Ontologies Explained.

Ontology is one of those words that you do not hear in common parlance. As a result it often gets a blank stare if you dare to use it in management meetings. I have been there. You can probably understand that when you notice that its definition starts as proclaiming it as a 'branch of metaphysics .... '. If you delve into any intelligence work ontologies are key tools because they can be used to structure knowledge we commonly understand and reason about. We use them all the time. IEEE Computer has an excellent post that explains them.