Mapping Master: a Flexible Approach for Mapping Spreadsheets to OWL

We describe a mapping language for converting data contained in spreadsheets into the Web Ontology Language (OWL). The developed language, called M2, overcomes shortcomings with existing mapping techniques, including their restriction to well-formed spreadsheets reminiscent of a single relational database table and verbose syntax for expressing mapping rules when transforming spreadsheet contents into OWL. The M2 language provides expressive, yet concise mechanisms to create both individual and class axioms when generating OWL ontologies. We additionally present an implementation of the mapping approach, Mapping Master, which is available as a plug-in for the Protege ontology editor.