Abstract:
We address the question of how the use of ontologies can assist
communication in construction. We consider the background to this question in
contemporary and emerging practices, and contend that due to the particularity
of building site contexts current approaches involving broad standardisation are
not promising. We argue that ontologies should be thought of as higher-level
conceptual tools for revealing areas of disagreement or differences in
understanding. We propose that their use could usefully be integrated with a
system for capturing negotiation aimed at resolving these differences.