VIVACE context based search platform

Abstract

One of the key challenges of knowledge management is to provide the right knowledge to the right person at the right time. To face this challenge, a context based search platform was developed in the frame of the European Integrated Project VIVACE. This platform is based on the identification of a user context and the subsequent pushing of applicable knowledge to that particular user. We introduce a context model to represent the user's context. This context model is used to describe the context of an engineer working in a specific company. Further, we developed means to index available knowledge based on company engineering context and means to search for knowledge applicable to the user's context. Since it is not always possible to describe in which context the knowledge assets should be applied, we added learning capabilities which enable the system to learn the applicability of specific knowledge to a user's context based on user feedback. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.