Unlock the power of semantic knowledge—one pizza at a time.
Ontology engineering is no longer a niche academic discipline. It is becoming a core architectural capability for AI systems, enterprise knowledge platforms, and semantic interoperability. But most learning materials focus either on theory you can't apply or tool operations you can't connect to the bigger picture.
This book bridges that gap.
Volume 1 takes you from zero to a working ontology. You will install Protégé, understand its workspace, and build the Pizza ontology step by step: creating classes, applying a reasoner, enforcing disjointness, and learning what actually lives inside an OWL/RDF file once you save it.
Chapter 00 introduces the Executable Knowledge Architecture (EKA) framework—a five-layer model (Knowledge Graph, Reasoning, Triggers, Execution, Governance) that this entire series uses to connect ontology work to real automation, not just static diagrams.
This is not a dry reference. Every chapter pairs a YouTube walkthrough with the matching eBook chapter and hands-on Protégé exercises. You watch, read, and practice in the same pass.
What You Will Learn in This Volume - Install and navigate Protégé with confidence
- Design class hierarchies and named classes that hold up under reasoning
- Run a reasoner and interpret inferred versus asserted knowledge
- Use disjoint classes to catch silent logical errors before they propagate
- Read and understand the RDF/XML underneath any OWL ontology
- Map foundational ontology work onto the EKA framework
- Make a critical architectural choice: understand the essential distinction between Native RDF Graph Databases (e.g., AllegroGraph, GraphDB) and Property Graphs (e.g., Neo4j) for preserving OWL semantics
Who This Book Is For This book is for:
- Semantic Web learners and knowledge graph practitioners
- Protégé beginners and ontology engineers
- Enterprise, solution, and data architects
- AI engineers and digital transformation professionals
- Anyone who has tried to learn ontology engineering from documentation alone and found it too abstract
No prior ontology experience is required.
What Makes This Book Different This edition includes forewords by Timothy W. Cook (Founder, Semantic Data Charter) and Michael DeBellis, whose original Protégé OWL Pizza Tutorial is the foundation this series builds on. Their ongoing technical review is credited throughout the book.
This series has been technically audited to ensure architectural integrity. A critical distinction between Property Graphs and Native RDF Graph Databases—often conflated in other resources—is now clearly defined, with practical guidance on when to use each.
The Full Series Roadmap - Volume 1 (this book) – Chapters 00–08: Ontology foundations in Protégé
- Volume 2 – Chapters 09–13: Object properties, characteristics, domain & range
- Volume 3 – Chapters 14–16: Semantic requirements (restrictions) and EKA governance
- Volume 4 – Chapters 17–24: Semantic Knowledge Development Lifecycle (SKDL), Stages 1–7 (in progress)
