Abstract
Numerous projects are considered complex because of the number of stakeholders, the diversity of skills, and the uncertainty involved, requiring accurate information retrieval and management of the social interactions between different participants leading to efficient knowledge sharing. This paper reports the findings of an empirical study on knowledge sharing barriers and research and development (R&D) activities that occur in the context of complex project management. The study presents issues, difficulties, and practices acknowledged by project managers related to knowledge sharing and R&D (focused on activities that involve cooperation and collaboration). Particularly, we point out the following major knowledge sharing barriers: codification process, inadequate information technology, lack of initiative and strategy by the workers, and lack of time and resources. We also explained the following practices and issues regarding the collaborative R&D activities: information exchange and retrieval, communication barriers, interdependence of knowledge and skills, and different technical terminologies. We intend to contribute to the understanding of the work carried out in the context of complex projects to improve the management practices and the information technology platforms to support them. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd..

Abstract
The process of collective development of conceptual models has not been satisfactorily addressed in the knowledge representation research literature. Nevertheless, a shared conceptualization of a given reality is the cornerstone to build semantic artifacts such as ontologies. This paper presents a new platform that implements the Col Blend method, designed to support a collaborative conceptualization process. The platform is based on semantic technologies and proposes a set of functionalities for importing, creating, manipulating, discussing and documenting conceptual models that can act e.g., as the specification of a formal ontology. The platform is being tested and used in two research projects(1).

Abstract
Knowledge management intrinsically involves communication and information sharing, which can be strongly affected by the context in which it is viewed and interpreted. This situation gets worst when complex domains. are considered, as it is the case of the Construction Industry domains. The development of ontologies to unify and to put into context the different concepts and terms of the sometimes rather traditional and locally coloured construction industry domains is a necessary step to avoid misinterpretations and inefficient communication. The KNOW-CONSTRUCT project decided, as an approach to this task, to re-use, as far as possible, existing ontologies, classification systems and other semantic resources in order to develop a system that may come to contribute to standards and to the integration, management and reuse of the area specific knowledge via a common knowledge base in order to consolidate and provide access to integrated knowledge, making community emergent knowledge a significant added value. It aims at developing a methodology of common Construction Industry Knowledge (CIK) representation applicable to large sets of SMEs in the construction industry as a basis for the establishment of a knowledge community.

Abstract
This paper presents the socio-technical design of a knowledge community which is part of a system to support an industrial association based collaborative network in the sector of construction industry. There are many explanations around the virtual community concept. Here is presented a fundamental phase of the Know-Construct project which involved the design of the Construction Industry Knowledge (CIK) Community using three analytical approaches. The generic architecture of the supporting system (Knowledge Community Support - KCS) is described, highlighting information and knowledge management, community building facilities and semantic resources management.

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present a concept for configuring dynamic and ready-to-implement supply network structures. This concept is based on a (real) business case from the fashion industry where order, logistics and production management processes are entirely consumer-driven. Only after the consumer has configured and customised his made-to-measure fashion product and placed his order, the actual constellation of partners in the supply network is determined and business processes initiated. The focus of the paper is on the methodological approach of defining and modelling the underlying business model. © 2004 by Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Abstract
The early phases of setting up information and knowledge management architectures for inter-organizational teams are complex and problematic mainly due to the actor's heterogeneous professional and cultural backgrounds. The big challenge stands on the proper definition, in short-term, of the concepts and relations, which are the basis of the information and knowledge architecture to be common to the collaborative network. Like this, considering a common conceptualization of a given reality as the cornerstone for information and knowledge sharing among a network of social actors, the core problem is how to create suitable socio-technical tools to support the collaborative process of creating semantic artifacts to be operationalized in some short-term business opportunity.