Aiding knowledge capture by searching for extensions of knowledge models

Abstract

Electronic concept mapping tools empower experts to play an active role in the knowledge capture process, and provide a medium for building richly connected multimedia knowledge models-sets of linked concept maps and resources about a particular domain. Knowledge models are intended to be used as a means for sharing knowledge among humans, not as carefully-crafted knowledge bases upon which machines will be performing inference. However, users must still confront the questions of what to include in a concept map and which concept maps to include in a knowledge model. This paper describes ongoing research on methods to provide content-based support to users as they extend concept maps by adding concepts and propositions, and as they select topics for new maps. The goal is to provide scaffolding for experts as they build their own concept maps, link their maps to others', and decide how to extend their knowledge models. The paper presents three approaches which start from a concept map under construction and mine related information-both from prior concept maps, and from the web-to propose information to aid the user's knowledge capture and knowledge construction. The paper begins with a brief summary of the concept mapping process and the CmapTools concept mapping software. It then presents three types of implemented suggesters, to suggest concepts, propositions, concept maps, and new topics to aid experts using the CmapTools, and describes preliminary experiments to assess their performance. It closes with a discussion of next steps for testing and refining these methods.

Gestión de información personal con software para mapas conceptuales

“…La herramienta de referencia más avanzada y extendida para la creación y gestión de mapas conceptuales es actualmente IHMC Cmap Tools, elaborada por el Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, de Florida. La aplicación permite generar mapas conceptuales que respetan el modelo propuesto por Novak (Novak;Cañas, 2008;Leake et al, 2003). Para el propósito de este trabajo, se han tenido en cuenta aplicaciones que han sido reconocidas como capaces de elaborar y gestionar mapas conceptuales, y que se han publicado bajo licencias de software libre.…”

Ontologies in Higher Education

“…Due to their complexity and the need for their evolution within a community of scholars and practitioners, ontologies are "still far from being a commodity" (Angele and York, 2002). Ontologies are present in the category systems of websites such as Yahoo, Amazon, and Google (Benjamins et al, 1998;Leake et al, 2003;Noy and McGuinness, 2000).…”

“…Subject matter experts (SME) need to be closely involved in creating taxonomies and concept maps, according to Venkata (2002). Experts "play an active role in the knowledge capture process," explain Leake et al (2003).…”

“…Classes can be dragged around while the size of the visualization nodes changes corresponding to their location, that is, the more centric the bigger they appear" (Benjamins et al, 1999, p. 7). Leake et al (2003) explain that concept maps are similar to "vector-space models" in the way that knowledge is represented. Some systems are weighted, with higher weights given to top keywords.…”

Concept Expansion Using Semantic Fisheye Views

“…For example, some researchers have focused on tools for semantically organizing gathered information with annotations [6] or concept maps [7]. Our research, on the other hand, focuses primarily on the problem of encountering relevant information.…”