1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon a knowledge signature, the knowledge signature derived from an ontology and comprising a matrix structure having elements labeled according to concepts in the ontology stored on a computer-readable medium, wherein elements labeled with concepts related in the ontology are grouped into mode groups and the value of the element represents a confidence that the concept is present in an information space according to an observation engine comprising a program module configured to recognize a particular concept within the data set and a refinement engine comprising a program module configured to infer the presence of concepts related through the ontology to those recognized by the observation engine, each mode group comprising a group of concepts within the knowledge signature that are related in the ontology and are semantically disjoint.