Telework Ontology –
needs and solutions
Zigmas Bigelis
Project “TELEBALT” consultant, zigmasb@is.lt
ECMConsulting, zigmas.bigelis@ecmconsulting.com
Saulius Maskeliūnas
Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, ------------TELEBALT conference
"Teleworking Business, Education,
Research and e-Commerce” ,
Vilnius, Lithuania, October 21-22,
2002
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Content
1. Telework terms
2. Ontology definition
3. Semantic Web
4. Web Ontology Language
5. Taxonomy and ontology software
6. Knowledge Management
7. Telework ontology needs
8. Domain Knowledge Centre, as part of IDC
9. Information Demonstration Centre (IDC)
10. Ontology-based Web Applications for IDC –
Proposals for Partnership
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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1. Telework terms
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Telework
Telecommuting
Flexible work
eWork
Remote work
Agile work
Teleworker
Mobile worker
Home-based worker
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Virtual team
Virtual office
Hoteling
Telecottage
Telecentre
Compressed work
schedule
 Flexible work program
 Work-life balance
 and much more
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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7. Telework ontology needs
 Ontology of telework domain itself
 Ontology of teleworker domain
 Main telework problems and barriers
– Management
– Communication
 Both management and communication need for
better understanding both each other and
information to be collected, processed and shared
 Less time for search and retrieval of the relevant
information
 2 modes: one knows what knows and don’t knows
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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2. What is an Ontology
www.cs.ma.ac.uk/~stevensr/onto/node3.html
 Ontology is the specification of conceptualization ,
Gruber
 The conceptualization is the couching of
knowledge about the world in terms of entities
(things, the relationships they hold and the
constraints between them)
 The specification is the representation of this
conceptualization in a concrete form.
 The main components of an ontology are
concepts, relations, instances and axioms
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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Ontology-bases applications
Main areas
 Knowledge management systems
 E-commerce
 Intelligent search systems
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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Ontology-bases applications
Main types
http://sem.ucalgary.ca/KSI/KAW/KAW99/papers/
Uschold2/final-ont-apn-fmk.pdf
– Neutral authoring
– Ontology as specification
– Common access to information
– Ontology-based search
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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3. Semantic Web
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Activity
 Semantic comes from the Greek words for sign,
signify, and significant, and today means of or
relating to meaning, often in language.
 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.
 It is the idea of having data on the Web defined
and linked in a way that it can be used for more
effective discovery, automation, integration, and
reuse across various applications.
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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Semantic Web (cnt’d 1)
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Activity
 For the Web to reach its full potential, it must
evolve into a Semantic Web, providing a
universally accessible platform that allows data to
be shared and processed by automated tools as
well as by people.
 The Semantic Web is an initiative of the World
Wide Web Consortium (W3C), with the goal of
extending the current Web to facilitate Web
automation, universally accessible content, and
the 'Web of Trust'.
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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Semantic Web (cnt’d 2)
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Activity
 Tim Berners-Lee wrote the Road map for the
Semantic Web in 1998, and it continues to be a
good place to start for those who enjoy theory
 The Semantic Web lends itself to collaboration,
teamwork, and cooperation. In addition to the RDF
Interest Group which serves as W3C's primary
focal point for Semantic Web community
discussion, there are a variety of domain specific
communities who are using RDF/XML to publish
their data on the Web.
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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4. Web Ontology (WebONT)
Working Group Charter
www.w3.org/2001/sw/WebOnt/charter
 The WG, part of the Semantic Web Activity, will
focus on the development of a language to extend
the semantic reach of current XML and RDF metadata efforts.
 Tim Berners-Lee outlined the necessary layers for
developing of applications that depend on an
understanding of logical content, not just humanreadable presentation
 This WG will focus on building the ontological
layer and the formal underpinnings thereof.
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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Web Ontology Working Group
http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/
 The OWL (Web Ontology Language) is being
designed by the W3C Web Ontology Working
Group in order to provide a language that can be
used for applications that need to understand the
content of information instead of just
understanding the human-readable presentation of
content.
 OWL facilitates greater machine readability of web
content than XML, RDF, and RDF-S support by
providing a additional vocabulary for term
descriptions.
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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OWL –ontology definition
Ontology – a machine readable set of
definitions that create
 a taxonomy of
– classes and
– subclasses, and
 relationships between them
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OWL (cnt’d)
 Web Ontology language OWL is a semantic
markup language for publishing and sharing
ontologies on the World Wide Web.
 OWL is derived from the DAML+OIL Web
Ontology Language and builds upon the Resource
Description Framework [RDF/XML Syntax]
 OWL Recommendations to be approved on 2002.
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5. Ontology and taxonomy
 A taxonomy is a hierarchical system of classification
representing structural differences
http://www.epsltd.com/Database/Reports/Taxonomy/TaxonomyExec.htm
 Hierarchical taxonomy expressing IS A (hypernymy
hyponymy) relation .
 By definition, a taxonomy is simply a classification
scheme, whereas an ontology serves to provide
semantics and associations/relationships.
http://www.brint.com/wwwboard/messages/128417.html
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Need for Taxonomy
 More than 80% of unstructured information on the
Web
 Cataloguing unstructured information is a chronic
problem
 Taxonomy software correlates and groups
unstructured information from myriad of sources
 Search when you know what are you looking for
 Search when you don’t know
 www.entopia.com/pdfs/delphi_taxonomy_white_paper.pdf
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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Survey on categorization and
taxonomy management
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Survey, February 2002, Delphi Group
450 organizations, half of them revenue over %100 million
More than 60% - finding information was difficult process
Over 50% - spending 2 or more hours each day searching
for information
 Search time is one of the fundamental symptoms of
infoglut and how to measure taxonomy management
 Process of search is “waste of time”
 www.entopia.com/pdfs/delphi_taxonomy_white_paper.pdf
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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Ontology and taxonomy software
 Entopya http://www.entopia.com
 Applied Semantics
http://www.aplliedsemantics.com
 Semio http://www.semio.com
 Stanford University project Protégé-2000
 EU projects
– On-to-knowledge http://www.ontoknowledge.com
– OntoWeb http://www.ontoweb.com
– and more
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EC project OntoWeb
http://www.ontoweb.org/download/deliverables
 Ontologies provide a common vocabulary of an area and
define-with different levels of formality – the meaning of the
term and the relations between them
 Knowledge in ontology is mainly formalized using 5 kinds
of components:
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Classes
Relations
Functions
Axioms
Instances
 Classes in the ontology are usually organized in
taxonomies
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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6. Knowledge Management stages
www.kmworld.com/publications v11, issue 3
 Stage 1 – “by the internet out of intellectual
capital”. KEY PHRASES : “best practices” and
later “lessons learned”
 Stage 2 – “human and cultural dimensions, the
human relations stage”. KEY PHRASE:
“communities of practice”
 Stage 3 – “content and retrievability”.KEY
PHRASES : “CONTENT MANAGEMENT” and
“TAXONOMIES”
 Dr. Michael Koenig of Long Island University
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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Creating Knowledge from Data
http://www.darwinmag.com/reada/whitepepaers/070101_data.html
 Transforming data and info into knowledge
is not a passive activity such as going to a
library and doing some research.
 KM is fundamentally active – people need to
have access to the right info at the right
time.
 KM needs to be proactive, tightly integrated
with business processes and integrally
related to day-to-day operational activities.
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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7. Telework ontology needs
 Ontology of telework domain itself
 Ontology of teleworker domain
 Main telework problems and barriers
– Management
– Communication
 Both management and communication need for
better understanding both each other and
information to be collected, processed and shared
 Less time for search and retrieval of the relevant
information
 2 modes: one knows what knows and don’t knows
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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Telework ontology needs (cnt’d)
 New Telework Consortium www.telcoa.org
has been created
 Killer application that will drive the growth of
ultra-high-bandwidth services to the home
won’t be entertainment as is generally
assumed, but “telework”, or more
specifically what Schaer call “interpersonal
communications”
 http://www.nwfusion.com.cgi-bin/mailto/x.cgi
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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8. IDC’s Domain Knowledge Centre
Goal and main feature
 Our goal has been not developing only ontology
but ontology-based Web application and approach
(background of methodology) for ontology building
 Main feature – from information collected and
enriched by individual during each day work to
collaborative development of shared knowledge
 Domain Ontology is a core module of knowledge
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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Domain Knowledge
 The domain knowledge describes the main
static information and knowledge objects in
an application domain.
 The main kind of components used to
describe domain knowledge is ontologies.
 http://babage.dia.fi.upm.es/ontoweb/wp1/OntoRoa
dMap/index.html
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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Domain Knowledge Centre
Ussage purposes
– collecting information
– distributed semi-automatic transforming
information to knowledge and
– shared using of this knowledge and collected
information
– intelligent search of collected information and
knowledge
– serving as an information and knowledge
background for ontology-based applications
development
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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Domain Knowledge Centre
Structure
 The core modules:
I. Information sources DB, i.e. Domain
Knowledge Centre enriched by metadata
and metatags (concepts, attributes and
values)
II. Domain ontology module
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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I. Information sources DB
Features
 Enriched info – metatags – are one of
knowledge types in DKC
 Knowledge should be created as each day
procedure
 On the next version adding of knowledge
should be carried on in shared collaboration
mode
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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Information sources DB – Enter & Edit Form
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Information sources DB
Information representation structure
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1st option
Concept
Property (attribute)
Value
Value note
3rd option
Class
Concept
Individual (instance)
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2nd option
Concept
Property (attribute)
Value
Value note
4th option
Instance name
Property
Value
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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Information sources DB
Information representation structure (cnt’d)
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5th option
Class
Term
Definition of term
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6th option
Term
Relationship TYPE
Other term
Comment
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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Domain – Concept – Attribute – Value
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An example of report
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II. Domain ontology module
 Ontology core module is in process of
development
 Network model to be used instead of
typically used hierarchical model
 Ontology module prototype is developed on
relational DB (Microsoft Access)
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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Domain ontology module
Ontology development procedures
 Enriched manually structured information
(concepts, attributes, values) serves as a
background for developing and continuous
enhancement of domain ontology
 Telework ontology contains more than 100
terms (concepts and attributes)
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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Domain ontology module
Information representation structure
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Class
Type of relation
Concept
Type of relation
Property (attribute)
Value
Value constraints description
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Enter & Edit Form of Ontology module
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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9. Information Demonstration Centre
of TELEBALT Project
 Domain Knowledge Centre of Project
Activities (telework, teamwork, collaboration)
 E-library on EC projects, products related to
TELEBALT project using intelligent ontologybased search
 E-library on 6th Framework Program main
issues
 Intelligent Search system of TELEBALT websites
system (LT, LV, EE)
 Other Ontology-based Web applications of
TELEBALT project (to be discussed)
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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10. Ontology-based Web apps for IDC
Proposals for Partnership
 Documents (e.g. legal acts) storehouse with
ontology-based search
 Information collecting and semi-automatic
generating of surveys and reports
 Website structure ontology – support of
website enhancement and search
 Management of project group
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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Ontology-based Web applications
Proposals for Partnership (cnt’d 1)
 Personal and company e-Library
 Partnership supporting intelligent system
 Contracts and project proposals support
system
 Intelligent interactive consulting system
 Product and services catalogue
development system
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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Ontology-based Web applications
Proposals for Partnership (cnt’d 2)
 Information transforming to Knowledge
system
 Information and Knowledge Quality
Checking system
 Integration of Business Intelligence products
and Domain ontology
 Ontology-based CRM application
 Document annotation self-automated
generation
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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Ontology-based Web applications
Proposals for Partnership (cnt’d 3)
 Research and Development information
analysis system
 Situation evaluation, problem identification,
alternative generation and decision making
system
 Training information systems building tool
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
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Thanks for attention !
?
Zigmas Bigelis,
UAB “ECMC”
zigmas.bigelis@ecmconsulting.com
Saulius Maskeliūnas,
Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Vilnius
TELEBALT conference, Vilnius,
Lithuania, October 21-22, 2002
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