Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
Maximize Collaboration Using
Topic Maps-Based Ontology
Myongho Yi
Texas Woman's University, USA
AbstrACt
Enhanced information organization is more critical than ever in the digital world where ill-structured
information is increasing because of the rapid growth of intranets, the Internet, and user-created content.
This chapter discusses limitations of current information organization approaches in the digital age and
incorporating ontology into information organizations, thus enhancing collaboration possibilities. This
chapter compares the two ontology languages, RDF and Topic Maps, addresses the selection guidelines
between the two ontology languages, and then presents user performance using a Topic Maps-based
ontology.
introduCtion
searching.
The enormous amount of information available
on the Internet is mainly searched using search
engines; however, search engines often return ir-
relevant and lengthy information. In order to find
relevant information, users evaluate a lengthy list
of irrelevant results, often resulting in information
anxiety (Wurman, 1989) and cognitive overload.
Cognitive overload occurs when users feel the bur-
den of having to make decisions as to which links
to follow and which to abandon (Conklin, 1987).
Even though users spend their resources to filter
massive amount of irrelevant information, they agree
that collaboration is inevitable in the digital space.
Through both voluntary and enforced means, mas-
sive and varied types of information have been
created and used in the digital space. Web 2.0
innovations allow people to be more productive
than ever before. According to a study by Mini-
watts Marketing Group (2008), the Internet usage
growth between 2000-2008 was 305%. If we can
effectively search and reuse or share this massive
quantity of information, we can save our resources
to reinvent wheels. However, the problem lies with
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