Abstract

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of Meta models in supporting research opportunities in information systems and conceptual modelling that are influenced by ontologies. In particular, our aim is to show the importance of Meta models for comparing and evaluating ontologies. We propose a mechanism for analysing and evaluating the Meta models of two well-known ontologies that had been used previously in information systems grammar research – the BWW representation model and Chisholm’s ontology. The mechanism provides guidance for evaluating the Meta models of the two ontologies according to ontological equivalence, depth of structure, and comprehensiveness of scope of the models. In the portions of the models analysed, we found that the two models were not completely ontologically equivalent; that Chisholm’s model may have a deeper structure than the BWW model; and, that the BWW model is more comprehensive in scope. These findings must be viewed mindful of the limitation that only portions of the Meta model of the full BWW representation model and Chisholm’s ontology were used in this analysis.

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