Abstract
A service ontology contributes to service modeling, model sharing and service design. In this paper, we discuss our service ontology and its basic idea. Firstly, we propose our definition of service with the comparison to product function. It is important to understand the distinctions between notions to develop ontologies. However, the distinction between service and product function is not clear in previous research. Secondly, we formalize our conceptualization of service based on a role theory, which is one of the most fundamental issues in ontology engineering. Based on the role theory, we propose an ontological model of service which is more precise than that in our previous work. Lastly, we explain the overview of our service ontology and the core concepts.
