Towards the Semantic Web

With the current changes driven by the expansion of the World WideWeb, this book uses a different approach from other books on themarket: it applies ontologies to electronically availableinformation to improve the quality of knowledge management in largeand distributed organizations. Ontologies are formal theoriessupporting knowledge sharing and reuse. They can be used toexplicitly represent semantics of semi-structured information.These enable sophisticated automatic support for acquiring,maintaining and accessing information. Methodology and tools aredeveloped for intelligent access to large volumes ofsemi-structured and textual information sources in intra- andextra-, and internet-based environments to employ the full power ofontologies in supporting knowledge management from the informationclient perspective and the information provider. The aim of the book is to support efficient and effective knowledgemanagement and focuses on weakly-structured online informationsources. It is aimed primarily at researchers in the area ofknowledge management and information retrieval and will also be auseful reference for students in computer science at thepostgraduate level and for business managers who are aiming toincrease the corporations' information infrastructure. The Semantic Web is a very important initiative affecting thefuture of the WWW that is currently generating huge interest. Thebook covers several highly significant contributions to thesemantic web research effort, including a new language for definingontologies, several novel software tools and a coherent methodologyfor the application of the tools for business advantage. It alsoprovides 3 case studies which give examples of the real benefits tobe derived from the adoption of semantic-web based ontologies in"real world" situations. As such, the book is an excellent mixtureof theory, tools and applications in an important area of WWWresearch. * Provides guidelines for introducing knowledge management conceptsand tools into enterprises, to help knowledge providers presenttheir knowledge efficiently and effectively. * Introduces an intelligent search tool that supports users inaccessing information and a tool environment for maintenance,conversion and acquisition of information sources. * Discusses three large case studies which will help to develop thetechnology according to the actual needs of large and or virtualorganisations and will provide a testbed for evaluating tools andmethods. The book is aimed at people with at least a good understanding ofexisting WWW technology and some level of technical understandingof the underpinning technologies (XML/RDF). It will be of interestto graduate students, academic and industrial researchers in thefield, and the many industrial personnel who are tracking WWWtechnology developments in order to understand the businessimplications. It could also be used to support undergraduatecourses in the area but is not itself an introductory text.