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#1 - Barry Smith
Ontology is the science of what is, of the kinds and structures of objects, properties, events, processes and relations in every area of reality. For an information system, an ontology is a representation of some pre-existing domain of reality which:
  • reflects the properties of the objects within its domain in such a way that there obtains a systematic correlation between reality and the representation itself
  • is intelligible to a domain expert
  • is formalized in a way that allows it to support automatic information processing
#2 - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In both computer science and information science, an ontology is a data model that represents a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts. It is used to reason about the objects within that domain.

Ontologies are used in artificial intelligence, the semantic web, software engineering and information architecture as a form of knowledge representation about the world or some part of it. Ontologies generally describe:

  • Individuals: the basic or "ground level" objects
  • Classes: sets, collections, or types of objects
  • Attributes: properties, features, characteristics, or parameters that objects can have and share
  • Relations: ways that objects can be related to one another
  • Events: the changing of attributes or relations
#3 - Webster 1913 Dictionary edited by Patrick J. Cassidy
1. That department of the science of metaphysics which investigates and explains the nature and essential properties and relations of all beings, as such, or the principles and causes of being.

2. (Computers) A systematic arrangement of all of the important categories of objects or concepts which exist in some field of discourse, showing the relations between them. When complete, an ontology is a categorization of all of the concepts in some field of knowledge, including the objects and all of the properties, relations, and functions needed to define the objects and specify their actions. A simplified ontology may contain only a hierarchical classification (a taxonomy) showing the type subsumption relations between concepts in the field of discourse. An ontology may be visualized as an abstract graph with nodes and labeled arcs representing the objects and relations. Note: The concepts included in an ontology and the hierarchical ordering will be to a certain extent arbitrary, depending upon the purpose for which the ontology is created. This arises from the fact that objects are of varying importance for different purposes, and different properties of objects may be chosen as the criteria by which objects are classified. In addition, different degrees of aggregation of concepts may be used, and distinctions of importance for one purpose may be of no concern for a different purpose.

... to be continued!
 
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