t is an assumption of the BORO BDM that the relation of parthood satisfies all axioms of the standard mereology This implies that wholes-parts is the relation of improper parthood The relation of proper parthood is modelled in BORO BDM by means of strict wholes-parts Mereology (4) Since the BORO BDM is constructed from a four-dimensional perspective, it models temporal parts of elements. To this end it employs the temporal stages of tuple type Mereology (5) In the model below, the temporal part of Wales from the year 1543 onwards is modelled as a temporal part of Wales Note that all temporal parts of BORO BDM objects are instances of Elements BORO BDM naming pattern N aming pattern (1) BORO BDM adopts an utterance theory of names according to which names are classes of utterances/inscriptions/..., which are here called character strings All character strings are four-dimensional objects, i.e. they are instances of Elements Some classes of character strings are names N aming pattern (2) All objects in BORO BDM can have names The relation between objects and their names is modelled by means of the named by tuple type Each name names exactly one object, but some objects may be named by more than one name N aming pattern (3) In this example, ABC Bank is named by the <ABC Bank> Name whose one instance is the „ABC Bank” #1 character string N aming pattern (4) Among different properties that BORO BDM ascribes to names, there are three that play an important role distinctness uniqueness being reserved All three properties are modelled as name types All three properties are intended N aming pattern (5) A name type is a subtype of Intended Distinct Characters Name Types only if there are no string equivalent duplicates among the instances of this name type A name type is a subtype of Intended Unique Characters Name Types only if no two instances of this name type name the same object A name type is a subtype of Intended Reserved Characters Name Types if it is a subtype of Intended Distinct Characters Name Types and a subtype of Intended Unique Characters Name Types