Semantic-web technologies for enhanced knowledge management

Effective knowledge management is key to navigating the sea of information being made available using internet technologies. And participants in the IST project SEKT aim to lay the foundations for that greater effectiveness, by developing three core technologies for the semantic web.

When knowledge management (KM) becomes an effortless part of daily activity, knowledge workers should be able to focus on core roles and creativity. Yet if knowledge is to be truly valuable, it must first be placed within a descriptive framework.

Enter the semantic web. The web we know today is a tool that gives users access to information. The semantic web will extend its capacity by using semantically annotated data to enable the creation and publication of machine-interpretable information. This advance will allow machines, as well as people, to understand, share and reason with data and content files in real time.

Building the semantic web
The SEKT project partners aim to pave the way for the introduction of these semantic web technologies. The project objective is to develop and exploit three core technologies that underpin next-generation knowledge management to build a range of semantic applications.

The three core technologies are: ontology and metadata technology, knowledge discovery and human language technology. The 12 partners in the SEKT project - academic institutions and ICT industry members from eight member states –are seeking to create 'knowledge workplaces' where the boundaries between document, content and knowledge management disappear.

The SEKT partners are developing semantic-web software that can, semi-automatically, learn ontology and extract metadata, maintain and evolve the ontology and metadata; and provide knowledge access. SEKT will also provide middleware to integrate all of the SEKT components, and develop a methodology for using semantically-based KM.

SEKT's three core technologies should be used together for the maximum benefit. "The ontology-learning software – which is based on knowledge discovery techniques – will develop ontologies populated with metadata, by using software employing human-language technology," says project coordinator John Davies of BT (British Telecommunications) in the UK.

Case studies show positive results
The project partners are also investigating how users best interact with knowledge not just at a computer terminal, but also via a PDA or mobile phone. SEKT software components and methodology are being evaluated and refined through three case studies, in training newly appointed judges, sharing information among IT consultants and making more efficient use of digital libraries. So far, Davies says, the feedback has been "very positive".

In Spain, newly appointed judges faced with complex decisions often fall back on a more experienced judge for assistance, which often involves delay. The SEKT solution is providing them with the additional information they need in order to make a judgement. IT consultants in Germany are using SEKT to bridge the gap between their personal knowledge space and that of the organisation, thus making their knowledge available to a wider audience.

In the UK, BT employees employ SEKT to create a more powerful window when accessing the company's digital library, which contains some five million documents. SEKT allows them to share knowledge within a common framework.

"It is clear that semantic technology can help address the challenges that knowledge workers face in accessing the right information at the right time. Also in providing a format appropriate to the content, that is according to the employee location and the device to which they have access," Davies adds.

The project has developed approximately 30 components, which are available on the SEKT website, for use during ontology design or at run time, and for testing and benchmarking purposes. Though chiefly software modules, these components also include SEKT's PROTON ontology and an ontology-annotated corpus for research and test purposes.

Both commercial and research exploitation
SEKT concludes at the end of December 2006, and a number of initiatives are under way to exploit the results, notes Davies. At BT, semantic technology is being deployed in a number of market areas, including healthcare and knowledge management.

Another project partner, iSOCO, is considering creating a spin-off company to exploit the system developed in connection with SEKT's case study in the legal sector. While Empolis in Germany is working with BT to deploy SEKT technology in a bid management system.

The SEKT partners are actively disseminating their results through the project website, journal articles and a recently published book, Semantic Web Technologies: Trends and Research in Ontology-based Systems (John Wiley & Sons 2006).

They are also involved in the IST project NEON, which aims to create the first ever service-oriented open infrastructure (and associated methodology) to support the development lifecycle of a new generation of semantic applications. NEON will be tested in the pharmaceuticals and agriculture/fisheries sectors, where managing ever larger data sets causes great difficulties using today's technology.

Contact:
Dr John Davies
British Telecommunications, plc
Adastral Park, Martlesham
Ipswich IP5 3RE
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 1473 609583
Fax: +44 1473 609832
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Source: IST Results Portal

Most Popular Now

Giving Doctors an AI-Powered Head Start …

Detection of melanoma and a range of other skin diseases will be faster and more accurate with a new artificial intelligence (AI) powered tool that analyses multiple imaging types simultaneously...

AI Agents for Oncology

Clinical decision-making in oncology is challenging and requires the analysis of various data types - from medical imaging and genetic information to patient records and treatment guidelines. To effectively support...

AI Medical Receptionist Modernizing Doct…

A virtual medical receptionist named "Cassie," developed through research at Texas A&M University, is transforming the way patients interact with health care providers. Cassie is a digital-human assistant created by Humanate...

Using Data and AI to Create Better Healt…

Academic medical centers could transform patient care by adopting principles from learning health systems principles, according to researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and the University of California, San Diego. In...

AI Tool Set to Transform Characterisatio…

A multinational team of researchers, co-led by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, has developed and tested a new AI tool to better characterise the diversity of individual cells within...

AI Detects Hidden Heart Disease Using Ex…

Mass General Brigham researchers have developed a new AI tool in collaboration with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to probe through previously collected CT scans and identify...

Human-AI Collectives Make the Most Accur…

Diagnostic errors are among the most serious problems in everyday medical practice. AI systems - especially large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT-4, Gemini, or Claude 3 - offer new ways...

Northern Ireland Completes Nationwide Ro…

Go-lives at Western and Southern health and social care trusts mean every pathology service is using the same laboratory information management system; improving efficiency and quality. An ambitious technology project to...

Highland Marketing Announced as Official…

Highland Marketing has been named, for the second year running, the official communications partner for HETT Show 2025, the UK's leading digital health conference and exhibition. Taking place 7-8 October...

MHP-Net: A Revolutionary AI Model for Ac…

Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer globally and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Accurate segmentation of liver tumors is a crucial step for the management of the...

Groundbreaking TACIT Algorithm Offers Ne…

Researchers at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a novel algorithm that could provide a revolutionary tool for determining the best options for patients - both in the treatment...

The Many Ways that AI Enters Rheumatolog…

High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is the standard to diagnose and assess progression in interstitial lung disease (ILD), a key feature in systemic sclerosis (SSc). But AI-assisted interpretation has the potential...