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Tech Report kmi-97-17 Abstract


Reusable Components for Knowledge Modelling
Techreport ID: kmi-97-17
Date: 1997
Author(s): Enrico Motta

This book addresses issues of knowledge modelling and reuse.What is the appropriate framework for modelling intelligent problem solving? How best to model reusable knowledge resources? How should libraries of reusable components be organized? I try to answer these questions by describing a comprehensive approach to the specification, organization, configuration and use of reusable components for knowledge models. Hence, the book addresses both theoretical and engineering issues. It proposes a clear theoretical basis to clarify the nature of problem solving methods, but at the same time it shows how to structure practical libraries of reusable components and use them in application development. The general ideas concerning modelling and reuse presented in this book are instantiated in the area of parametric design and, as a result, the book also proposes a number of specific design technologies. These include a characterization (task ontology) of the class of parametric design problems, a generic model of parametric design problem solving and a number of specific problem solving methods for parametric design. Finally, the book also illustrates how to apply these reusable components to develop executable application models in the domains of elevator configuration and office allocation.

Publication(s):

IOS Press, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 1999.
 
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Semantic Web and Knowledge Services is...


Semantic Web and Knowledge Services
"The Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation" (Berners-Lee et al., 2001).

Our research in the Semantic Web area looks at the potentials of fusing together advances in a range of disciplines, and applying them in a systemic way to simplify the development of intelligent, knowledge-based web services and to facilitate human access and use of knowledge available on the web. For instance, we are exploring ways in which tnatural language interfaces can be used to facilitate access to data distributed over different repositories. We are also developing infrastructures to support rapid development and deployment of semantic web services, which can be used to create web applications on-the-fly. We are also investigating ways in which semantic technology can support learning on the web, through a combination of knowledge representation support, pedagogical theories and intelligent content aggregation mechanisms. Finally, we are also investigating the Semantic Web itself as a domain of analysis and performing large scale empirical studies to uncover data about the concrete epistemologies which can be found on the Semantic Web. This exciting new area of research gives us concrete insights on the different conceptualizations that are present on the Semantic Web by giving us the possibility to discover which are the most common viewpoints, which viewpoints are mutually inconsistent, to what extent different models agree or disagree, etc...

Our aim is to be at the forefront of both theoretical and practical developments on the Semantic Web not only by developing theories and models, but also by building concrete applications, for a variety of domains and user communities, including KMi and the Open University itself.