NIST to Host Symposium on 'Ontology Evaluation' May 2-3, 2013

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is hosting a symposium on how to develop and evaluate "ontologies"—formal, computer-readable definitions of terms and their interrelationships —at its Gaithersburg, Md., campus May 2-3, 2013.

The symposium should interest anyone concerned with modeling information in a way that computers can make logical inferences about it. Ontologies can help facilitate this process. To create a useful ontology, there must be a way to evaluate the quality of the model, but there are no universally accepted ways to evaluate them. Accordingly, the subject of this year's symposium is "Ontology Evaluation Across the Ontology Lifecycle." The goal is to identify the best practices, tools and methodologies for ontology development and evaluation.

The symposium represents the culmination of four months of presentations and discussions that began in January 2013, held via the Internet and known as the Ontology Summit. On the morning of May 3, the symposium will host the signing of a document representing the shared position of the ontology community regarding evaluation techniques and how such techniques should be incorporated into the practice of ontology engineering.

The symposium is free and open to the public, but registration is necessary by April 22. To register, or for more information, visit the meeting's general website at http://ontolog.cim3.net/OntologySummit/2013/index.html.