Building Information Science ontology (OIS) with Methontology and Protégé

Ontology is the backbone of the semantic web and can overcome semantic barriers. Domain ontology provides a common understanding of the knowledge of a particular domain. Information Science, meanwhile, is an interdisciplinary science that is yet to be defined. It is necessary to develop Ontology of Information Science (OIS) to represent the unified domain knowledge.
This paper presents a representation of specific domain knowledge by providing a definition, scope, and boundaries of Information Science (IS). The methodology followed is Methontology, which is based on the IEEE standard for the development of a software life-cycle process. The achieved results are Information Science OIS ontology has fourteen facets: actors, method, practice, studies, mediator, kinds, domains, resources, legislation, philosophy and theories, societal, tools, time and space. It provides broader base of classes to offer opportunity to enrich OIS ontology. Also, it could be a basis for multiple ontologies to be built. OIS is structured at class level and subclass but does not provide the individual level. The model was evaluated by domain experts based on specific criteria and using reasoner FaCT++ to check the ontology usefulness, and how it could be transferred into application ontology for Information Science education. The paper then discusses the OIS ontology, particularly its structure and development.