EXTENDED ABSTRACT

The project will demonstrate how a SUMO-based ontology can play a valuable role
in the process of Core Component Technology message assembly and in the validation 
of communications based on those messages.

The ontology can provide value in these roles:
 
 - The ontology can provide a computational model of terms used in assembled
   messages (both the message types and instances) so that the logical consistency
   of the message types and instances can be verified. For example, the terms
   referenced may be values from code lists. The Incoterms 2000 trade term "FCA"
   (Free Carrier) stipulates that the buyer must nominate a carrier. If an 
   ontology-based tool were used in the assembly of the message, it could require
   a purchase order using FCA to designate a carrier. This sort of information
   can be used both as input to the specification of the message's XML Schema definition,
   and in the validation of message instances. 

 - The ontology can be used to document distinctions in the use of business terms.
   CCTS's eight Context Categories, and textual definitions are a good start, but 
   can bring us only so far: the categories necessarily overlap each other and 
   informal text definitions can be ambiguous. When the definitions of business terms
   are supplemented by an ontology, what is entailed by a definition becomes known.
   Effects that cut across a wide space of concerns are revealed. To continue the example,  
   "FCA" entails certain rights and obligation on the each party in the contract. 
   Cost of insurance and duties, and who bears them, becomes known, as do role assignments, 
   process steps and their ordering. An ontology interrelates a wide space of
   concerns -- something that is difficult to achieve when composing messages types 
   from isolated terms. 

The demonstration only points the way. The ultimate goal might be for registry content
to include a fragment of an ontology for each entry. This fragment might be downloaded
and integrated with the upper ontology to establish the exact context of the transaction
before message assembly is performed by ontology-aware tools. An agency responsibility 
for a code list, being the ultimate authority on its meaning, might offer a fragment 
of ontology defining the code's intent.