Architecture of Sysperanto: A Model-Based Ontology of the IS Field

The challenge of defining the domain and core concepts of the IS field is a perennial topic at major IS conferences. This paper describes the architecture of Sysperanto, a model-based ontology of the IS field. Sysperanto is being developed as part of an ongoing effort to create methods that typical business professionals can use to analyze systems and system-related projects for themselves at whatever level of depth is appropriate. The name Sysperanto is meant as a metaphor combining generality (covering the IS field), vocabulary (identification of terms), and structure (internally consistent organization) to create an ontology more powerful and useful than a list of keywords or propositions. Sysperanto\u27s architecture provides an organizing framework for codifying the disparate and inconsistent propositions, methods, and findings that constitute the current state of IS knowledge and, in combination, form a major obstacle to knowledge accumulation and use in the IS field. Instead of yet another discussion of whether the IS field lacks a conceptual core and what might be the consequences of such a shortcoming, this paper proposes an architecture and preliminary details of a plausible set of core concepts for the IS field. It starts by summarizing Sysperanto\u27s goals and explaining why work system concepts, rather than information system concepts, are the core of Sysperanto. It presents Sysperanto as a terminological ontology and explains the underlying meta-model. The meta-model is designed to support tools for analyzing systems from a business viewpoint and to help in codifying and organizing knowledge in the IS field. It uses a conceptual map based on extensiveness and guidance in application to compare Sysperanto with other efforts to organize ideas in the IS field. It may be several years before a complete version of Sysperanto is tested through its use in a formal method for analyzing systems or through comparison with other attempts to codify knowledge in the IS field. Nonetheless, its architecture is well enough defined to be compared to the architecture (or lack of architecture) in previous and future approaches for understanding and organizing the basic concepts about information systems

Coalition based approach for shop floor agility – a multiagent approach

Dissertation submitted for a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering, speciality of Robotics and Integrated Manufacturing from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e TecnologiaThis thesis addresses the problem of shop floor agility. In order to cope with the disturbances and uncertainties that characterise the current business scenarios faced by manufacturing companies, the capability of their shop floors needs to be improved quickly, such that these shop floors may be adapted, changed or become easily modifiable (shop floor reengineering). One of the critical elements in any shop floor reengineering process is the way the control/supervision architecture is changed or modified to accommodate for the new processes and equipment. This thesis, therefore, proposes an architecture to support the fast adaptation or changes in the control/supervision architecture. This architecture postulates that manufacturing systems are no more than compositions of modularised manufacturing components whose interactions when aggregated are governed by contractual mechanisms that favour configuration over reprogramming. A multiagent based reference architecture called Coalition Based Approach for Shop floor Agility – CoBASA, was created to support fast adaptation and changes of shop floor control architectures with minimal effort. The coalitions are composed of agentified manufacturing components (modules), whose relationships within the coalitions are governed by contracts that are configured whenever a coalition is established. Creating and changing a coalition do not involve programming effort because it only requires changes to the contract that regulates it

Lexicalização de ontologias : o relacionamento entre conteúdo e significado no contexto da recuperação da informação

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Ciência da Informação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Informação, 2015.Investiga as tecnologias da Web Semântica e as técnicas de Processamento de Linguagem Natural para a elaboração semiautomática de uma base léxico-ontológica, em Português, circunscrita ao domínio de risco financeiro que, incorporada ao modelo de recuperação da informação, visa melhorar a precisão. Identifica teorias, ferramentas e técnicas que propiciam a automatização de procedimentos que extraem elementos ontológicos e léxicos de bases estruturadas e não estruturadas. Esses elementos combinados na forma de base de dados apoiam a geração de índice léxico-semântico que fornece insumos para a proposição de modelo de recuperação da informação semântica. A metodologia adotada se apresenta em: levantamento de fundamentos teóricos e metodológicos, ferramentas e bases de dados ontológicas e textuais; construção de ontologia e base léxico-ontológica com foco no risco financeiro; elaboração de modelo de recuperação da informação semântica; avaliação do modelo realizada num corpus de informação relacionada ao risco financeiro que foi indexado nos moldes tradicionais e contemplando a informação semântica para, então, medir a precisão nas duas situações. Os resultados alcançados demonstram a utilização da metodologia, no domínio de risco financeiro em Português, para a elaboração da ontologia OntoRisco, da base léxico-semântica RiscoLex e da proposta de modelo de recuperação da informação semântica que mostrou resultados superiores aos modelos de recuperação da informação tradicionais, nos testes realizados. Conclui que os resultados satisfatórios mostram a aplicabilidade da proposta metodológica para o domínio em questão e aponta para a possibilidade de expandir a outros domínios com as devidas adaptações dos recursos utilizados. O estudo contribui para a área de representação e organização da informação e do conhecimento na medida em que fornece metodologia, aporte teórico e insumos para que profissionais continuem promovendo o desenvolvimento da Ciência da Informação.This research investigates Semantic Web technologies, and Natural Language Processing techniques in order to semi automatically develop a lexicon-ontological database in Portuguese. This base is intended to improve the precision measurement in the financial risk domain by coupling it into an information retrieval model. It identi This research investigates Semantic Web technologies, and Natural Language Processing techniques in order to semi automatically develop a lexicon-ontological database in Portuguese. This base is intended to improve the precision measurement in the financial risk domain by coupling it into an information retrieval model. It identifies theories, tools and techniques that allow the automation of procedures that extract ontological and lexical elements from structured and non-structured databases. When these lexical and ontological elements are together in a database format, they give support to the generation of lexico-semantic index that can help the creation of semantic information retrieval models. The methodology used is as follows: surveys of methodological and theoretical fundamentals, tools, as well as ontological and textual databases; creation of an ontology and a lexicon-ontology base in the financial risk domain; elaboration of semantic information retrieval model; evaluation of the model using an information corpus related to financial risks – it was indexed by using traditional techniques, i.e. keywords, and also using semantic information; and then the precision of both situations was finally measured. The results achieved demonstrate the methodology used in the financial risk domain to elaborate the ontology, OntoRisco, using the lexico-semantic database, RiscoLex, and the semantic informational retrieval model proposed in this work. In the tests executed, the results were better than those presented by using traditional information retrieval models. It concludes that the results were quite satisfying since they show the applicability of the methodological proposal to the financial risk domain. In addition, it points the possibility of extending the proposal to other domains with only some adaptations.es theories, tools and techniques that allow the automation of procedures that extract ontological and lexical elements from structured and non-structured databases. When these lexical and ontological elements are together in a database format, they give support to the generation of lexico-semantic index that can help the creation of semantic information retrieval models. The methodology used is as follows: surveys of methodological and theoretical fundamentals, tools, as well as ontological and textual databases; creation of an ontology and a lexicon-ontology base in the financial risk domain; elaboration of semantic information retrieval model; evaluation of the model using an information corpus related to financial risks – it was indexed by using traditional techniques, i.e. keywords, and also using semantic information; and then the precision of both situations was finally measured. The results achieved demonstrate the methodology used in the financial risk domain to elaborate the ontology, OntoRisco, using the lexico-semantic database, RiscoLex, and the semantic informational retrieval model proposed in this work. In the tests executed, the results were better than those presented by using traditional information retrieval models. It concludes that the results were quite satisfying since they show the applicability of the methodological proposal to the financial risk domain. In addition, it points the possibility of extending the proposal to other domains with only some adaptations

Ubiquitous User Modeling

More and more interactions take place between humans and mobile or connected IT-systems in daily life. This offers a great opportunity, especially to user modeling, to reach better adaptation with ongoing evaluation of user behavior. This work develops a complete framework to realize the newly defined concept of ubiquitous user modeling. The developed tools cover methods for the uniform exchange and the semantic integration of partial user models. They also account for the extended needs for privacy and the right of every human for introspection and control of their collected data. The SITUATIONALSTATEMENTS and the exchange language USERML have been developed on the syntactical level, while the general user model ontology GUMO and the UBISWORLD ontology have been developed on the semantical level. A multilevel conflict resolution method, which handles the problem of contradictory statements, has been implemented together with a web-based user model service, such that the road capability and the scalability can be proven with this approach.Immer häufiger auftretende Interaktionen im täglichen Leben zwischen Menschen und vernetzten oder mobilen IT-Systemen bieten insbesondere für die Benutzermodellierung eine große Chance, durch ständige Evaluation des Benutzerverhaltens verbesserte Adaptionsleistungen zu erzielen. Die vorliegende Arbeit entwickelt ein komplettes Rahmensystem, um dieses neu definierte Konzept der ubiquitären Benutzermodellierung zu realisieren. Die erarbeiteten Werkzeuge umfassen Methoden zum einheitlichen Austausch und zur semantischen Integration von partiellen Benutzermodellen. Sie berücksichtigen aber auch die erhöhten Anforderungen an die Privatsphäre, sowie das Recht der Menschen auf Introspektion und Kontrolle über die erhobenen Daten. Auf syntaktischer Ebene werden die situationsbeschreibenden Aussagen sowie die Austauschsprache UserML entworfen. Auf semantischer Ebene werden die allgemeine Benutzermodell-Ontologie GUMO und die UBISWELT-Ontologie entwickelt. Ein mehrstufiger Konfliktlösungsmechanismus, der das Problem sich widersprechender Aussagen bearbeitet, wird zusammen mit einem webbasierten Benutzermodell-Service implementiert, sodass die Praxistauglichkeit und die Skalierbarkeit dieses Ansatzes an mehreren Beispielen gezeigt werden kann

The 2010 Winter Olympics: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of the Hotel Industry and Tourism in the Demographic Clusters metro–Vancouver versus the alpine–Resort Whistler

In this thesis, applying an innovative postmodern equal-weight/sequential QUAN→PHEN Mixed-Methods Phenomenological Research (‘MMPR’) approach to study an Olympics’ impact within its two-cluster socio-demographic footprint forms its main contribution to knowledge. Facilitating between-methods triangulation is a novel eclectic pragmatic approach that is used to capture the richness of thematic data flowing from in-depth, open-ended interviews with most – 62 in all – senior Hoteliers spread evenly between distinct urban Metro-Vancouver and rural alpine-Whistler, whilst concurrently capitalizing on the availability of a unique BC Stats proprietary micro-municipal-level secondary data source, i.e., British Columbia’s ‘Additional Hotel Room Tax’ (‘AHRT’). Typically, traditional mono-method-positivist neo-classical economic syntheses are used to quantify an Olympic Games’ ex-ante or ex-post impact. This study’s findings confirm that such syntheses attempts, at the micro-municipal level, lead to inevitable dead-ends. At a sub-national level of micro-granularity, using available economic models is an impossible task due to the insurmountable practical problem of complete lack of, or paucity, of data. When applied to assess mega-events, such modelling is shown to lack credibility; models are insufficiently comprehensive or its users consciously engage in ‘shenanigans’ by force-fitting input/output to produce pre-ordained outcomes for political expedience and meeting agency interests. The ‘MMPR’ approach acknowledges and respects the established and ‘current-thinking’ paradigmatic epistemological and ontological perspectives. ‘Hotel Activity’, measured via ‘AHRT’, is substituted as a ‘Proxy’ for ‘Tourism’ following empirically establishing these three variables as highly correlated. Prevalent academic findings of negative impacts from Winter Olympics are not borne out. Phenomenological issues of ‘illusory correlations’ and ‘data saturation’ are addressed

Spaces, Places and States of Mind: a pragmatic ethnography of liminal critique.

Abstract Spaces, Places and States of Mind: a pragmatic ethnography of liminal critique. Eric Paul Weissman PhD. Concordia University, 2013. Intentional homeless communities, such as tent camps and shantytowns are increasingly entering political and academic debates about how to solve homelessness. Dignity Village Oregon, the first city licensed, homeless-built democratically self-governed, non-profit transitional housing community in US history, was the result of activists fighting for their rights to housing. It is central to debates about the role of homeless camps in various cities’ housing strategies. The village has been criticized from within and by conventionally housed Oregonians for lack of sustainability, a series of impeachments of leadership, failure to transition people into conventional roles and for the drug epidemic that has much of the membership in its grip. Theorized here as a by-product of the intrinsic logical contradictions of democracy and the exigencies of poverty, villagers’ liminality; their suspension between marginal and conventional statuses has an implicit function in the poverty management strategies of the city by keeping them off the streets and preventing them from organizing further. Liminal space and the critical potential of homeless populations are under-theorized. Employing an interdisciplinary approach open to critical diversity called pragmatic ethnography of critique (PEOC), this dissertation uses video, participant observation and critical and reflexive storytelling from the point of views of participants to understand how residents of such communities establish critical commitments to one another and housing activism. Dignity’s twelve-years of struggle are praised by housing activists as evidence of a noble fight for the rights of the poor but critics present it as a lawless, drug infested failure that should be closed. Villagers fear eviction. A solution is difficult to imagine. It is concluded that the village model is less satisfactory than conventional housing programs, but can have a temporary role in stemming homelessness. The village must engage in housing activism in order to empower itself in city politics. A hybridized form of self-governing in which village leadership, homeless advocates and city planners contribute to the political structure of the community is suggested as part of the solution