Advanced eGovernment Information Service Bus (eGov-Bus)

The eGov-Bus project provides citizens and businesses with improved access to virtual public services, which are based on existing national eGovernment Web services and which support cross-border life events. Requirements and specific rules of these life events are considered, and personalization of user preferences is supported. eGov-Bus is based on adaptable process management technologies, allowing for virtual services which are dynamically combined from existing national eGovernment services. In this way, a comprehensive workflow process is set up, allowing for service-level agreements, an audit trail and explanation of the process to the end user. The eGov-Bus process engine operates on top of a virtual repository, providing a high-level semantic view of information retrieved from heterogeneous information sources, such as eGovernment Web services. Further, eGov-Bus relies on a security framework to ensure all high-level security requirements are met. The eGov-Bus architecture is business oriented, it focuses on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) concepts, asynchronously combining Web services and providing a Service Bus.Frameworks and Guidelines, eGovernment Ontologies, Admininistrative Process Design, Life Events, Web Services, Service Bus Integration

Improving Knowledge Retrieval in Digital Libraries Applying Intelligent Techniques

Nowadays an enormous quantity of heterogeneous and distributed information is stored in the digital University. Exploring online collections to find knowledge relevant to a user’s interests is a challenging work. The artificial intelligence and Semantic Web provide a common framework that allows knowledge to be shared and reused in an efficient way. In this work we propose a comprehensive approach for discovering E-learning objects in large digital collections based on analysis of recorded semantic metadata in those objects and the application of expert system technologies. We have used Case Based-Reasoning methodology to develop a prototype for supporting efficient retrieval knowledge from online repositories. We suggest a conceptual architecture for a semantic search engine. OntoUS is a collaborative effort that proposes a new form of interaction between users and digital libraries, where the latter are adapted to users and their surroundings

NEC themes: a conceptual analysis and applied principles

This paper deals with essential principles of Interoperability, Agility, Collaboration and Knowledge applied in the context of Network Enabled Capability Through Innovative Systems Engineering (NECTISE). Using empirical investigations these concepts have been identified as NEC-readiness themes and they contribute significantly to the realisation of NEC. Based on a systemic analysis and application of theoretical principles, the approach described in this paper contributes towards the demonstration of NEC as well as the identification of a limited set of critical features for capability planning and systems design. Some research questions are derived and discussed and a gap analysis strategy is proposed. These themes also defined as critical features have been investigated in a variety of contexts The main contributions of this paper are related to the mapping the themes to the military capability model and formalisation of the relationships. The purpose of such an exercise is to exploit learning from other (mainly civil) domains in the military context, with regard to the readiness themes which overlap with a limited set of critical features for design within a NEC context

Secure data sharing and processing in heterogeneous clouds

The extensive cloud adoption among the European Public Sector Players empowered them to own and operate a range of cloud infrastructures. These deployments vary both in the size and capabilities, as well as in the range of employed technologies and processes. The public sector, however, lacks the necessary technology to enable effective, interoperable and secure integration of a multitude of its computing clouds and services. In this work we focus on the federation of private clouds and the approaches that enable secure data sharing and processing among the collaborating infrastructures and services of public entities. We investigate the aspects of access control, data and security policy languages, as well as cryptographic approaches that enable fine-grained security and data processing in semi-trusted environments. We identify the main challenges and frame the future work that serve as an enabler of interoperability among heterogeneous infrastructures and services. Our goal is to enable both security and legal conformance as well as to facilitate transparency, privacy and effectivity of private cloud federations for the public sector needs. © 2015 The Authors

Knowledge-based life event model for e-government service integration with illustrative examples

The advancement of information and communications technology and web services offers an opportunity for e-government service integration, which can help improve the availability and quality of services offered. However, few of the potential service integration applications have been adopted by governments to increase the accessibility of and satisfaction with government services and information for citizens. Recently, the 'life event' concept was introduced as the core element of integrating complexity of service delivery to improve the efficiency and reusability of e-government services, web-based information management systems. In addition, a semantic web-based ontology is considered to be the most powerful conceptual approach for dealing with challenges associated with developing seamless systems in distributed environments. Among these challenges are interoperability, which can be loosely defined as the technical capability for interoperation. Despite the conceptual emergence of semantic web-based ontology for life events, the question remains of what methodology to use when designing a semantic web-based ontology for life events. This paper proposes a semantic web-based ontology model for life events for e-government service integration created using a methodology that implements the model using the ontology modelling tool Protégé and evaluates the model using Pellet Reasoner and the SPARQL query language. In addition, this model is illustrated by two examples, the Saudi Arabia King Abdullah Scholarship and Hafiz, to show the advantages of integrated systems compared with standalone systems. These examples show that the new model can effectively support the integration of standalone e-government services automatically so that citizens do not need to manually execute individual services. This can significantly improve the accessibility of e-government services and citizen's satisfaction. © 2014-IOS Press

The Distributed Ontology Language (DOL): Use Cases, Syntax, and Extensibility

The Distributed Ontology Language (DOL) is currently being standardized within the OntoIOp (Ontology Integration and Interoperability) activity of ISO/TC 37/SC 3. It aims at providing a unified framework for (1) ontologies formalized in heterogeneous logics, (2) modular ontologies, (3) links between ontologies, and (4) annotation of ontologies. This paper presents the current state of DOL's standardization. It focuses on use cases where distributed ontologies enable interoperability and reusability. We demonstrate relevant features of the DOL syntax and semantics and explain how these integrate into existing knowledge engineering environments.Comment: Terminology and Knowledge Engineering Conference (TKE) 2012-06-20 to 2012-06-21 Madrid, Spai

Web2Touch 2019: Semantic Technologies for Smart Information Sharing and Web Collaboration

This foreword introduces a summary of themes and papers of the Web2Touch (W2T) 2019 Track at the 28th IEEE WETICE Conference held in Capri, June 2019. W2T 2019 includes ten full papers and one short paper. They all address relevant issues in the field of information sharing for collaboration, including, big data analytics, knowledge engineering, linked open data, applications of smart Web technologies, and smart care. The papers are a portfolio of hot issues in research and applications of semantics, smart technologies (e.g., IoT, sensors, devices for tele-monitoring, and smart contents management) with crucial topics, such as big data analysis, knowledge representation, smart enterprise management, among the others. This track shows how cooperative technologies based on knowledge representation, intelligent tools, and enhanced Web engineering can enhance collaborative work through smart service design and delivery, so it contributes to radically change the role of the semantic Web and applications