Noetica: a tool for semantic data modelling

摘要

Noetica is a tool for structuring knowledge about concepts and the relationships between them. It differs from typical information systems in that the knowledge it represents is abstract, highly connected and includes meta-knowledge (knowledge about knowledge). Noetica represents knowledge using a strongly-typed semantic network. By providing a rich type system it is possible to represent conceptual information using formalised structures. A class hierarchy provides a basic classification for all objects. This allows for a consistency of representation that is not often found in “free” semantic networks and gives the ability to easily extend a knowledge model while retaining its semantics. We also provide visualisation and query tools for this data model. Visualisation can be used to explore complete sets of link-classes, show paths while navigating through the database, or visualise the results of queries. Noetica supports goal-directed queries (a series of user-supplied goals that the system attempts to satisfy in sequence) and path-finding queries (where the system find relationships between objects in the database by following links).