The present paper is a component of an exploratory research project focused on discovering new ways to build, organize and consolidate organizational memory for an economic entity by means of the new a€sSemantic Weba€t technologies and also encloses someorganizational memory, unified modeling language, semantic web, ontologies

Mangiuc Dragos Marian

English

Research Papers in Economics

976 
ONTOLOGIES REPRESENTATION AND MANAGEMENT, AS A SEMANTIC TOOL FOR 
ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY CONSOLIDATION 
 
Mangiuc Dragoş Marian  
The Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest Faculty of Accounting and Management Information Systems 
Bozieni 8, Bl. 831, Sc. A, Et.9, Ap.906, Sector 6, Bucureşti mangiuc@gmail.com Tel. 0723 – 22 78 76 
 
The present paper is a component of an exploratory research project focused on discovering new ways to build, organize and 
consolidate organizational memory for an economic entity by means of  the new  “Semantic  Web” technologies and also 
encloses some of the results of a previous doctoral research in the field of information technology assistance for the financial 
audit. The paper is an attempt to synthesize the ways “Semantic Web” ontologies definition, description and representation 
may  be  improved  by  the  use  of  the  Unified  Modeling  Language  (or  UML).  The  use  of  a  modeling  tool  for  ontologies 
description and representation is, in the author’s opinion, a way to further interconnect human-level knowledge and machine-
level data in order to “get the best of both worlds”, which is the final objective of the Semantic Web. 
 
Keywords: organizational memory, unified modeling language, semantic web, ontologies  
 
JEL code: M15 
 
Introduction 
The essence of an ontology (at least, according to the interpretation the new “wave” of the Semantic Web imposed) 
is tightly related to vocabularies (as collections of terms) and the completion of the terms’ significance by means of 
expressive,  explicit  and  well-defined  semantics.  The  involved  semantics  should  provide  enough  structure  and 
contents so as interpretation of an ontology by an information system (a machine) should be regarded as a tangible 
goal for the very near future (Davies et al., 2006). In order to get a realistic and quite complete view of the 
ontologies’  place  and role  in the  wider  landscape  of  the  Semantic  Web,  one should  be familiar  with  quite  a 
comprehensive set of concepts (including semantics, knowledge representation, truth function, intension, extension, 
axiom,  theorem,  theory  etc.).  In  the  absence  of  these  concepts,  the  actual  tendencies  and  trends  of  semantic 
technologies are extremely difficult (if not impossible) to understand. 
 
Research Methodology 
The paper is a component of a wider research project called “Research in the Field of Modeling And Building 
Organizational Memory. OMCAAF – A New Methodological Framework for Financial and Accounting Cognitive 
Acquis Capitalization”, and also continues a previous doctoral research in the field of computer-assisted financial 
audit tools and techniques, whose final results were publicly defended in order to be validated by the scientific and 
academic community. The main goal of the aforementioned research was the identification of some new areas of 
applicability for the modern knowledge-based information technologies in the field of financial audit. 
In order to provide a set of valid and well-documented opinions about the realistic ways of augmenting the use of 
organizational memory by means of the modern information technologies, the author’s proposals were preceded by 
an ample process of documentation and analysis of the field literature, allowing to get into terms with the main 
schools  and  opinion  trends  in  the  area,  as  well  as  the  actual  level  of  interconnection  among  the  disciplines 
contributing to the present content of the “organizational memory” and “Semantic Web” concepts. When possible, 
practitioners’ expectations identification was attempted, both by means of questionnaires and direct interviews. In 
case some other author’s opinion was enclosed, whether in exact quotation or synthetic form, a complete mention 
of the source identification information was made. 
In the author’s opinion, the main limitations of this research work may be synthesized as follows: 
 - Some of the technologies taken into account for both design and implementation of financial and accounting 
organizational memory management systems are still in some early development or adoption phases, as others are 
in the specifications refinement phase, and, as a result, their current versions may have a set of serious limitations 
as opposed to the users’ expectations. 
 - Due to the special status and confidential or “classified” contents of the detailed and complete financial and 
accounting data, the author was not able to access an exhaustive set of real-world data, most of the design and 
implementation iterations being performed on a set of test computer-generated data. 
By defending the research results at the proceedings of such a scientific conference, attended by both scholars and 
practitioners bearing some interest in the research area, the author attempts to get further validation of his opinions, 
both confirmation and rejection of the aforementioned opinions’ scientific and practical importance being welcome. 
 
Ontologies Representation and Management, As a Semantic Tool for Organizational Memory Consolidation 
According to its common definition, an ontology defines terms and concepts (or meanings) employed to describe 
and depict an area (or domain) of knowledge. In order to get a first idea about the meaning of the term ontology, an 
explicative dictionary may be consulted. This attempt usually leads to one of the two related definitions: “a branch 977 
of philosophy studying the most general attributes of existence” or, “the theory of existence” (www.dexonline.ro, 
2009). The two definitions place the term in the field of philosophy, as a branch oriented towards the study of the 
principles underlying an object of thought. The term was also employed in the field of information technology, in 
order to describe the field of knowledge design, description and organization outlined during the last decade. Even 
if the relevant literature has not yet provided a unanimously accepted definition, in the author’s opinion there are at 
least three definitions which need to be taken into account: 
 - “An ontology defines the language elements, along with the underlying concepts (or meanings) used to describe 
a domain of knowledge” (Hendler, 2001). 
 - “An ontology is an information systems design product, enclosing a specialized vocabulary employed to describe 
an aspect of the reality, together with a set of explicitly assumed premises (explicit assumptions) regarding  the 
aforementioned vocabulary’s purpose and goal” (Guarino, 1998). 
 - “An ontology is a way to exhaustively and rigorously organize knowledge form inside a domain. Organization is 
usually performed in an hierarchical manner and encloses all the relevant entities pertaining to the modeled 
domain, along with the relationships arising among the entities themselves” (WordNet, 2009). 
A comparative analysis of the three aforementioned definitions emphasizes the terms “description”, “organization” 
and  “knowledge”.  Any  description  of  a  knowledge  domain  assumes  that  sufficient  explanations  are  provided, 
concerning both the entities inside the domain and relationships arising among the entities. The domain description 
may also include a set of domain rules that may be employed as a basis for new knowledge generation. As a 
consequence, we may be able to conclude that any complete and rigorous description may represent an ontology. 
The following table (Table 1) provides a comparative presentation of the elements considered (according to the 
author’s opinion) to be of main importance for the content of an ontology, along with proposals concerning the 
Unified Modeling Language (or UML) elements which optimally comply with each item’s representation needs. 
 
ELEMENT NAME 
DESCRIPTION  UML DIAGRAMS PROPOSED 
FOR PRESENTATION  ONTOLOGY  UML 
Class  Class 
A general element 
pertaining to the modeled 
domain. 
- Class diagram 
- Component diagram 
- Object diagram 
- Package diagram 
- Composite structure diagram 
Instance  Object 
A particular element 
pertaining to the modeled 
domain. 
- Class diagram 
- Component diagram 
- Object diagram 
- Any interaction diagram 
Relationship 
Dependency, 
Association, 
Aggregation, 
Composition, 
Generalization, 
Participation, 
Message (Call) 
A semantic relationship 
among two or more (general 
or particular) elements. 
- Class diagram 
- Package diagram 
Propriety  Attribute 
A characteristic of a general 
element able to receive a 
value for each of the 
pertaining particular 
elements. 
- Class diagram 
Function  Method 
A behavioral item or a 
phase of a process involving 
general or particular 
elements. 
- Class diagram 
- Activity diagram 
- Statechart diagram 
Process  Process 
A collection of 
interconnected treatments 
designed to fulfill a single 
goal. 
- Activity diagram (for the business 
process level) 
- Use case diagram 
Constraint  Guard, 
Condition 
A condition that needs to be 
satisfied by an element or a 
behavior. 
- Object constraint language (or 
OCL) 
Rule  Restriction 
A principle governing a 
behavior or a part of a 
behavior. 
- Object constraint language (or 
OCL) 
Table 3 - Ontology versus UML elements comparison 
 978 
In order for the description of a knowledge domain to be complete, the description should also be represented. The 
representation involves structuring the description in a manner which renders it usable bay all the stakeholders 
(both humans and information systems or computers). In its broadest sense, representation involves the definition 
of terms, followed by an integration of the terms defined, so as a larger part of the modeled knowledge domain is 
rendered  accessible  for  the  user  (Barry  and  Welty,  2001).  Although,  in  the  field  of  information  technology, 
representation has a more complex meaning: it involves building a model which is complete and rigorous enough 
to be used not only by a human being, but also by a machine or an information system (Rodriguez et al., 2004). In 
the author’s opinion, the Unified Modeling Language optimally complies with the aforementioned requests and, by 
consequence, may be used on a wide scale to represent the content of any ontology from within the Semantic Web, 
becoming an important tool for the organizational memory building and configuration.  
UML models may enclose both information and decision elements regarding the semantics of the modeled domain 
and, as a consequence, they may be employed for the understanding, browsing, configuration, maintenance and 
control of the described domain (Evans et al., 2000). The Unified Modeling Language is the quintessence of all the 
previous experience in the field of modeling techniques, an attempt to integrate all the best practices in the field 
into a unique standard and set of specifications. The UML has quasi-unanimous support from the visual modeling 
tools nowadays, mainly because it does not define a particular process, but is rendered compatible with any of the 
modern development processes, particularly with the iterative and incremental object-oriented ones. According to 
the  author’s  opinion,  the  unified  modeling  language  suits  well  the  purpose  of  the  present  research  and,  as  a 
consequence, may be successfully employed for an ontology’s content representation and description. 
The Unified Modeling Language specifications allow the modeler to collect data concerning the static structure and 
also the behavior related to a knowledge domain which is modeled in the form of a collection of interconnected 
objects able to interact in order to fulfill the needs and requests of an external user. The UML static structure 
defines the object types required for the description of an ontology, along with the attached relationships, while the 
behavior  (the  knowledge  domain  dynamic)  defines  the  timeline  evolution  of  the  elements  and  also  the 
communication network the elements employ in order to fulfill the system’s goals. Modeling and presenting an 
ontology from different, but interconnected perspectives allows for a deeper understanding of the way the ontology 
addresses the functional requests of the underlying domain. Moreover, the UML provides a universal tool for 
grouping elements in the form of packages, allowing for the division of large-scale ontologies into manageable 
components and also for the control of inter-package dependencies and components versions management inside a 
complex development environment. And, in order to complete the picture, a set of comprehensive implementation 
decisions description and executable elements or components organization tools is provided. 
The Unified Modeling Language is by no means a programming language, but a large set of software applications 
provide  the  tools  needed  to  translate  UML  visual  representations  into  modern  logical  or  object-oriented 
programming languages source code (direct engineering) and also to automatically construct UML models based 
on the source code analysis (reverse engineering). 
In order to provide an example for the representation of an ontology by means of the Unified Modeling Language 
formalism the author has chosen a section of a human resources related ontology (applicable for any economic 
entity or, at a more general level, for any organization). The example depicts the basic concepts (like  person, 
employee and organization), their derivatives or subclasses (like management employee, company, group, division 
and department), along with the relationships arising among the aforementioned elements, represented by means of 
the UML inter-class relationship types (dependency, association, aggregation, composition, inheritance). The result 
is presented in Figure 1. 979 
 
Figure 5 - A fragment of an ontology described by means of the Unified Modeling Language 
 
The wide spread and adoption of the ontologies depicting both domain knowledge and inter-domain knowledge, as 
well as the improved of such ontologies with UML-based representations constitutes, according to the author’s 
opinion,  an  important  step  forward  in  the  development  of  information  technologies,  as  they  allow  computer 
systems to interact with the users more at a human knowledge level and less at a machine-specific non-semantic 
data  level.  The  ability  to  perform  an  significance  exchange  (not  only  a  data  exchange)  with  a  machine  may 
represent  a  revolutionary  concept  whose  effects  are  already  beginning  to  appear  and  are  able  to  develop 
exponentially in a (very) near future. 
 
Conclusions 
The present research is an attempt to identify the ways that the Unified Modeling Language may be used to 
represent (define and describe) ontologies, which are looked at as a fundamental element of the new semantic-
content technologies and, by consequence, as the basis for organizational memory design and management at the 
organization level. In the author’s opinion, the Unified Modeling Language may be an appropriate tool for the 
representation of ontologies, as its specifications already enclose elements able to represent the mandatory concepts 
in the field of ontologies: syntax, structure, semantics, definition and use. By a set of complex elements (like 
visibility) the UML allows for the representation of some essential elements, like the distinction between labels (or 
terms) and the concepts (or meanings) underlying those terms. The multi-level structure of the UML specifications 980 
also fits the multi-level structure of an ontology, as both have a meta-language level, a language level and also a 
specifications (domain) level. 
Above all the resemblance and differences, the final goal has to be taken into account, and an answer should be 
provided to a legitimate question: “Which is the real advantage in using ontologies?”. In the author’s opinion, the 
real advantage in using ontologies is that for the first time in the history of information technology designers and 
users are able to describe the meaning of their data collections, document collections and information systems, 
based on a single mechanism, which is understandable both for humans and machines. As a consequence, the 
recourse to the Unified Modeling Language  may offer another major advantage: the ability to reuse the own 
ontologies and also the ontologies created by others, to extend them and to implement them in related domains of 
knowledge, and, as a consequence, in related areas of an economic entity’s activity. Setting a common semantic at 
the  organization  level  may  be  regarded  as  a  solid foundation  and  a  first  important  step  for  the  building  and 
consolidation of the organizational memory. 
 
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ONTOLOGIES REPRESENTATION AND MANAGEMENT, AS A SEMANTIC TOOL FOR ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY CONSOLIDATION

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ONTOLOGIES REPRESENTATION AND MANAGEMENT, AS A SEMANTIC TOOL FOR ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY CONSOLIDATION

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