There is no one “correct” way or methodology for developing ontologies. Here we discuss general issues to consider and offer one possible process for developing an ontology. We describe an iterative approach to ontology development: we start with a rough first pass at the ontology. We then revise and refine the evolving ontology and fill in the details. Along the way, we discuss the modeling decisions that a designer needs to make, as well as the pros, cons, and implications of different solutions. First, we would like to emphasize some fundamental rules in ontology design to which we will refer many times. These rules may seem rather dogmatic. They can help, however, to make design decisions in many cases. There is no one correct way to model a domain— there are always viable alternatives. The best solution almost always depends on the application that you have in mind and the extensions that you anticipate. Ontology development is necessarily an iterative process. Concep