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Publications

Publications by Carla Pereira

2016

Collaborative conceptualisation processes in the development of lightweight ontologies

Authors
Sousa, CD; Soares, AL; Pereira, CS;

Publication
VINE JOURNAL OF INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Abstract
Purpose - In collaborative settings, such as research and development projects, obtaining the maximum benefit from knowledge management systems depends on the ability of the different partners to understand the conceptualisation underlying the system's knowledge organisation. This paper aims to show how information/knowledge organisation in a multi-organisation project can be made more effective if the domain experts are involved in the specification of the systems semantic structure. A particular aspect is further studied: the role of conceptual relations in the process of collaborative development of such structures. Design/methodology/approach - An action-research approach was adopted, framed by a socio-semantic stance. A collaborative conceptual modelling platform was used to support the members of a research and development project in the process of developing a lightweight ontology aiming at reorganising all the project information in a wiki system. Data collection was carried out by means of participant observation, interviews and a questionnaire. Findings - The approach to solve the content organisation problem revealed to be effective both in the result and the process. It resulted in a better-organised system, enabling more efficient project information retrieval. The collaborative development of the lightweight ontology embodied, in fact, a learning process, leading to a shared conceptualisation. The research results point to the importance of the elicitation of conceptual relations for structuring the project's knowledge. These results are important for the design of methods and tools to support the collaborative development of conceptual models. Originality/value - This paper studies the social process leading to a shared conceptualisation, a subject that has not been sufficiently researched. This case study provides evidence about the importance of the early phases of the construction of ontologies, mainly if domain experts are deeply involved, supported by appropriated tools and guided by well-structured processes.

2016

Personnel scheduling The starting point for solving real cases

Authors
Lopes, T; Fernandes, P; Barbosa, A; Pereira, C;

Publication
2016 11TH IBERIAN CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES (CISTI)

Abstract
Personnel scheduling problems are widely studied both by the scientific community and by the human resource managers of the companies. The financial impact of the decisions, the welfare of the employees, or more subjective concepts like "fairness" and "balance", turn this case into much more than just a routine problem. When it comes to medical personnel scheduling, additional difficulties can be found, such as uninterrupted work (24 hours per day, 7 days per week), or the quality of service that has to be ensured. The work presented in this paper was based on the rules defined in INRCII - Second International Nurse Rostering Competition - but always with the vision of creating the necessary basis for the future development of an automatic and optimized generic personnel scheduling software.

2013

Applying Recommendation Techniques to Support Conceptual Negotiation Processes

Authors
Esteves, A; Pereira, C; Sousa, C;

Publication
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2013 8TH IBERIAN CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES (CISTI 2013)

Abstract
According to [1], in order to share knowledge and information it is necessary to share a set of conceptual structures within a collaborative network. Therefore, to develop an organizational information system it is required to engage in a negotiation process so that it is possible to obtain a common vocabulary. To support and improve such process, this paper presents an approach that takes advantage of some of the features of recommendation systems (RS), which will be extremely useful to help collaborative networks construct a high- level conceptualization about a specific domain.

2013

Collaborative Elicitation of Conceptual Representations: A Corpus-Based Approach

Authors
Sousa, C; Pereira, C; Soares, A;

Publication
ADVANCES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract
Knowledge is an important resource for organisations, and being able to manage it is a key factor for success. New information management and knowledge sharing approaches should be able to cope not only with possible variations in business situations and contexts, but also with various and sometimes discordant viewpoints, which are inherent to collaborative environments. Developing, reusing and maintaining common interpretations of available information is crucial to support real-word organisational activities. The particularly challenging problem of knowledge elicitation is tackled here combining terminological and knowledge representation views. A corpus-based conceptual modelling architecture was designed and discussed together with the workflows for real-time context retrieval and lexical pattern discovery. The practical implementation and validation of this work are accomplished on the ConceptME system, a platform developed as part of this research line, providing knowledge and terminological tools and resources to support activities that involve collaborative conceptualisation processes according to the ColBlend method.

2013

Specifying a Semantic Wiki Ontology through a Collaborative Reconceptualisation Process

Authors
Soares, AL; Sousa, C; Pereira, C;

Publication
ON THE MOVE TO MEANINGFUL INTERNET SYSTEMS: OTM 2013 WORKSHOPS

Abstract
This paper describes an action-research approach to the specification of an ontology to be applied in the information organisation of a community of forest planning experts. Like many others, a community of forest planning experts does not see their technical domains in unison, rather it voices several points of view that need to be shared and understood. This research started by addressing the practical problem of achieving an effective information structure and organisation for a semantic wiki platform. This was supported by a method and platform for the collaborative specification of ontologies: conceptME. Simultaneously, an empirical study was carried out aiming at understanding better how a technical community pragmatically develops conceptual representations of a domain. The results of this research show the benefits of collaboration in the development of conceptual models for knowledge organisation and information retrieval.

2014

Establishing Conceptual Commitments in the Development of Ontologies through Competency Questions and Conceptual Graphs

Authors
Sousa, C; Soares, AL; Pereira, C; Moniz, S;

Publication
ON THE MOVE TO MEANINGFUL INTERNET SYSTEMS: OTM 2014 WORKSHOPS

Abstract
The process of establishing the ontology objectives by the stakeholders is fundamental for the ontology success. This process is unstructured by nature, being a continuum from the initial discussion of the purpose to the first agreed conceptual representation. The inherent (inter) subjectivity of the process and their outcomes together with an excessive informality are perhaps the reasons for being overlooked in the literature. This paper proposes an approach integrating competency questions (CQ) and conceptual graphs to the support of domain experts and knowledge specialists in defining the purpose and fundamental conceptual commitments of the ontology to be developed. The approach was experimented and validated with experts in a project in the chemical-pharmaceutical industry.

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