Basic Formal Ontology
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Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) is a top-level ontology developed by Barry Smith and his associates for the purposes of promoting interoperability among domain ontologies built in its terms through a process of downward population. A guide to building BFO-conformant domain ontologies was published by MIT Press in 2015.{{cite book |first1=Robert |last1=Arp |first2=Barry |last2=Smith |first3=Andrew D. |last3=Spear |title=Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AUxQCgAAQBAJ |date=2015 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-52781-1}}
The ontology arose against the background of research in ontologies in the domain of geospatial information science by David Mark, Pierre Grenon, Achille Varzi and others,{{cite journal |last1=Grenon |first1=P. |last2=Smith |first2=B. |title=SNAP and SPAN: Towards Dynamic Spatial Ontology |journal=Spatial Cognition and Computation |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=69–103 |year=2004 |doi=10.1207/s15427633scc0401_5 |bibcode=2004SpCC....4...69G |s2cid=14469822 |url=http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/articles/SNAP_SPAN.pdf}} with a special role for the study of vagueness and of the ways sharp boundaries in the geospatial and other domains are created by fiat.{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Barry |last2=Varzi |first2=Achille C. |title=Fiat and bona fide boundaries: Towards an ontology of spatially extended objects |journal=International Conference on Spatial Information Theory |volume= 30 |issue=3 |pages=103–119 |year=2003 |url= https://philarchive.org/archive/SMIFAB-3}}{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Barry |last2=Mark |first2=David M. |title=Do mountains exist? Towards an ontology of landforms |journal=Environment and Planning B |volume= 30 |issue=3 |pages=411–428 |year=2003 |doi=10.1068/b12821 |bibcode=2003EnPlB..30..411S |s2cid=6160538 |url= https://philarchive.org/archive/SMIDME-2|citeseerx=10.1.1.739.3548 }}
BFO has passed through four major releases.{{cite web|url=https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History:_From_BFO_1_to_BFO-ISO|title=BFO Release History|website=National Center for Ontological Research Wiki|access-date=22 November 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709034139/https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History|archive-date=9 July 2024|url-status=live}} The current revision was released in 2020,{{cite web |url=http://basic-formal-ontology.org/bfo-2020.html |title=Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) 2020 |access-date=June 24, 2021}} and this forms the basis of the standard ISO/IEC 21838-2,Standard may be downloaded from {{cite web|title=ISO/IEC 21838-2|url=https://standards.iso.org/iso-iec/21838/-2/ed-1/en}} which was released by the Joint Committee of the International Standards Organization and International Electrotechnical Commission in 2021.{{cite web|url=https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html|title=ISO/IEC 21838-2:2021 Information technology - Top-level ontologies (TLO) Part 2: Basic Formal Ontology (BFO)|access-date=22 November 2024|date=November 2021|website=ISO.org|publisher=International Standards Organization}}
The structure of BFO is based on a division of entities into two disjoint categories of continuant and occurrent, the former consists of objects and spatial regions, the latter contains processes conceived as extended through (or spanning) time. BFO thereby seeks to consolidate both time and space within a single framework.
Applications
BFO has been adopted as a foundational ontology by over 450 ontology projects,{{cite web |title=Ontologies and institutions/groups using BFO.|url=http://basic-formal-ontology.org/users.html |website=Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) |access-date=December 2, 2022}} principally in the areas of biomedical ontology, security and defense (intelligence) ontology,Peter Morosoff, Ron Rudnicki, Jason Bryant, Robert Farrell and Barry Smith, "[https://philpapers.org/rec/MORJDO Joint Doctrine Ontology: A Benchmark for Military Information Systems Interoperability]", in Semantic Technology for Intelligence, Defense and Security (STIDS). CEUR vol. 1325. pp. 2-9 (2015). and industry ontologies.{{cite web|url=https://oagi.org/pages/industrial-ontologies|title=Industrial Ontologies Foundry|website=oagi.org|publisher=Open Applications Group (OAGi)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240906200936/https://oagi.org/pages/industrial-ontologies|archive-date=6 September 2024|url-status=live}} Example applications of BFO can be seen in the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI).
In 2021, the standard ISO/IEC 21838-2:2021 Information Technology — Top-level Ontologies (TLO) — Part 2: Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) was published by the Joint Technical Committee of the International Standards Organization and the International Electrotechnical Commission. ISO/IEC 21838 is a multi-part standard. Part 1 of the standard{{cite web |url=https://www.iso.org/standard/71954.html |title=ISO/IEC 21838-1:2021 Information technology - Top-level ontologies (TLO) Part 1: Requirements|website=ISO.org|publisher=International Standards Organization}} specifies the requirements that must be met if an ontology is to be classified as a top-level ontology by the standard.
In January 2024, BFO and the Common Core Ontologies (CCO), a suite of BFO-extension ontologies, were adopted as the "baseline standards for formal DOD and IC ontology" development work in the DOD and Intelligence Community. A memorandum to this effect was signed by the chief data officers of the DOD, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office.{{cite web |url=https://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2024/02/department-of-defense-ontology.html|title=DOD, Intelligence Community adopt resource developed by UB ontologists|publisher=University at Buffalo|first=Bert|last=Gambini|date=28 February 2024|location=Buffalo, New York}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
{{refbegin}}
- {{cite journal |first1=Thomas |last1=Bittner |first2=Maureen |last2=Donnelly |first3=Barry |last3=Smith |title=A Spatio-Temporal Ontology for Geographic Information Integration |journal=International Journal of Geographical Information Science |volume=23 |issue=6 |pages=765–798 |year=2009 |doi=10.1080/13658810701776767 |bibcode=2009IJGIS..23..765B |s2cid=5055085 |url=http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~bittner3/Publications_files/Bittner-NA-2006-28.pdf}}
- {{cite journal |first=Ludger |last=Jansen |title=Tendencies and other Realizables in Medical Information Sciences |journal=The Monist |volume=90 |issue=4 |pages=534–554 |date=October 2007 |doi=10.5840/monist200790436 |url=http://ontology.buffalo.edu/bfo/Tendencies.pdf}}
- {{cite book |editor-first=Katherine |editor-last=Munn |editor2-first=Barry |editor2-last=Smith |title=Applied Ontology: An Introduction |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2013 |isbn=9783110324860 |url=https://philarchive.org/rec/MUNAOA-2}}
- {{cite book |first1=Fabian |last1=Neuhaus |first2=Pierre |last2=Grenon |first3=Barry |last3=Smith |chapter=A Formal Theory of Substances, Qualities, and Universals |chapter-url=http://ontology.buffalo.edu/bfo/SQU.pdf |editor-first=Achille C. |editor-last=Varzi |editor2-first=Laure |editor2-last=Vieu |title=Formal Ontology in Information Systems: Proceedings of the Third International Conference (FOIS-2004) |publisher=IOS Press |year=2004 |isbn=1586034685 |pages=49–59 |series=Frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications |issn=0922-6389}}
- {{cite book |first=Luc |last=Schneider |chapter=Revisiting the Ontological Square |chapter-url=http://www.ifomis.org/bfo/documents/schneider-fois2010.pdf |editor-first=Antony |editor-last=Galton |editor2-first=Riichiro |editor2-last=Mizoguchi |title=Formal Ontology in Information Systems: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference (FOIS 2010) |publisher=IOS Press |year=2010 |isbn=9781607505341 |pages=73– |volume=209 |series=Frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications |issn=0922-6389}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=B. |last2=Grenon |first2=P. |title=The Cornucopia of Formal-Ontological Relations |journal=Dialectica |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=79–296 |year=2004 |doi=10.1111/j.1746-8361.2004.tb00305.x |url=http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/articles/cornucopia.pdf }}
- {{cite journal |first1=Barry |last1=Smith |first2=Werner |last2=Ceusters|first3=Bert |last3=Klagges |first4=Jacob |last4=Köhler |first5=Anand |last5=Kumar |first6=Jane |last6=Lomax |first7=Chris |last7=Mungall |first8=Fabian |last8=Neuhaus |first9=Alan |last9=Rector |first10=Cornelius |last10=Rosse |title=Relations in Biomedical Ontologies |journal=Genome Biology |volume=6 |issue=5 |pages=R46 |year=2005 |doi=10.1186/gb-2005-6-5-r46 |pmid=15892874 |pmc=1175958 |s2cid=11117072 |doi-access=free }}
- {{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=B. |last2=Ceusters |first2=W. |title=Ontological Realism as a Methodology for Coordinated Evolution of Scientific Ontologies |journal=Applied Ontology |volume=5 |issue=3–4 |pages=139–188 |year=2010 |doi=10.3233/AO-2010-0079 |pmc=3104413 |pmid=21637730}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Otte |first1=N. |last2=Beverley |first2=J. |last3=Ruttenberg |first3=A. |title=BFO: Basic Formal Ontology |journal=Applied Ontology |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=17–43 |year=2022 |doi=10.3233/AO-220262|s2cid=247354631 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/OTTBBF }}
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External links
- [https://github.com/bfo-ontology/BFO/wiki Basic Formal Ontology (BFO)]
- [http://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Basic_Formal_Ontology_2.0 Basic Formal Ontology 2.0]
- [https://github.com/BFO-ontology/BFO-2020 Basic Formal Ontology 2020] (GitHub)
- {{cite video |first=Barry |last=Smith |title=Ontology for Systems Engineering (Short Version) |date=15 February 2018 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj8mSbHh-qA |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/bj8mSbHh-qA |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}
Category:Knowledge representation