Ontology harmonization and mediation systems and methods

1. A method of servicing a multi-database query, the method comprising:

maintaining, by a computer, a plurality of ontologies and ontology alignments and mappings associated with said databases through versioning and governance of metadata of said databases;

describing, by the computer, each database by a database schema;

overlaying, by the computer, one or more database ontologies to each of said database schemas;

mapping, by the computer, said database ontologies to a plurality of domain ontologies; and

combining, by the computer, said plurality of domain ontologies to create system ontologies;

receiving, by the computer, a query targeting a first ontology, the first ontology characterized by a formal semantic language;

for one or more first databases storing data in a format compatible with the first ontology:

issuing the query, by the computer, to the one or more first databases; and

receiving, by the computer, one or more result sets corresponding to the first ontology;

for one or more second databases storing data in a format not compatible with the first ontology:

splitting, by the computer, the query into query components;

for each respective database to be queried:

translating, by the computer, the query components into one or more translated queries, each translated query targeting a respective ontology of the respective database to be queried and different from the first ontology;

for each of the translated queries:

issuing the translated query, by the computer, to the one or more second databases organized according to the respective ontology of the translated query, wherein respective translated queries from different query components are issued to different databases, and receiving, by the computer, one or more respective result sets for the translated query, wherein the respective result set corresponds to the respective ontology of the translated query;

translating, by the computer, each of the one or more respective result sets into a translated result set corresponding to the first ontology;

aggregating, by the computer, the one or more result sets and the one or more translated result sets into an aggregated result set corresponding to the first ontology; and

returning, by the computer, the aggregated results set corresponding to the first ontology.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: mapping, by a computer, a target ontology to a plurality of source ontologies.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said database comprises data being stored in its native data format.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising: adapting, by a computer, non-standard said native data formats stored in said databases to a standard RDF format.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: mediating, by a computer, a plurality of ontologies.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein said plurality of ontologies are mediated to a central ontology in a star configuration.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein said mediating a plurality of ontologies is performed using open standards comprising OWL, RDF, and EDOAL.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said ontology comprises user analytic ontologies specified by a user.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising combining respective result sets for each query component.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein combining is performed when translating.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein combining is performed when aggregating.

12. A system comprising:

two or more databases;

one or more computer processing cores; and

one or more memories coupled to the computer processing cores and storing program instructions executable by the processing cores to implement an ontology harmonization and mediation engine configured to issue a query across said two or more databases by:

maintaining, by a computer, a plurality of ontologies and ontology alignments and mappings associated with said databases through versioning and governance of metadata of said databases;

describing, by the computer, each database by a database schema;

overlaying, by the computer, one or more database ontologies to each of said database schemas;

mapping, by the computer, said database ontologies to a plurality of domain ontologies; and

combining, by the computer, said plurality of domain ontologies to create system ontologies;

receiving a query targeting a first ontology, the first ontology characterized by a formal semantic language;

for one or more first databases storing data in a format compatible with the first ontology:

issuing the query to the one or more first databases, wherein respective translated queries from different query components are issued to different databases; and

receiving one or more result sets corresponding to the first ontology;

for one or more second databases storing data in a format not compatible with the first ontology:

splitting, by the computer, the query into query components;

for each respective database to be queried:

translating the query components into one or more translated queries, each translated query targeting a respective ontology of the respective database to be queried and different from the first ontology;

for each of the translated queries:

issuing the translated query to the one or more second databases organized according to the respective ontology of the translated query, and

receiving one or more respective result sets for the translated query, wherein the respective result set corresponds to the respective ontology of the translated query;

translating each of the one or more respective result sets into a translated result set corresponding to the first ontology;

aggregating the one or more result sets and the one or more translated result sets into an aggregated result set corresponding to the first ontology; and

returning the aggregated results set corresponding to the first ontology.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising: mapping a target ontology to a plurality of source ontologies.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein said two or more databases comprise data being stored in its native data format.

15. The system of claim 14 , further comprising: adapting non-standard said native data formats stored in said databases to a standard RDF format.

16. The system at claim 1 , further comprising: mediating a plurality at ontologies.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein said plurality of ontologies are mediated to a central ontology in a star configuration.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein said mediating a plurality of ontologies is performed using open standards comprising OWL, RDF, and EDOAL.

19. The system of claim 12 , wherein said ontology comprises a user analytic ontology specified by a user.