Choosing between Axioms, Rules and Queries: Experiments in Semantic Integration Techniques

When using semantic technologies developers are frequently confused about which specific inferencing technique is best to use for a given problem. As an initial step towards identifying "best practices" for users of semantic technologies we are conducting a series of experiments to contrast the benefits and limitations of three approaches to inferring cross-data relationships: RDFS/OWL axioms, user-defined rules and SPARQL queries. At the highest level our aim is to identify which approaches provide the best (or acceptable) solutions in terms of memory use, cpu cycles and developer effort, given a variety of specific problem characteristics. In this paper we describe the three semantic approaches we are investigating, identify three broad problem areas in our initial focus and summarize some preliminary results.