Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

This page provides answers to frequently asked questions about the Common Core Ontologies (CCO), including their scope, use, governance, and licensing.

What is meant by “The Common Core Ontologies”?

The Common Core Ontologies (CCO) is a collection of ontologies that extend from the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), and which represent classes and relationships at a level more specific than BFO but less specific than domain-level ontologies.

For the purposes of disambiguation, other uses of “CCO” may refer to:

  • Serializations of CCO in one or more syntaxes of OWL 2 (e.g., TTL, RDF/XML).
  • Modules within the CCO collection (e.g., Event Ontology, Quality Ontology).
  • Specific releases of CCO (e.g., a numbered release).
  • Versions of CCO that are still under development.

These uses align with the general characterization of CCO as a mid-level ontology suite positioned between BFO and domain ontologies.

Who uses CCO?

The Common Core Ontologies are widely used by the U.S. Government and are mandated for use by the Intelligence Community Chief Data Officer and the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer within the U.S. Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. CCO is also used in industry, including manufacturing and financial institutions.

A public list of projects and organizations using CCO is available on the Users page.

Who owns CCO?

CCO is an open-source project and is freely available for reuse under the BSD 3-Clause License. The notion of “ownership” may be understood in several ways:

  • Copyright holder: CUBRC, Inc. is the copyright holder as the original creator and supporter of CCO.
  • License: CUBRC, Inc. licenses CCO under the BSD 3-Clause License, allowing reuse with minimal restrictions. (See the LICENSE.)
  • Configuration management: CCO is maintained as an open-source project on GitHub under the stewardship of the CCO Governance Board and Developer Group.

What is the history of the management of CCO?

Since becoming openly licensed in November 2017, CCO has been developed transparently on GitHub, where stakeholders are encouraged to participate through issues, discussions, and proposed updates.

The management of CCO has evolved as follows:

  • Until his retirement from CUBRC, Inc., Ron Rudnicki oversaw configuration management of CCO, supported by long-time developers Mark Jensen and Alexander P. Cox.
  • Following Ron’s retirement, a group of long-standing contributors formed the CCO Governance Board to continue stewardship of the project.
  • The CCO Governance Board currently includes Alexander P. Cox, John Beverley, Mark Jensen, J. Neil Otte, and Barry Smith, who oversee releases, quality control, and governance decisions.

Can I use CCO?

Yes. CCO is an open-source project and may be used for any purpose consistent with the BSD 3-Clause License granted by the copyright holder, CUBRC, Inc. The license is available at: https://github.com/CommonCoreOntology/CommonCoreOntologies/blob/develop/LICENSE