API4KB is an initiative within OMG that aims at defining a standard programming interface for knowledge bases. API4KB has been presented at OMG ADTF and the activities on this are starting now. There is a API4KB RFP currently open and some resources are available on the API4KB wiki. LOI and voting list are open until June 1, 2013, so if you want to join you can still do it.
The initiative aims at providing uniform access to knowledge bases.
The user of KBs is facilitated in the combination and composition of loosely coupled and etherogeneous KBs.
Knowledge bases can actually be of several kinds: fact base, model base, rule base, … .
The problem is that when you have composite knowledge bases you need to integrate them. There are plenty of standards already for specifying each KB, but then each is specified according to its own standard.
The needed APIs should cover at least the following issues:
- parsing and translation: parsing checks whether a resource is compatible with a description; translation parses an asset and creates a new representation (this is not just
- KB construction: creation, deletion, updating, reading, exporting KB content. Deletion and update could be controversial use cases though
- query
- reasoning
- meta-description of the KB: storage and concept capability, inference and reasoning capability, metrics and statistics on the content,
The standard will include a metamodel that formally defines the concepts used in KBs, such as reasoning outcomes (result and explanation), and so on.
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