Towards the Semantic Web (PDF)

With the current changes driven by the expansion of the World Wide
Web, this book uses a different approach from other books on the
market: it applies ontologies to electronically available
information to improve the quality of knowledge management in large
and distributed organizations. Ontologies are formal theories
supporting knowledge sharing and reuse. They can be used to
explicitly represent semantics of semi-structured information.
These enable sophisticated automatic support for acquiring,
maintaining and accessing information. Methodology and tools are
developed for intelligent access to large volumes of
semi-structured and textual information sources in intra- and
extra-, and internet-based environments to employ the full power of
ontologies in supporting knowledge management from the information
client perspective and the information provider.

The aim of the book is to support efficient and effective knowledge
management and focuses on weakly-structured online information
sources. It is aimed primarily at researchers in the area of
knowledge management and information retrieval and will also be a
useful reference for students in computer science at the
postgraduate level and for business managers who are aiming to
increase the corporations' information infrastructure.

The Semantic Web is a very important initiative affecting the
future of the WWW that is currently generating huge interest. The
book covers several highly significant contributions to the
semantic web research effort, including a new language for defining
ontologies, several novel software tools and a coherent methodology
for the application of the tools for business advantage. It also
provides 3 case studies which give examples of the real benefits to
be derived from the adoption of semantic-web based ontologies in
"real world" situations. As such, the book is an excellent mixture
of theory, tools and applications in an important area of WWW
research.

* Provides guidelines for introducing knowledge management concepts
and tools into enterprises, to help knowledge providers present
their knowledge efficiently and effectively.

* Introduces an intelligent search tool that supports users in
accessing information and a tool environment for maintenance,
conversion and acquisition of information sources.

* Discusses three large case studies which will help to develop the
technology according to the actual needs of large and or virtual
organisations and will provide a testbed for evaluating tools and
methods.

The book is aimed at people with at least a good understanding of
existing WWW technology and some level of technical understanding
of the underpinning technologies (XML/RDF). It will be of interest
to graduate students, academic and industrial researchers in the
field, and the many industrial personnel who are tracking WWW
technology developments in order to understand the business
implications. It could also be used to support undergraduate
courses in the area but is not itself an introductory text.