Conceptual Modeling of Time for Computational Ontologies
This work provides a tool for software engineering and ontology development to avoid conflicts and lack of common understanding, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing cross-area research.
The paper tackles the problem of establishing a broad ontological foundation for conceptual modeling in a specific domain by proposing a workable ontology called TM, which addresses notions like change, event, and time, and demonstrates its usefulness in addressing current ontological difficulties.
To provide a foundation for conceptual modeling, ontologies have been introduced to specify the entities, the existences of which are acknowledged in the model. Ontologies are essential components as mechanisms to model a portion of reality in software engineering. In this context, a model refers to a description of objects and processes that populate a system. Developing such a description constrains and directs the design, development, and use of the corresponding system, thus avoiding such difficulties as conflicts and lack of a common understanding. In this cross-area research between modeling and ontology, there has been a growing interest in the development and use of domain ontologies (e.g., Resource Description Framework, Ontology Web Language). This paper contributes to the establishment of a broad ontological foundation for conceptual modeling in a specific domain through proposing a workable ontology (abbreviated as TM). A TM is a one-category ontology called a thimac (things/machines) that is used to elaborate the design and analysis of ontological presumptions. The focus of the study is on such notions as change, event, and time. Several current ontological difficulties are reviewed and remodeled in the TM. TM modeling is also contrasted with time representation in SysML. The results demonstrate that a TM is a useful tool for addressing these ontological problems.