Legal Ontologies in Knowledge Engineering and Information Management

In this article we describe two core ontologies of law that specify knowledge that is common to all domains of law. The first one, FOLaw describes and explains dependencies between types of knowledge in legal reasoning; the second one, LRI-Core ontology, captures the main concepts in legal information processing. Although FOLaw has shown to be of high practical value in various applied European ICT projects, its reuse is rather limited as it is rather concerned with the structure of legal reasoning than with legal knowledge itself: as many other “legal core ontologies”, FOLaw is therefore rather an epistemological framework than an ontology. Therefore, we also developed LRI-Core. As we argue here that legal knowledge is based to a large extend on common-sense knowledge, LRI-Core is particularly inspired by research on abstract common-sense concepts. The main categories of LRI-Core are: physical, mental and abstract concepts. Roles cover in particular social worlds. Another special category are occurrences; terms that denote events and situations. We illustrate the use of LRI-Core with an ontology for Dutch criminal law, developed in the e-Court European project.     

“Old” theories, “New” technologies: Understanding knowledge sharing and learning in Brazilian software development companies

ContextNew technologies such as social networks, wikis, blogs and other social software enable collaborative work and are important facilitators of the learning process. They provide a simple mechanism for people to communicate and collaborate and thus support the creation of knowledge. In software-development companies they are used to creating an environment in which communication and collaboration between workers take place more effectively.ObjectiveThis paper identifies the main tools and technologies used by software-development companies in Brazil to manage knowledge and attempts to determine how these tools and technologies relate to important knowledge-sharing and learning theories and how they support the concepts described by these theories.MethodA survey was conducted in a group of Brazilian software development companies with high levels of process software maturity to see how they implement the Brazilian Software Processes Improvement model (MPS.Br) and use new tools and technologies. The survey used a qualitative analysis to identify which tools are used most and how frequently employees use them. The results of the analysis were compared with data from the literature on three knowledge-sharing and learning theories to understand how the use of these tools relates to the concepts proposed in these theories.ResultsThe results show that some of the tools used by the companies do not apply the concepts described in the theories as they do not help promote organizational learning. Furthermore, although the companies have adopted the tools, these are not often used, mainly because they are felt not to organize information efficiently.ConclusionThe use of certain tools can help promote several concepts described in the theories considered. Moreover, the use of these tools can help reduce the impact of, some common organizational problems. However, companies need to improve existing organizational policies that encourage employees to use these tools more regularly.     

Procedural knowledge for integrated modelling: Towards the Modelling Playground

Integration aims to bridge disciplines and bring together knowledge that is fragmented across these disciplines. However, practical integration in Natural Resource Management (NRM) remains out-paced by the increasing pressures on natural resources. Research must become more effective at producing tools appropriate for NRM praxis (IAASTD 2009).Quantitative integrated modelling (IM) offers NRM the precision of mathematical formalism for rigorously evaluating hypotheses, testing concepts and comparing management options. To support IM, software tools have made great leaps in recent years. On the other hand, the knowledge of how to apply this “cyber infrastructure” remains mostly tacit and no adequate guidelines are available to support project managers in choosing cyber infrastructure that is appropriate for a specific project.The objective of this paper is to define a framework and a benchmark against which the efficiency of integrated modelling for natural resource management (IM-NRM) processes can be evaluated. First, the IM challenge is characterized by defining complexity, knowledge requirements and, using concepts from organizational theory, three strategies of knowledge acquisition. These include individual learning, collaboration within staff and cooperation with third parties. Next, the three strategies are used to categorize the organizational challenge of IM-NRM with five metaphors. Cyber infrastructure plays a pivotal and distinct role in each metaphor by sharing knowledge across project members. One of these metaphors, the “Modelling Playground,” is defined as an optimal combination of the three strategies.Finally, this perspective is used to describe two NRM projects, one from academia and one from a governmental program. Both case studies have undergone significant changes in organizational structure and in knowledge acquisition strategies. The initial choice of cyber infrastructure proved insufficient for these changes and resulted in significant adjustment costs.In conclusion, it is suggested that guidelines for cyber infrastructure used in NRM, which take into consideration the aspired goals, the constraining organizational context and incentive structures, are crucial to improve the effectiveness of NRM. It is also suggested that lesson learning be based on the framework of organizational theory, as well as an action-based approach, to create a test Modelling Playground as a learning hub.     

Organizational Memory as Objects, Processes, and Trajectories: An Examination of Organizational Memory in Use

For proper knowledge management, organizations must consider how knowledge is kept and reused. The term organizational memory is due for an overhaul. Memory appears to be everywhere in organizations; yet, the term has been limited to only a few uses. Based on an ethnographic study of a telephone hotline group, this paper presents a micro-level, distributed cognition analysis of two hotline calls, the work activity surrounding the calls, and the memory used in the work activity. Drawing on the work of Star, Hutchins, and Strauss, the paper focuses on issues of applying past information for current use. Our work extends Strauss' and Hutchins' trajectories to get at the understanding of potential future use by participants and its role in current information storage. We also note the simultaneously shared provenance and governance of multiple memories – human and technical. This analysis and the theoretical framework we construct should be to be useful in further efforts in describing and analyzing organizational memory within the context of knowledge management efforts.     

Knowledge management through multi-perspective modelling: representing and distributing organizational memory

Full and accurate representation of an organization's knowledge assets, which together constitute “organizational memory”, requires multi-perspective modelling at a number of levels of detail. We propose that the perspectives which need to be represented can be characterized as who, what, how, when, where and why knowledge; these perspectives, and necessary levels of abstraction, are captured by the Zachman framework for Information Systems Architecture. We suggest modelling techniques that might be appropriate for different perspectives and levels of abstraction, and illustrate using examples from a medical domain. We also describe how an individual perspective can become the user interface of a knowledge distribution system, and illustrate this by describing the protocol assistant, a Web-based knowledge-based system capable of representing and reasoning with best practice guidelines (“protocols”) in the medical domain.     

A graph-based framework for model-driven optimization facilitating impact analysis of mutation operator properties

Optimization problems in software engineering typically deal with structures as they occur in the design and maintenance of software systems. In model-driven optimization (MDO), domain-specific models are used to represent these structures while evolutionary algorithms are often used to solve optimization problems. However, designing appropriate models and evolutionary algorithms to represent and evolve structures is not always straightforward. Domain experts often need deep knowledge of how to configure an evolutionary algorithm. This makes the use of model-driven meta-heuristic search difficult and expensive. We present a graph-based framework for MDO that identifies and clarifies core concepts and relies on mutation operators to specify evolutionary change. This framework is intended to help domain experts develop and study evolutionary algorithms based on domain-specific models and operators. In addition, it can help in clarifying the critical factors for conducting reproducible experiments in MDO. Based on the framework, we are able to take a first step toward identifying and studying important properties of evolutionary operators in the context of MDO. As a showcase, we investigate the impact of soundness and completeness at the level of mutation operator sets on the effectiveness and efficiency of evolutionary algorithms.

     

Exploring the Impact of Social Networking on Communication in Organizations

ABSTRACT

Social networking technology has the potential to transform how organizations communicate, cooperate, and connect with key stakeholders. Our research explores how social networking technologies are deployed within organizations and how the use of these technologies is related to effectiveness in organizational communication and promotion. We also identify the facilitating factors and constraints around the use of social networking tools for communication. To examine these questions, we conducted interviews with 131 senior level executives across a broad range of organizations and employed both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis. The executives were asked to rate numerically and then discuss in narrative form a series of questions about IT strategy and issues affecting social networking in their organization. We find important differences both in the types of tools used as well as how they are used and discuss the implications of our findings for companies seeking to more effectively harness social networking technologies.     

Ontologies for Knowledge Management: An Information Systems Perspective

Knowledge management research focuses on concepts, methods, and tools supporting the management of human knowledge. The main objective of this paper is to survey basic concepts that have been used in computer science for the representation of knowledge and summarize some of their advantages and drawbacks. A secondary objective is to relate these techniques to information science theory and practice.The survey classifies the concepts used for knowledge representation into four broad ontological categories. Static ontologies describe static aspects of the world, i.e., what things exist, their attributes and relationships. A dynamic ontology, on the other hand, describes the changing aspects of the world in terms of states, state transitions and processes. Intentional ontologies encompass the world of things agents believe in, want, prove or disprove, and argue about. Finally, social ontologies cover social settings – agents, positions, roles, authority, permanent organizational structures or shifting networks of alliances and interdependencies.     

Community-based learning: The core competency of residential, research-based universities

Traditionally, universities focus primarily on instructionist teaching. Such an understanding has been criticized from theoretical and practical points of view. We believe that socio-cultural theories of learning and the concepts of social capital and social creativity hold considerable promise as a theoretical base for the repositioning of universities in the knowledge society. To illustrate our assumption, we provide case studies from the University of Colorado and the University of Siegen. These cases indicate how approaches to community-based learning can be integrated into a curriculum of applied computer science. We also discuss the role these didactical concepts can play within a practice-oriented strategy of regional innovation.     

The technostress trifecta ‐ techno eustress,techno distress and design: Theoretical directions and an agenda for research

Technostress—defined as stress that individuals experience due to their use of Information Systems—represents an emerging phenomenon of scholarly investigation. It examines how and why the use of IS causes individuals to experience various demands that they find stressful. This paper develops a framework for guiding future research in technostress experienced by individuals in organizations. We first review and critically analyse the state of current research on technostress reported in journals from the IS discipline and the non‐IS disciplines that study stress in organizations (eg, organizational behaviour and psychological stress). We then develop our framework in the form of the “technostress trifecta”—techno‐eustress, techno‐distress, and Information Systems design principles for technostress. The paper challenges 3 key ideas imbued in the existing technostress literature. First, it develops the argument that, in contrast to negative outcomes, technostress can lead to positive outcomes such as greater effectiveness and innovation at work. Second, it suggests that instead of limiting the role of IS to that of being a stress creator in the technostress phenomenon, it should be expanded to that of enhancing the positive and mitigating the negative effects of technostress through appropriate design. Third, it lays the groundwork for guiding future research in technostress through an interdisciplinary framing that enriches both the IS and the psychological stress literatures through a potential discourse of disciplinary exchange.     

Discovering colored Petri nets from event logs

Process-aware information systems typically log events (e.g., in transaction logs or audit trails) related to the actual execution of business processes. Analysis of these execution logs may reveal important knowledge that can help organizations to improve the quality of their services. Starting from a process model, which can be discovered by conventional process mining algorithms, we analyze how data attributes influence the choices made in the process based on past process executions using decision mining, also referred to as decision point analysis. In this paper we describe how the resulting model (including the discovered data dependencies) can be represented as a Colored Petri Net (CPN), and how further perspectives, such as the performance and organizational perspective, can be incorporated. We also present a CPN Tools Export plug-in implemented within the ProM framework. Using this plug-in, simulation models in ProM obtained via a combination of various process mining techniques can be exported to CPN Tools. We believe that the combination of automatic discovery of process models using ProM and the simulation capabilities of CPN Tools offers an innovative way to improve business processes. The discovered process model describes reality better than most hand-crafted simulation models. Moreover, the simulation models are constructed in such a way that it is easy to explore various redesigns. A. Rozinat’s research was supported by the IOP program of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. M. Song’s research was supported by the Technology Foundation STW.     

Abductive Knowledge Base Updates for Contextual Reasoning

We show in this paper how procedures that update knowledge bases can naturally be adapted to a number of problems related to contextual reasoning. The fact that the update procedures are abductive in nature is favourably exploited to tackle problems related to human-computer dialogue systems. We consider as examples aspects of pronoun resolution,goal formulation , and the problem of restoring the consistency of a knowledge base after some knowledge update is carried out. We state these problems in terms of the update problem and abductive reasoning and show how procedures that update knowledge bases yield some interesting results. We also explain how these procedures can naturally be used to model various forms of hypothetical reasoning such as hypothesizing inconsistencies and performing some look ahead form of reasoning.We do not claim thaT the problems presented here are solved entirely within the update framework. However, we believe that the flexibility of the representation and of the problem-solving approach suggest that the problems could be solved by adding more details about each problem. What is most interesting in our understanding is that all the aforementioned problems are expressed and tackled within the same framework.     

Managing information systems for effectiveness and humanity: Applying research on organizational behavior

A key problem of managers is determining how to manage their professionals for both effectiveness and humanity. Discussion begins by taking a close look at the nature of the problem, to sort out its causes; then it is turned around and viewed as an opportunity. Drawing on recent research in organizational behavior, several strategies for change are recommended. The concept of a psychological contract is introduced as a new perspective of the relationship between the organization and its employees. This suggests that, within , the only way to achieve long-term effectiveness is by managing with a sense of humanity toward employees.     

A framework for evaluating economics of knowledge management systems

Organizations are implementing knowledge management (KM) systems with the assumption that the result will be an increase in organizational effectiveness, efficiency, and competitiveness. Implementing KM systems, however, may be a problem to organizations: too much or too little effort might lead to unwanted outcomes. This paper shows how the introduction of KM systems, which lead to knowledge-sharing, has a negative as well as a positive effect. Important variables from economic perspectives are identified and presented as an integrated framework to illustrate their interrelationships. This paper also explains the implications of an integrated framework for knowledge flow in organizations.     

Role of acquaintance models in agent’s private and semi-private knowledge disclosure

The organizational architecture of the multi-agent systems and the structure of social knowledge that the members of the community administer are critical factors for assuring such patterns of information exchange that keep agents private knowledge confidential. In this paper we will introduce the concept of agents’ private and semi-private knowledge and we will explain the difference between the alliance – a semi-permanent organizational structure and a coalition – a goal-oriented, non-permanent organizational structure. We will provide the reader with an analysis on how does the agents’ social knowledge, stored in the tri-base acquaintance model, contributes to permanent confidentiality of agents’ private knowledge, preferences, decision making models, resources, etc. The study has been experimentally verified in the domain of planning for humanitarian relief operations within a high number of hardly collaborating and vaguely linked non-governmental organizations is a challenging problem.     

A framework for evaluating economics of knowledge management systems

Organizations are implementing knowledge management (KM) systems with the assumption that the result will be an increase in organizational effectiveness, efficiency, and competitiveness. Implementing KM systems, however, may be a problem to organizations: too much or too little effort might lead to unwanted outcomes. This paper shows how the introduction of KM systems, which lead to knowledge-sharing, has a negative as well as a positive effect. Important variables from economic perspectives are identified and presented as an integrated framework to illustrate their interrelationships. This paper also explains the implications of an integrated framework for knowledge flow in organizations.