Description Logics for Information Access

In this paper we would like to present some preliminary ideas on the possibility of using principled Knowledge Representation techniques - specifically Description Logics - in order to support conceptual modeling and flexible access to Information Systems. In recent years, applications based on database tools and those based on Description Logic systems are progressively converging towards integrated technologies that try to overcome the limits of each single discipline. Therefore, a great call for an integrated view of Description Logics and Information Systems is emerging. In this paper, some research toics for which Description Logics seem very promising, due to their richer formalism and inference mechanisms, are mentioned. In particular we list some of them in the field of conceptual modeling of information; the aggregation and abstraction of data in the various dimensions ad at different levels of granularity, the flexible access to information in many different modalities