The semantic web as a knowledge management environment

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In Chapter 1, the basis of the thesis is discussed, and presents the question, 'How can weapply the methodologies that make up the semantic web to to the practice of knowledgemanagement, in order to assist knowledge workers to better do their jobs? A few premisesare established and definitions provided for key concepts.Chapter 2 provides an understanding of learning and organisational theory. It covers someaspects of the history and context of organisational learning and hones in on which theoriesare most suited to understanding the focused area of technology enhanced learning.In Chapter 3 the focus is placed on online collaborative learning theory and why it is requiredas a new learning theory for the knowledge age.Chapter 4 introduces the idea of semantics and more particularly, the semantic web.Components of the semantic web and their uses are discussed before the chapter is concludedwith current criticisms and industry applications of the semantic web.Chapter 5 relates what has been discussed in chapters 2 and 3 to semantic web tools discussedin chapter 4. The concept of the semantic learning organisation is introduced and the variouspossibilities for semantic web applications within the learning organisation are discussed.In chapter 6, several problems with the semantic web are presented after which the researcherproposes a possible solution to the problems. Finally, an example implementation ispresented and a few observations explored.The thesis comes to the conclusion that implementing a semantic learning network ispossible, but only by incorporating its social aspects. Guidelines are presented fororganisations for implementing a semantic learning infrastructure. Avenues for furtherresearch are outlined and the parameters for the final test implementation are proposedtogether with a short description of possible problem areas.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University