Knowledge-aware identity services

The identification problem is concerned with the question whether two objects in an application refer to the same real-world entity. In this paper, the identification problem is investigated from a knowledge modelling point of view. We develop a framework of establishing knowledge-aware identity services by abstracting identity knowledge into an additional identity layer. The knowledge model in the identity service layer provides a capability for combining declarative formulae with concrete data and thus allows us to capture domain-specific identity knowledge at flexible levels of abstraction. By adding validation constraints to the identity service, we are also able to reason about inconsistency of identity knowledge. In doing so, the accuracy of identity knowledge can be improved over time, especially when utilising identity services provided by different communities in a service-oriented architecture. Our experimental study shows the effectiveness of the proposed knowledge modelling approach and the effects of domain-specific identity knowledge on data quality control.