Introducing Unique Names into the Semantic Web

Ontologies play a pivotal role in the Semantic Web by providing metadata for distributed and automated information processing. The standard ontology language OWL does not apply Unique Name Assumption. This lack leads to misunderstandings among users and complicates databases and software modeling. The paper presents ways to overcome it without increasing both computational and conceptual complexities of the standard formats. Weaker forms of name assumptions are also proposed which are more appropriate for the Semantic Web.