FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGYHELLAS INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

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FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY-HELLAS INS
TITUTE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
INFORMATION SYSTEMS LABORATORYhttp//www.forth.gr
/ics/isl/

• Head Prof. Panos Constantopoulos

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Current RD activities
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Application areas

• Scientific, technical and legal documentation and
  knowledge bases
• Organizational memories, digital libraries
• Web data and service platforms
• Portlets, Active Workflows
• E-business
• product catalogues, service brokering
• Enterprise resource planning

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Centre for Cultural Informatics

• A unit of ISL specializing in the analysis,
  design, development and application of IT systems
  in the cultural heritage sector
• Follows a cross-disciplinary approach
• Aims at covering the entire lifecycle of cultural
  information and of documentation processes
• Areas of activity
• monument and museum information systems
• source material management systems
• models and standards for cultural data
• terminology systems

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Technological results highlights

• Standards
• The Conceptual Reference Model of the
  Documentation Committee, International Council of
  Museums now a candidate ISO standard.
• Enabling technologies
• The Semantic Index System (SIS)
• A versatile, high performance tool for concept
  and semantic link management, especially suited
  for meta-modelling. Offered as product.
• The RDF Suite
• Includes a parser supporting semantic validation,
  a database generator, and a declarative query
  language, all the first of their kind. Open
  source.
• Selected application systems
• The SIS-TMS multilingual thesaurus management
  system.
• Offered as product. 35 installations to-date.
• The POLEMON National Monuments Record system
• Approved by the Central Archaeological Council
  for application at all units and supervised
  organizations of the Ministry of Culture. Already
  deployed at 21 locations.
• Integrated documentation and document management
  system for the Germanisches Nationalmuseum,
  Nuremberg.

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Personnel

• (November 2002)
• Researchers 2
• Univ. of Crete faculty 5
• Affiliated researcher 1
• RD engineers 12
• Doctoral research assistants 3
• M.Sc. Research assistants 12
• Graduate trainees 6

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Collaborations

• National
• National Technical University (NTUA), Aristotle
  University of Thessaloniki, Institute for
  Language and Speech Processing (ILSP), Greek
  Ministry of Culture, Minoan Lines, ...
• International
• University Paris-Sud, Institut National de
  Recherche en Informatique et Automatique (INRIA),
  Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers
  (CNAM), Ecole Nationale Supérieure des
  Télécommunications Bretagne (ENST), Consiglio
  Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Rutherford
  Appleton Laboratory (RAL), Getty Information
  Institute, Ministere de la Culture (France), Cité
  des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Germanisches
  Nationalmuseum Nuremberg,
• Industrial
• Intrasoft SA, Epsilon Software SA, Unixfor (UF),
  Bull, Valoris, Finsiel, System Simulation Limited
  (SSL), ...

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The ICS-FORTH RD Activities on the Semantic Web
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What is a Community Web ?

• The main requirement is to provide a single
  point of useful, ubiquitous comprehensive, and
  integrated access to various information
  resources

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Community Knowledge Processes
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Community Information Resources Cultural Example
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Metadata exists for Almost Anything/Everywhere

• Physical Objects, Places,
• People,
• Devices, Networks,
• Infrastructure,
• Digital Documents, Data,
• Programs,
• User Profiles, Preferences,

lttag1gt lttag2gt lttag3gt lt/tag1gt
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Semantic Web Resource Descriptions
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A Cultural Community Web Portal Example
Portal Schema
Portal Resource Descriptions
r2 museoreinasofia.mcu.es/ guernica.jpg
r1www.rodin.fr/ thinker.gif
r4museoreinasofia.mcu.es
r3www.artchive.com/ woman.jpg
Web Resources
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Community Semantic Webs Navigating/Querying
Museums
Techniques
Artifacts
Artists
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Mediators over ontology-based sources
Mediator
Simple ontology (a terminology a subsumption
relation)
Articulations (subsumption across ontologies)
Ontologies
DBs descriptions of objects using terms of the
ontologies
Information sources
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Mediators over ontology-based sources, cont.

• Integration approach for providing unified access
  over ontology-based information sources of the
  kind of Web Catalogs (e.g. Yahoo!, ODP)
• e.g. for defining user views over the catalogs of
  the web
• Sources and mediators can operate in a variety of
  modes according to specific application needs
  (recall or precision)
• lower upper approximation
• sure possible answer
• Articulation (instead of merging) enables a
  very natural, incremental evolution of a network
  of information sources.

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The ICS-FORTH RDFSuite Main Components

• Open Source Code (C-Web license)
  http//139.91.183.309090/RDF/
• The Validating RDF Parser (VRP) Karsten Tolle
  Diploma Thesis
• The First RDF Parser supporting semantic
  validation of both resource descriptions and
  schemas
• The RDF Schema Specific DataBase (RSSDB) Sophia
  Alexaki MSc. Thesis
• The First RDF Store using schema knowledge to
  automatically generate an Object-Relational
  (SQL3) representation of RDF metadata and load
  resource descriptions
• The RDF Query Language (RQL) Greg Karvournarakis
  MSc. Thesis
• The First Declarative Language for uniformly
  querying RDF schemas and resource descriptions

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The RDFSuite Architecture
ICS-RSSDB
ICS-VRP
ICS-RQL Interpreter
Class
Property
Typing
p_name
domain
range
c_name
LIB C
Graph Constructor




Loading RDF Java APIs
DBMS RDF query API
JDBC
RDF Loader
VRP
Internal
SQL3 SPI functions
SubClass
RDF Model
SubProperty
SQL3
SQL3
Evaluation
Parser
class1
property
URI
creates
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The C-Web Platform Architecture
Server-side app.
Legacy DB
RQL
RSSDB
Import RWOS
Loader
Robot
Concept. schema metadata
HTTP DAV
HTTP DAV
WRS
WRS
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The C-Web Project

• EC IST Project (13479) 1999-2000
• Overall Aim Set-up methodologies and
  infrastructure for fast deployment and easy
  management of Web Portals for communities
  requiring
• effective knowledge assimilation,elicitation
• efficient semantic query answering
• Partners INRIA(FR), FORTH(GR), EDW(IT)
• Application Scenarios Learning Portals for
  intranets or the Internet
• Corporate Knowledge Servers (e.g., automobile,
  telecommunications)
• Memory Organizations (e.g., museums, libraries,
  archives)

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The Project MESMUSES

• EC IST Project (26074) 2001 2003
• Overall Aim design and experiment knowledge maps
  for organising, structuring and presenting
  scientific and technical knowledge
• semantic portals create and offer a
  cartography of connected or neighbouring
  knowledge domains
• knowledge itineraries navigate either on
  predefined routes, or on new routes that users
  define in a cooperative manner
• Partners INRIA(FR), FINSIEL(IT) FORTH (GR),
  ENSTB (FR), VALORIS (FR), IMSS (IT), CSI (FR),
  EDW (IT), DET-UNIFI (IT)
• Application Scenario scientific museums

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Effective Knowledge Management 5 biggest
Barriers
Source Infratest Burke
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How the Semantic C-Webs addresses the 5 obstacles
Solutions
Obstacles

• Direct publishing of information resources by the
  contributors
• Semantic descriptions of resources used by
  consumers
• Automatic publication of new versions of
  resources
• Contributors control their knowledge

• Lack of time
• Unawareness about Need
• Neglectance
• Intransparency
• Knowledge is Power

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A Wider Perspective for SeLenePeer-to-Peer
Knowledge Sharing
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What is P2P ?
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What is P2P ?
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What is P2P ?
Peer
Peer
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What is P2P ?
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The P2P Paradigm for Knowledge Management

• Three examples
• Searching information resources in a research
  organization
• On the fly Collaborations between People
• Knowledge exchange without central cost center

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Sharing Knowledge in Research Organization

• Vassilis searches desktops of her fellow
  researchers and downloads information
• Meta-information is transmitted on request
• Time-efficient
• Dimitris doesnt have to think about publishing
  his information
• Dimitris could restrict access to meta data and
  sell the full tutorial

• Vassilis searches tutorials on P2P
• Vassilis browses the KM server
• Dimitris has worked on P2P but forgot to
  publish the information to the KM server
• Vassilis calls Dimitris to ask about P2P
• Dimitris e-mails Vassilis relevant files

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On the fly Collaborations between People

• Collaborative Commerce is the next wave of
  enterprise applications
• Customer Relationship Management
• Supply Chain (B2B) Management
• Product Lifecycle Management
• Distributed collaborative networks of data,
  applications and knowledge
• Spontaneous online collaboration with colleagues,
  suppliers, customers, ...
• Central administration can not provide the
  necessary flexibility to manipulate user data and
  applications on each others computers
• Many people resort to e-mail as communication
  tool
• Necessity for active (push) publication and
  distribution
• New versions have to be resend
• People get flooded by information

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On the fly Collaborations between People
Product Lifecycle Management
Supplier Management

• Extended relationship management (XRM)
• requires truly decentralized administration to
  collaborate in an ever faster changing
  environment
• peering management and connection technology on a
  scalable network architecture
• semantic vs physical network oriented message
  routing

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Knowledge Exchange without Central Cost Center
Athens
Nicosia

• Departments around the world want to share
  information. They decide to use the Internet (or
  VPN)
• Allocate a budget for web server, administration,
  and content management
• Structure the available information
• Administrate users on web server

• P2P platform allows exchange of information
  without upfront investments
• Every participant pays for his own platform
• Contributors keep control of their knowledge

Paris
London
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KM and e-Learning Four Scenarios
Planet of Contenteous
Planet Instantia
Nomadict Planet
Planet of Cafélattia
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Planet of Contenteous

• Classical transmission model of knowledge
• rich content learning process
• formal testing feedback
• assessment on reproduction critique
• Technology as a content delivery system
• content learning management systems,
• multi media, DVDs, digital cable TV.a
• Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
• support different media
• automatic testing tracking
• eye into reality, simulations, virtuality
• mass viewing, individual assessment
• asynchronous synchronous scheduling

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Planet Instantia

• Continuous, autonomous, adaptive skills
  development
• flexible instant
• just for me, just in time
• just for now, just enough
• assessment on authenticity tracking
• Technology as a tool for in-house knowledge
  assimilation
• from computer desk
• learning objects rule the planet!
• Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
• high reliable, scalable as courses increase
• individualisation, customisation

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Nomadict

• Truly any time, any place learning
• work with varying cultures traditions
• learner chooses style, focused learning
• components interact with learners environments
• student designed assessments (with helpers)
• Wearable, portable embedded technologies
  promote student ownership of learning process
• PDAs, Palms tops, 3rd generation mobile phones
• GPS, wireless personal
• national international communication networks
• VLEs accessible anywhere without client software
• support tiny chunks of learning activities
  (modularity)
• ambient intelligence
• personalized assessment

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Planet of Cafélattia

• Social context for learning p2p information
  exchange knowledge construction processes
• acquisition, argument application
• find interact with like-minded others
• free expression, intellectual extension by
  dialogue
• sharing of tacit knowledge (professional
  communities)
• negotiated assessment problem solving skills
• Developed Internet (beyond the browser!)
  technologies as
• mediating devices
• contexts community space
• asynchronous synchronous groupware
• distributed computing resources P2P memory space
  sharing
• VLE support many standards and/or compatibility
  addressed
• knowledge management tools
• much improved group working tools
• sophistication in collaborative environments

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2 Views of Developing online Learning Processes
Human intervention support

• Moderated interaction

• Cognitive/behaviourist

course in a box (OR ON A SCREEN)
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From e-Learning to e-Business Management
Individual Learning Systems
Organizational Learning Systems
Advanced Simulations
Virtual Communities
E-nnovation Studies
Intelligent Learning Agents
Innovation Change Processes
Knowledge Management
e-Business e-Management
e-Learning
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From e-Learning to e-Business Management
Individual Learning Systems
Organizational Learning Systems
Advanced Simulations
Virtual Communities
E-nnovation Studies
Intelligent Learning Agents
cyberentrepreneurship cases and studies
innovation processes at company and market
level sector-specific studies (banking,
content, etc.)
online platforms design and evaluation
analysis of online social dynamics analysis
of knowledge- value-creating processes
(learning communities)
effectiveness of advanced experiential
learning systems design of multi-user,
virtual reality environments object-oriented
modelling of organizational dynamics
modelling of highly inter- active learning
change processes modelling of knowledge
domains (ontologies) intelligentconversational
agents (InCAs)
Innovation Change Processes
Knowledge Management
e-Business e-Management
e-Learning