Structured Knowledge: An Universal Indexing System Approach

Abstract

Knowledge is one of the main assets that humans have, the knowledge achieved in one area may be applied in another different area; all that you need is to remember it and adapt it to the new area or problem. If we apply this concept in computer science, knowledge could be a powerful asset to store (as remember) and reuse (as adapt). Knowledge could be structured using different kinds of Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS), but in all the cases the metamodel is important to be known in order to match with consistency the diverse kinds of knowledge. If it is possible to index any kind of knowledge stored as a KOS in a repository, it means that knowledge coming from diverse sources could be merged in a unique repository. The merge activity is important in the Reuse process because it makes possible to trace different pieces of knowledge at the end it will be retrieved improving the Reuse process and reducing costs at last. A method for indexing structured knowledge is described as well as the algorithms and practical examples in case of the metamodel describing the knowledge is not available. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.