OntoWeaver S: supporting the design of knowledge portals

This paper presents OntoWeaver-S, an ontology-based infrastructure for building knowledge portals. In particular, OntoWeaver-S is integrated with a comprehensive web service platform, IRS-II, for the publication, discovery, and execution of web services. In this way, OntoWeaver-S supports the access and provision of remote web services for knowledge portals. Moreover, it provides a set of comprehensive site ontologies to model and represent knowledge portals, and thus is able to offer high level support for the design and development process. Finally, OntoWeaver-S provides a set of powerful tools to support knowledge portals at design time as well as at run time

Collaborative Environments. Considerations Concerning Some Collaborative Systems

It is obvious, that all collaborative environments (workgroups, communities of practice, collaborative enterprises) are based on knowledge and between collaboration and knowledge management there is a strong interdependence. The evolution of information systems in these collaborative environments led to the sudden necessity to adopt, for maintaining the virtual activities and processes, the latest technologies/systems, which are capable to support integrated collaboration in business services. In these environments, portal-based IT platforms will integrate multi-agent collaborative systems, collaborative tools, different enterprise applications and other useful information systems.collaboration, collaborative environments, knowledge management, collaborative systems, portals, knowledge portals, agile development of portals

Knowledge management initiative in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)

UPM realizes that its organizational knowledge which resides in individual brain or stored in organizational processes, products, facilities, systems and documentation is quickly becoming a sustainable competitive advantage.This growing attention has lead to the idea that these resources must be protected, cultivated and shared among its members.Knowledge Management Centre (KMC) in UPM was established in 2002. Based on the vision and mission of UPM and KMC, five critical management areas have been identified: Infrastructure, Knowledge Repository, Marketing and Customer Service, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and Knowledge Management Research and Development. This paper discusses the knowledge framework adapted by KMC.These key elements represent the building blocks in implementing the Knowledge Management System (KMS) in sustaining and extending knowledge sharing culture in UPM. An overview of technologies used in (KMS) components, will be discussed in their actual and potential contribution in the process of KMS in UPM

A Knowledge Community of Interest Portal that Facilitates Knowledge Sharing Initiatives in Public Libraries

This dissertation report was prepared for final year project Part B. This project mainly focuses on the development of knowledge community of interest portal that facilitates knowledge sharing initiatives in libraries among public libraries' users. Currently, although library is well-known to be the center of knowledge repository, not many libraries has implemented knowledge management concept within the library itself. There is lack of knowledge sharing platform such as virtual community portal for library users that allow knowledge to be shared among patrons as well as patrons and librarians. For FYP Part A, student had distributed survey questionnaires at selected public libraries to gather and collect useful information regarding the current situation in public libraries. Along the way, research on relevant materials relating to the project such as knowledge management concept, architectures, relevant models, technologies and applications has also been done in order to get a clear understanding. At the end of final year project Part B, student is expected to come up with a complete knowledge management application for libraries in a form of knowledge community portal, equipped with necessary functionality that can facilitates knowledge sharing initiatives in public libraries. This knowledge community portal will be developed based on information collected and research done during FYP Part A and FYP Part B

Geocollaborative Portals And Trip Planning: Users’ Perceptions Of The Success Of The Collaborative Decision Making Processes

As more and more travelers wish to create their personalised trip itineraries, the provision of geographical information and services on travel websites is an unavoidable necessity. The evolution of geoportals, geocollaborative portals and web 2.0 present numerous opportunities and services for making the trip planning process less complex and time consuming, more efficient and more social and collaborative for travelers and their travel companions. This paper aimed at exploring the use and impact of geocollaborative portals on the success of collaborative trip planning processes. To that end, the literature was reviewed for analyzing the functionality of geoportals and geocollaborative portals and demonstrating how these can support and facilitate the collaborative decision making processes for trip planning purposes. A framework for measuring the impacts of geoportals’ use on travellers’ collaborative decision making processes was developed and tested by collecting primary data through an experimental study based on students’ perceptions using Yahoo! Trip Planner for planning a group trip. The paper provides useful practical guidelines for designing the functionality of geoportals and/or geocollaborative portals for trip planning purposes

Scientific Literacy in the digital age: tools, environments and resources for co-inquiry

This paper describes some European and International projects to promote Scientific Literacy in the digital age as well as technologies, environments and resources for co-inquiry. The aim of this research is also to describe computer applications, software tools and environments that were designed to support processes of collaborative inquiry learning to promote Scientific Literacy. These tools are analyzed by describing their interfaces and functionalities. The outcomes of this descriptive research points out some effects on student learning and competences developed known from the literature. This paper argues the importance of promoting scientific citizenship not only through schools and Universities (formal learning), but also non-credit online courses and community-based learning programmes (non-formal context), as well as daily life activities, educational open digital materials through social networks (informal scenario)

A semantic web service-based architecture for the interoperability of e-government services

We propose a semantically-enhanced architecture to address the issues of interoperability and service integration in e-government web information systems. An architecture for a life event portal based on Semantic Web Services (SWS) is described. The architecture includes loosely-coupled modules organized in three distinct layers: User Interaction, Middleware and Web Services. The Middleware provides the semantic infrastructure for ontologies and SWS. In particular a conceptual model for integrating domain knowledge (Life Event Ontology), application knowledge (E-government Ontology) and service description (Service Ontology) is defined. The model has been applied to a use case scenario in e-government and the results of a system prototype have been reported to demonstrate some relevant features of the proposed approach

Intelligent Mobile Learning Interaction System (IMLIS): A Personalized Learning System for People with Mental Disabilities

The domain of learning context for people with special needs is a big challenge for digi- tal media in education. This thesis describes the main ideas and the architecture of a system called Intelligent Mobile Learning Interaction System (IMLIS) that provides a mobile learning environment for people with mental disabilities. The design of IMLIS aims to enhance personalization aspects by using a decision engine, which makes deci- sions based on the user s abilities, learning history and reactions to processes. It allows for adaptation, adjustment and personalization of content, learning activities, and the user interface on different levels in a context where learners and teachers are targeting autonomous learning by personalized lessons and feedback. Due to IMLIS dynamic structure and flexible patterns, it is able to meet the specific needs of individuals and to engage them in learning activities with new learning motivations. In addition to support- ing learning material and educational aspects, mobile learning fosters learning across context and provides more social communication and collaboration for its users. The suggested methodology defines a comprehensive learning process for the mentally disabled to support them in formal and informal learning. We apply knowledge from the field of research and practice to people with mental disabilities, as well as discuss the pedagogical and didactical aspects of the design

Web Content Management Systems, a Collaborative Environment in the Information Society

The aim of the present paper is to analyze the main models of collaboration and the use of a Web CMS, in order to develop an online community. Taking into consideration the multitude of the existing Web CMSs on the market and their diverse functionalities, we conducted a prospective study that tests the development trends in the field, with the view of finding out which are the most important Web CMSs in practice, and which are the most important functionalities they have to possess, in order to develop a collaborative online community. The results of the study show that the most popular Web CMS is Joomla, and the most widespread programming language is PHP. Likewise, we consider that this study can help the entry-level web developers to get an overview of the most popular Web CMSs, and their functionalities.collaboration, content management, web content management systems

Annual Report #2

Share.TEC has undertaken to build an advanced user-focused system that aggregates metadata describing TE-related digital resources located Europe-wide. The system aims to offer personalized, culturally-sensitive brokerage for the retrieval of relevant digital content and to nurture a more Europe-wide perspective among those working in and with the TE community. As well as generally pursuing its objectives as set out in the Description of Work throughout Year 2, the consortium also targeted its efforts on a series of realignment actions. These were specifically devised as a suitable response to the findings of the First Intermediate Review (EC evaluation) and the project\u27s internal Year 1 Evaluation Report. The most important of the realignment actions regarded greater end-user involvement to ensure acceptance of project results (especially portal & services); significant enhancement of the system from prototype to pilot, ensuring it is capable of meeting user needs; steps to set up a network of user communities; measures to ensure a suitable balance between quantity and quality of items available in the portal. The actions taken in each of these cases are reported in Sections 5 and 7, while a detailed report listing each evaluation finding and the corresponding actions is contained in Deliverable D1.6