Post date: Nov 05, 2012 12:57:49 PM
OWL (Web Ontology Language) is a very interesting concept:.
"Ontology is about the exact description of things and their relationships.
For the web, ontology is about the exact description of web information and relationships between web information." - w3schools
Put simply, OWL is a Meta-Meta-Model that allows generic, shared Meta-Models to be defined. These shared Meta-Models can then be used to define distributed ontologies (a database of Meta-Model objects and their relationships) that can be stitched together to create a distributed database.
Example:
The Post Office could create an Ontology (Meta-Model) for addresses for which it creates a database of addresses.
OFCOM could define an Ontology (meta-model) for phone numbers; land-line and mobile providers could then create databases of phone numbers.
Companies house could create a meta-model/ontology of companies and how they relate to each other.
The registered address of each company could use the address meta-model/ontology defined by the Post-Office.
The registered phone number could use the phone number meta-model defined by OFCOM, and link to a set of phone service providers that provide databases; perhaps allowing address and phone number verification.
Points to ponder:
A distributed database like this assumes that you trust the various third parties to manage Meta-Models and the ontologies.
OWL isn't exactly the easiest meta-meta-model to understand (though few are).