Ontological classification of individuals: a multi-viewpoints approach

A multi-viewpoints ontology confers to the same universe of discourse, several partial descriptions, where each one is relative to a particular viewpoint. Moreover, these partial descriptions share at global level, ontological elements and semantic bridges constituent a consensus between the various viewpoints. In this paper we define, firstly, a multi-viewpoints knowledge model based on viewpoint and ontology notions. The multi-viewpoints knowledge model is used to formalise the multi-viewpoints ontology in description logics. Then, based on developed model, we propose a process for the classification of an individual in a multi-viewpoints ontology. This classification is carried out according to one or several viewpoints and allows to find, for each viewpoint, local concepts in which individual is susceptible to be an instance. In addition, bridges are exploited as short cut in order to fasten the classification of the individual in different involved viewpoints.