A Socio-Technical Planning in Ontology Engineering

Abstract

Constructing ontologies is more and more a collaborative and a social process, and is usually a costly and time consuming activity. That is why this process must be prepared systematically and supported by tools and methods that will smoothen the path to consensus. The socio-technical approach has been taken to address the social aspects appropriately, in balance with the technical aspect. The socio-technical planning of the the ontology development process have been seen as the most laborious and critical phase. This phase will take up the most effort of the ontology development, and that is why this planning has to be carried out effectively. The lack of approaches in the ontology development planning has called for the inclusion of a ocio-technical planning in the ontology engineering methodology with the needed tools to support the methods. In this paper the authors describes the results from the activities and tasks conducted in the planning phase of the ontology engineering process by a case study in the development of the Genetics Resources and Traditional Knowledge (GRTK) ontology. The investigation will be part of the research on a socio-technical approach in the methodology of ontology engineerin