Protégé (software)
| Company type | Open-source software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software, Knowledge management |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Founder | Mark Musen |
| Headquarters | Stanford , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Ontology editor, knowledge management system |
| Owner | Stanford University |
| Website | protege |
Protégé is a complimentary, open-source tool designed for editing ontologies and managing knowledge management systems. Initially created by Mark Musen in 1987, its development has continued under a team based at Stanford University. It holds the distinction of being the most extensively utilized ontology editor worldwide.
Overview
Providing a graphical interface, Protégé enables users to construct ontologies and incorporates deductive classifiers that verify model integrity and derive additional insights. Functioning similarly to Eclipse, Protégé operates as a modular platform that supports numerous plugins. Built primarily in Java with significant reliance on the Swing library for its user interface, it boasts a user base exceeding 300,000 registered members. According to a 2009 study, it is recognized as "the foremost tool in ontological engineering."
Protégé's development is rooted at Stanford University, and it is released under the BSD 2-clause license. Previous iterations were developed jointly with the University of Manchester.