An ontology roadmap for crowdsourcing innovation intermediaries

Ontologies have proliferated in the last years, essentially justified by the need of achieving a consensus in the multiple representations of reality inside computers, and therefore the accomplishment of interoperability between machines and systems. Ontologies provide an explicit conceptualization that describes the semantics of the data. Crowdsourcing innovation intermediaries are organizations that mediate the communication and relationship between companies that aspire to solve some problem or to take advantage of any business opportunity with a crowd that is prone to give ideas based on their knowledge, experience and wisdom, taking advantage of web 2.0 tools. Various ontologies have emerged, but at the best of our knowledge, there isn’t any ontology that represents the entire process of intermediation of crowdsourcing innovation. In this paper we present an ontology roadmap for developing crowdsourcing innovation ontology of the intermediation process. Over the years, several authors have proposed some distinct methodologies, by different proposals of combining practices, activities, languages, according to the project they were involved in. We start making a literature review on ontology building, and analyse and compare ontologies that propose the development from scratch with the ones that propose reusing other ontologies. We also review enterprise and innovation ontologies known in literature. Finally, are presented the criteria for selecting the methodology and the roadmap for building crowdsourcing innovation intermediary ontology.

Ontology methodology building criteria for crowdsourcing innovation intermediaries

Crowdsourcing innovation intermediaries are organizations that mediate the communication and relationship between companies that aspire to solve some problem or to take advantage of any business opportunity with a crowd that is prone to give ideas based on their knowledge, experience and wisdom. A significant part of the activity of these intermediaries is carried out by using a web platform that takes advantage of web 2.0 tools to implement its capabilities. Thus, ontologies are presented as an appropriate strategy to represent the knowledge inherent to this activity and therefore the accomplishment of interoperability between machines and systems. In this paper we present an ontology roadmap for developing crowdsourcing innovation ontology of the intermediation process. We start making a literature review on ontology building, analyze and compare ontologies that propose the development from scratch with the ones that propose reusing other ontologies, and present the criteria for selecting the methodology. We also review enterprise and innovation ontologies known in literature. Finally, are taken some conclusions and presented the roadmap for building crowdsourcing innovation intermediary ontology.

A Unified Framework for e-Commerce Systems Development : Business Process Pattern Perspective

In electronic commerce, systems development is based on two fundamental types of models, business models and process models. A business model is concerned with value exchanges among business partners, while a process model focuses on operational and procedural aspects of business communication. Thus, a business model defines the what in an e-commerce system, while a process model defines the how. Business process design can be facilitated and improved by a method for systematically moving from a business model to a process model. Such a method would provide support for traceability, evaluation of design alternatives, and seamless transition from analysis to realization. This work proposes a unified framework that can be used as a basis to analyze, to interpret and to understand different concepts associated at different stages in e-Commerce system development. In this thesis, we illustrate how UN/CEFACT’s recommended metamodels for business and process design can be analyzed, extended and then integrated for the final solutions based on the proposed unified framework. Also, as an application of the framework, we demonstrate how process-modeling tasks can be facilitated in e-Commerce system design. The proposed methodology, called BP3 stands for Business Process Patterns Perspective. The BP3 methodology uses a question-answer interface to capture different business requirements from the designers. It is based on pre-defined process patterns, and the final solution is generated by applying the captured business requirements by means of a set of production rules to complete the inter-process communication among these patterns.

Representing organizational structures in enterprise architecture : an ontology-based approach

Arquitetura Corporativa promove o estabelecimento de uma visão holística da estrutura e forma de trabalho de uma organização. Um dos aspectos abordados em Arquitetura Corporativa está associada a "estrutura ativa" da organização, que diz respeito a “quem" realiza as atividades organizacionais. Várias abordagens têm sido propostas a fim de proporcionar um meio para a representação de Arquitetura Corporativa, entre as quais ARIS, RM-ODP, UPDM e ArchiMate. Apesar da aceitação por parte da comunidade, as abordagens existentes se concentram em propósitos diferentes, têm limitações de escopo e algumas não têm semântica de mundo real bem definida. Além das abordagens de modelagem, muitas abordagens de ontologias têm sido propostas, a fim de descrever o domínio de estrutura ativa, incluindo as ontologias de SUPER Project, TOVE, Enterprise Ontology e W3C Org Ontology. Embora especificadas para fundamentação semântica e negociação de significado, algumas das abordagens propostas têm fins específicos e cobertura limitada. Além disso, algumas das abordagens não são definidas usando linguagens formais e outras são especificadas usando linguagens sem semântica bem definida. Este trabalho apresenta uma ontologia de referência bem fundamentada para o domínio organizacional. A ontologia organizacional de referência apresentada abrange os aspectos básicos discutidos na literatura organizacional, tais como divisão do trabalho, relações sociais e classificação das unidades estruturais. Além disso, também abrange os aspectos organizacionais definidos em abordagens existentes, levando em consideração tanto abordagens de modelagem quanto abordagens ontológicas. A ontologia resultante é especificada em OntoUML e estende os conceitos sociais de UFO-C.

Methodology for collaborative enterprise reference ontology building

Dissertation presented at Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia of Universidade Nova de Lisboa to obtain the Master degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Ontology-based knowledge capture and sharing in enterprise organisations

Despite years of effort in building organisational taxonomies, the potential of ontologies to support knowledge management in complex technical domains is under-exploited. The authors of this chapter present an approach to using rich domain ontologies to support sense-making tasks associated with resolving mechanical issues. Using Semantic Web technologies, the authors have built a framework and a suite of tools which support the whole semantic knowledge lifecycle. These are presented by describing the process of issue resolution for a simulated investigation concerning failure of bicycle brakes. Foci of the work have included ensuring that semantic tasks fit in with users’ everyday tasks, to achieve user acceptability and support the flexibility required by communities of practice with differing local sub-domains, tasks, and terminology.

The business model ontology a proposition in a design science approach

The goal of this dissertation is to find and provide the basis for a managerial tool that allows a firm to easily express its business logic. The methodological basis for this work is design science, where the researcher builds an artifact to solve a specific problem. In this case the aim is to provide an ontology that makes it possible to explicit a firm's business model. In other words, the proposed artifact helps a firm to formally describe its value proposition, its customers, the relationship with them, the necessary intra- and inter-firm infrastructure and its profit model. Such an ontology is relevant because until now there is no model that expresses a company's global business logic from a pure business point of view. Previous models essentially take an organizational or process perspective or cover only parts of a firm's business logic. The four main pillars of the ontology, which are inspired by management science and enterprise- and processmodeling, are product, customer interface, infrastructure and finance. The ontology is validated by case studies, a panel of experts and managers. The dissertation also provides a software prototype to capture a company's business model in an information system. The last part of the thesis consists of a demonstration of the value of the ontology in business strategy and Information Systems (IS) alignment. Structure of this thesis: The dissertation is structured in nine parts: Chapter 1 presents the motivations of this research, the research methodology with which the goals shall be achieved and why this dissertation present a contribution to research. Chapter 2 investigates the origins, the term and the concept of business models. It defines what is meant by business models in this dissertation and how they are situated in the context of the firm. In addition this chapter outlines the possible uses of the business model concept. Chapter 3 gives an overview of the research done in the field of business models and enterprise ontologies. Chapter 4 introduces the major contribution of this dissertation: the business model ontology. In this part of the thesis the elements, attributes and relationships of the ontology are explained and described in detail. Chapter 5 presents a case study of the Montreux Jazz Festival which's business model was captured by applying the structure and concepts of the ontology. In fact, it gives an impression of how a business model description based on the ontology looks like. Chapter 6 shows an instantiation of the ontology into a prototype tool: the Business Model Modelling Language BM2L. This is an XML-based description language that allows to capture and describe the business model of a firm and has a large potential for further applications. Chapter 7 is about the evaluation of the business model ontology. The evaluation builds on literature review, a set of interviews with practitioners and case studies. Chapter 8 gives an outlook on possible future research and applications of the business model ontology. The main areas of interest are alignment of business and information technology IT/information systems IS and business model comparison. Finally, chapter 9 presents some conclusions.

Content value chains modelling using a copyright ontology

Existing digital rights management (DRM) systems, initiatives like Creative Commons or research works as some digital rights ontologies provide limited support for content value chains modelling and management. This is becoming a critical issue as content markets start to profit from the possibilities of digital networks and the World Wide Web. The objective is to support the whole copyrighted content value chain across enterprise or business niches boundaries. Our proposal provides a framework that accommodates copyright law and a rich creation model in order to cope with all the creation life cycle stages. The dynamic aspects of value chains are modelled using a hybrid approach that combines ontology-based and rule-based mechanisms. The ontology implementation is based on Web Ontology Language and Description Logic (OWL-DL) reasoners, are directly used for license checking. On the other hand, for more complex aspects of the dynamics of content value chains, rule languages are the choice.

Theoretical perspectives of enterprise architecture

The number of published Enterprise Architecture (EA) research has increased during the last few years. As a discipline, EA is still young and lacking theoretical foundation. Lately some research trying to ground EA to theory has been published, including linkage to systems theory. Enterprise Architecture can be defined as; (i) a formal description of the current and future state(s) of an organisation, and (ii) a managed change between these states to meet organisation’s stakeholders’ goals and to create value to the organisation. Based on this definition, this conceptual paper tries to shed light to theoretical underpinnings of EA from three theoretical perspectives; EA as a communication media, EA as an activity, and EA as an information technology system. Our conclusions are that; (i) EA can be categorised as a communication media and theoretically underpinned by ontology and semiotics, (ii) EA can be explained and theoretically underpinned by Activity Theory, and (iii) EA can be categorised as an information technology system and theoretically underpinned by General Systems Theory and Technology Acceptance Theory.

Assessing the business risk of technology obsolescence through enterprise modelling

The problem of technology obsolescence in information intensive businesses (software and hardware no longer being supported and replaced by improved and different solutions) and a cost constrained market can severely increase costs and operational, and ultimately reputation risk. Although many businesses recognise technological obsolescence, the pervasive nature of technology often means they have little information to identify the risk and location of pending obsolescence and little money to apply to the solution. This paper presents a low cost structured method to identify obsolete software and the risk of their obsolescence where the structure of a business and its supporting IT resources can be captured, modelled, analysed and the risk to the business of technology obsolescence identified to enable remedial action using qualified obsolescence information. The technique is based on a structured modelling approach using enterprise architecture models and a heatmap algorithm to highlight high risk obsolescent elements. The method has been tested and applied in practice in two consulting studies carried out by Capgemini involving three UK police forces. However the generic technique could be applied to any industry based on plans to improve it using ontology framework methods. This paper contains details of enterprise architecture meta-models and related modelling.

An ontology-based approach to define and manage B2B interoperability

Electronic business surely represents the new development perspective for world-wide trade. Together with the idea of ebusiness, and the exigency to exchange business messages between trading partners, the concept of business-to-business (B2B) integration arouse. B2B integration is becoming necessary to allow partners to communicate and exchange business documents, like catalogues, purchase orders, reports and invoices, overcoming architectural, applicative, and semantic differences, according to the business processes implemented by each enterprise. Business relationships can be very heterogeneous, and consequently there are variousways to integrate enterprises with each other. Moreover nowadays not only large enterprises, but also the small- and medium- enterprises are moving towards ebusiness: more than two-thirds of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) use the Internet as a business tool. One of the business areas which is actively facing the interoperability problem is that related with the supply chain management. In order to really allow the SMEs to improve their business and to fully exploit ICT technologies in their business transactions, there are three main players that must be considered and joined: the new emerging ICT technologies, the scenario and the requirements of the enterprises and the world of standards and standardisation bodies. This thesis presents the definition and the development of an interoperability framework (and the bounded standardisation intiatives) to provide the Textile/Clothing sectorwith a shared set of business documents and protocols for electronic transactions. Considering also some limitations, the thesis proposes a ontology-based approach to improve the functionalities of the developed framework and, exploiting the technologies of the semantic web, to improve the standardisation life-cycle, intended as the development, dissemination and adoption of B2B protocols for specific business domain. The use of ontologies allows the semantic modellisation of knowledge domains, upon which it is possible to develop a set of components for a better management of B2B protocols, and to ease their comprehension and adoption for the target users.

Combining Bottom-up and Top-down Generation of Interactive Knowledge Maps for Enterprise Search

Our research project develops an intranet search engine with concept- browsing functionality, where the user is able to navigate the conceptual level in an interactive, automatically generated knowledge map. This knowledge map visualizes tacit, implicit knowledge, extracted from the intranet, as a network of semantic concepts. Inductive and deductive methods are combined; a text ana- lytics engine extracts knowledge structures from data inductively, and the en- terprise ontology provides a backbone structure to the process deductively. In addition to performing conventional keyword search, the user can browse the semantic network of concepts and associations to find documents and data rec- ords. Also, the user can expand and edit the knowledge network directly. As a vision, we propose a knowledge-management system that provides concept- browsing, based on a knowledge warehouse layer on top of a heterogeneous knowledge base with various systems interfaces. Such a concept browser will empower knowledge workers to interact with knowledge structures.

Exploiting Structured Linked Data in Enterprise Knowledge Management Systems: An Idea Management Case Study

In parallel to the effort of creating Open Linked Data for the World Wide Web there is a number of projects aimed for developing the same technologies but in the context of their usage in closed environments such as private enterprises. In the paper, we present results of research on interlinking structured data for use in Idea Management Systems - a still rare breed of knowledge management systems dedicated to innovation management. In our study, we show the process of extending an ontology that initially covers only the Idea Management System structure towards the concept of linking with distributed enterprise data and public data using Semantic Web technologies. Furthermore we point out how the established links can help to solve the key problems of contemporary Idea Management Systems

A novel context ontology to facilitate interoperation of semantic services in environments with wearable devices

The LifeWear-Mobilized Lifestyle with Wearables (Lifewear) project attempts to create Ambient Intelligence (AmI) ecosystems by composing personalized services based on the user information, environmental conditions and reasoning outputs. Two of the most important benefits over traditional environments are 1) take advantage of wearable devices to get user information in a nonintrusive way and 2) integrate this information with other intelligent services and environmental sensors. This paper proposes a new ontology composed by the integration of users and services information, for semantically representing this information. Using an Enterprise Service Bus, this ontology is integrated in a semantic middleware to provide context-aware personalized and semantically annotated services, with discovery, composition and orchestration tasks. We show how these services support a real scenario proposed in the Lifewear project.