An Integrated Approach to Support Knowledge Representation, Sharing and Perception over Web2. 0

Abstract

technologies provide the communication medium which allows collaborators to share and communicate ideas. These technologies, however, exhibit limited support for knowledge transfer which is more than a communication problem. It is still unclear how people can communicate, over the Web 2.0, cognitive activities which they undertake during the knowledge acquisition process. In this work, we present an integrated approach for knowledge sharing that addresses the needs of both knowledge providers and recipients. It combines both concept mapping and dynamic annotation to enable for effective construction and perception of knowledge. The approach begins by helping knowledge providers visualize their own experience using a tool we named MindGate. Afterwards, an Ontology-based model is used to convert the visual representation of knowledge to a machine-readable format. This format can then be published and reused by Internet users through a prototype social network called SocialMinds. We have tested our approach with three research students who used our approach to carry out research tasks. The analysis of user behavior, activity and tool usage proved the potential of our approach to facilitate knowledge sharing and support both individual and group work.