Provides links to papers which talk about Semantic Normalization

Normalization is the area of the semantic web that discusses ontologies created and managed by separate and distinct sources and how they can be integrated with each other. Different web designers create web pages on the same topic. How will the knowledgebase know that the two ontologies developed are referring to the same subject domain? Metadata normalization will determine that two ontologies from separate sources are referring to the same subject domain. Consider the case where two different web pages refer to the same person but in different contexts. The ontologies used may be quite different and the knowledgebase needs to be able to determine which ontology, or combinations of ontologies are applicable. Take for example the name “Benjamin Franklin”. The knowledgebase needs to be able to differentiate between the subject matter of Benjamin Franklin the politician, Benjamin Franklin the Postmaster General, Benjamin Franklin the scientist and Benjamin Franklin the husband, father and friend.
A different type of metadata normalization is the case where there are multiple names of a single entity. The knowledgebase needs the ability to recognize that the list of names should be attributed to one widely known name. An example is Michael Jordan. The names “Your Airness”, “Air Jordan”, the phrase “I want to be like Mike” are all referring to Michael Jordan.
Ensuring interoperability between independently developed ontologies is called semantic normalization. Ontology, provided by one designer, can be compared and integrated into an ontology provided by the knowledgebase, or if one does not exist, can be added to the knowledgebase. As more semantic web pages are examined, the list of ontologies will grow and as similar web pages on like topics are examined, the ontology for that topic will be refined. As semantic web languages evolve, there likely will be many public libraries of ontologies available.
Heflin and Hendler, 2001, in A Portrait of the Semantic Web in Action believe that hierarchies will develop among ontologies. Once that happens, any two ontologies with common ancestors will automatically be interoperable.

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for determining aggregate values of health data items from heterogeneously coded databases containing heterogeneously coded medical data. The data, in heterogeneous databases, is queried using a series of semantic layers including i) cascaded asymmetric association tables and ii) semantic search. The heterogeneously coded medical data items are translated into conformal dimensions and denominator files of combinations of disease data are derived. The denominator files of combinations of disease are aggregated based on a mapping of the coded medical and demographic conditions. The data is stored in a target data repository.