When owl:sameAs isn’t the Same Redux: Towards a Theory of Identity, Context, and Inference on the Semantic Web

Harry Halpin, Patrick J. Hayes, and Henry S. Thompson

Abstract: The Web changes knowledge representation in a number of surprising ways, and decentralized knowledge representation systems such as the Semantic Web will require a theory of identity for the Web beyond current use of sameAs links between various data-sets, including the fact that entities can not be linked across semantic roles. We empirically analyze the behavior of identity and inference on the Semantic Web currently in order to analyze the size of the problem. Lastly, some of the problem due to identity statements operating over different domains of discourse, and propose a modest extension to RDF (RDFC, or RDF with Contexts) that can formally distinguish different contexts in RDF, including contexts for identity statements.

Modeling and Using Context: 9th International and Interdisciplinary Conference, CONTEXT 2015, Lanarca, Cyprus, November 2-6,2015. Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2015.

For the full paper visit:  http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-25591-0_4