An Ontology-Based Collaborative Interorganizational Knowledge Management Network

Web contents can be represented in a structural form by a finite list of vocabularies and their relationships using ontologies. The concept of ontology and its related mediation methods is capable of enhancing the collaboration among Knowledge Management (KM) approaches that only focus on managing organizational knowledge. Those KM approaches are developed in accordance with organizational KM strategies and business requirements without the concern of system interoperation. In this research, an ontology-based collaborative inter-organizational KM network is proposed to provide a platform for organizations to access and retrieve inter-organizational knowledge in a similar domain

Final Report of the ModSysC2020 Working Group - Data, Models and Theories for Complex Systems: new challenges and opportunities

Final Report of the ModSysC2020 Working Group at University Montpellier 2At University Montpellier 2, the modeling and simulation of complex systems has been identified as a major scientific challenge and one of the priority axes in interdisciplinary research, with major potential impact on training, economy and society. Many research groups and laboratories in Montpellier are already working in that direction, but typically in isolation within their own scientific discipline. Several local actions have been initiated in order to structure the scientific community with interdisciplinary projects, but with little coordination among the actions. The goal of the ModSysC2020 (modeling and simulation of complex systems in 2020) working group was to analyze the local situation (forces and weaknesses, current projects), identify the critical research directions and propose concrete actions in terms of research projects, equipment facilities, human resources and training to be encouraged. To guide this perspective, we decomposed the scientific challenge into four main themes, for which there is strong background in Montpellier: (1) modeling and simulation of complex systems; (2) algorithms and computing; (3) scientific data management; (4) production, storage and archiving of data from the observation of the natural and biological media. In this report, for each theme, we introduce the context and motivations, analyze the situation in Montpellier, identify research directions and propose specific actions in terms of interdisciplinary research projects and training. We also provide an analysis of the socio-economical aspects of modeling and simulation through use cases in various domains such as life science and healthcare, environmental science and energy. Finally, we discuss the importance of revisiting students training in fundamental domains such as modeling, computer programming and database which are typically taught too late, in specialized masters

Validity in Qualitative Research: A Processual Approach

Validity and reliability of research and its results are important elements to provide evidence of the quality of research in the organizational field. However, validity is better evidenced in quantitative studies than in qualitative research studies. As there is diversity within qualitative research methods and techniques, there is no universally accepted criteria to assess validity in qualitative studies; its usefulness is also questioned. Therefore, in this paper, we argue that qualitative research should adopt a processual view approach of validity since it should not be the product of a single test or just one step in the research. Processual validity both supports good research and helps in its reflection and guidance. To illustrate our approach, we present the processual approach adopted by one of the coauthors during the development of a research project. We highlight the validity assurance activities for both ex ante and ex post research, peer review and participation in an international conference, which corroborated the quality of the processual approach and the results that were obtained

Nature Inc.

With global wildlife populations and biodiversity riches in peril, it is obvious that innovative methods of addressing our planet’s environmental problems are needed. But is “the market” the answer? Nature™ Inc. brings together cutting-edge research by respected scholars from around the world to analyze how “neoliberal conservation” is reshaping human–nature relations

SiSMI Project–Technologies for the Improvement of Safety and the Reconstruction of Historic Centres in the Seismic Area of Central Italy

The project SISMI-Tecnologie per il miglioramento della Sicurezza e la ricostruzione dei centri Storici in area sisMIca (technologies for the improvement of safety and the reconstruction of historic centres in the seismic area)–aims to provide tools and methods for risk reduction and seismic improvement of Lazio’s cultural assets and centres, causing research, intervention policies, and planning to interact in order to support reconstruction choices and foster dialogue with local parties and enterprises. One of the SISMI project’s main elements of innovation consists of preparing modes of integration of knowledge and assessments relating to the various components of a territory’s vulnerability and seismic hazard that can be used in other seismic territories. SISMI project, tested in seismic territories of Central Italy, is a methodology of integrated, multidimensional, and transdisciplinary investigation, in the conviction that the safety of the territory and of historic and cultural assets is the result of a dynamic risk reduction process capable of guaranteeing and promoting the local communities’ resilience, in which both physical/structural and sociocultural elements collaborate

Applying Wikipedia to Interactive Information Retrieval

There are many opportunities to improve the interactivity of information retrieval systems beyond the ubiquitous search box. One idea is to use knowledge bases—e.g. controlled vocabularies, classification schemes, thesauri and ontologies—to organize, describe and navigate the information space. These resources are popular in libraries and specialist collections, but have proven too expensive and narrow to be applied to everyday webscale search. Wikipedia has the potential to bring structured knowledge into more widespread use. This online, collaboratively generated encyclopaedia is one of the largest and most consulted reference works in existence. It is broader, deeper and more agile than the knowledge bases put forward to assist retrieval in the past. Rendering this resource machine-readable is a challenging task that has captured the interest of many researchers. Many see it as a key step required to break the knowledge acquisition bottleneck that crippled previous efforts. This thesis claims that the roadblock can be sidestepped: Wikipedia can be applied effectively to open-domain information retrieval with minimal natural language processing or information extraction. The key is to focus on gathering and applying human-readable rather than machine-readable knowledge. To demonstrate this claim, the thesis tackles three separate problems: extracting knowledge from Wikipedia; connecting it to textual documents; and applying it to the retrieval process. First, we demonstrate that a large thesaurus-like structure can be obtained directly from Wikipedia, and that accurate measures of semantic relatedness can be efficiently mined from it. Second, we show that Wikipedia provides the necessary features and training data for existing data mining techniques to accurately detect and disambiguate topics when they are mentioned in plain text. Third, we provide two systems and user studies that demonstrate the utility of the Wikipedia-derived knowledge base for interactive information retrieval

The Work of Communication

The Work of Communication: Relational Perspectives on Working and Organizing in Contemporary Capitalism revolves around a two-part question: "What have work and organization become under contemporary capitalism—and how should organization studies approach them?" Changes in the texture of capitalism, heralded by social and organizational theorists alike, increasingly focus attention on communication as both vital to the conduct of work and as imperative to organizational performance. Yet most accounts of communication in organization studies fail to understand an alternate sense of the "work of communication" in the constitution of organizations, work practices, and economies. This book responds to that lack by portraying communicative practices—as opposed to individuals, interests, technologies, structures, organizations, or institutions—as the focal units of analysis in studies of the social and organizational problems occasioned by contemporary capitalism. Rather than suggesting that there exists a canonically "correct" route communicative analyses must follow, The Work of Communication: Relational Perspectives on Working and Organizing in Contemporary Capitalism explores the value of transcending longstanding divides between symbolic and material factors in studies of working and organizing. The recognition of dramatic shifts in technological, economic, and political forces, along with deep interconnections among the myriad of factors shaping working and organizing, sows doubts about whether organization studies is up to the vital task of addressing the social problems capitalism now creates. Kuhn, Ashcraft, and Cooren argue that novel insights into those social problems are possible if we tell different stories about working and organizing. To aid authors of those stories, they develop a set of conceptual resources that they capture under the mantle of communicative relationality. These resources allow analysts to profit from burgeoning interest in notions such as sociomateriality, posthumanism, performativity, and affect. It goes on to illustrate the benefits that investigations of work and organization can realize from communicative relationality by presenting case studies that analyze (a) the becoming of an idea, from its inception to solidification, (b) the emergence of what is taken to be the "the product" in high-tech startup entrepreneurship, and (c) the branding of work (in this case, academic writing and commercial aviation) through affective economies. Taken together, the book portrays "the work of communication" as simultaneously about how work in the "new economy" revolves around communicative practice and about how communication serves as a mode of explanation with the potential to cultivate novel stories about working and organizing. Aimed at academics, researchers, and policy makers, this book’s goal is to make tangible the contributions of communication for thinking about contemporary social and organizational problems

Vers un cycle d'amélioration continue pour la capitalisation des connaissances : un cas d'étude à STMicroelectronics

At STMicroelectronics, the Business Intelligence team is daily confronted to exploit data and information to create reports about manufacturing activities in order to supervise it. In such an industrial organization, products change regularly and data can quickly become obsolete. Consequently, over time, the number of created reports is highly growing, while knowledge about their creation is lost. This is shown in a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the main part of the STMicroelectronics' knowledge system.As a result, problems related to knowledge obsolescence, duplication, non-centralization and proliferation continuously arise. Therefore, this work addresses the general following research question:How to ensure a continuous expert knowledge capitalization?To answer this question, a continuous improvement cycle for knowledge capitalization is proposed. Its objective is to effectively and continuously capitalize expert knowledge while targeting business needs and providing an evolving solution. It is based on a Business Intelligence for Business Intelligence system (BI4BI). Since knowledge is embedded not only in systems and tools, but also in human minds and practices, our proposed knowledge capitalization solution also involves people and organizations: it proposes to collect users' feedbacks and insights to integrate them in knowledge representation and in our BI4BI tool.À STMicroelectronics, l'équipe de Business Intelligence est confrontée à exploiter quotidiennement des données et des informations pour créer des rapports d'activité afin de superviser la production. Dans une telle organisation industrielle, les produits changent régulièrement et les données peuvent rapidement devenir obsolètes. Par conséquent, au fil du temps, le nombre de rapports crées est de plus en plus important, tandis que les connaissances sur leur création sont perdues. Ceci est illustré dans une évaluation qualitative et quantitative de la partie principale du système de connaissances à STMicroelectronics.Ainsi, des problèmes d'obsolescence, de duplication, de non-centralisation et de prolifération continuent à surgir. Ce travail doit, donc, répondre à la question de recherche générale suivante:Comment assurer une capitalisation continue des connaissances métier?Pour répondre à cette question, un cycle d'amélioration continue pour la capitalisation des connaissances est proposé. Son objectif est de capitaliser efficacement et en permanence les connaissances, tout en ciblant les besoins métier et assurant une solution évolutive. Un système de Business Intelligence pour la Business Intelligence (BI4BI) est proposé. Comme la connaissance est intégrée non seulement dans les systèmes et les outils, mais aussi détenue par les humains et leurs pratiques, notre solution de capitalisation de connaissances proposée implique aussi les utilisateurs et les organisations: elle propose de recueillir les points de vue des utilisateurs pour les intégrer dans la représentation des connaissances et dans notre système BI4BI