An ontological SW architecture supporting agile development of semantic portals

Abstract

Ontological technologies comprise a rich framework of languages and components off the shelf, which devise a paradigm for the organization of SW architectures with high degree of interoperability, maintainability and adaptability. In particular, this fits the needs for the development of semantic web portals, where pages are organized as a generic graph, and navigation is driven by the inherent semantics of contents. We report on a pattern-oriented executable SW architecture for the construction of portals enabling semantic access, querying, and contribution of conceptual models and concrete elements of information. By relying on the automated configuration of an Object Oriented domain layer, the architecture reduces the creation of a cooperative portal to the definition of an ontological domain model. Application of the proposed architecture is illustrated with reference to the specific case of a portal which aims at enabling cooperation among subjects from different localities and different domains of expertise in the development of a shared knowledge base in the domain of construction practices based on mudbrick. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.