Ranger: Ontology Life Cycle Management

This Ranger Phase II SBIR proposes an innovative approach to Ontology Life Cycle Management (OLCM) in order to meet critical needs of both government and commercial organizations. The 45 SW is investing significant resources in the use of ontologies to capture knowledge and unify information in their Knowledge Management Framework (KMF). This effort will produce an OLCM methodology supported by automated tools to reduce ontology development effort and lower life cycle support costs for the KMF. Ranger tools will support the full OLCM life cycle, providing novice users with assistance and boosting the productivity of experienced modelers. The fundamental innovation is the Ontology Life Cycle Management Methodology. Rather than offer advanced ontology capabilities that only expert modelers can appreciate, instead we will link them into a cohesive whole that is accessible to novices as well. The OLCM methodology is the key to this accessibility. The advanced features include the following innovative automated capabilities: Unification of Access to Structured Data and Documents via a Single Model, Ontology Generation from Text, Multiple Ontology Harmonization, and Ontology Metadata Capture and Access.