Knowledge Management & Dissemination Mechanism for Academic Intranet (UCSC)

Abstract

Recent developments have observed the rise of a new economy where knowledge has become a valuable resource and asset to the universities all over the world. As more and more information and knowledge is created and exchanged, the world has become more knowledge-oriented. This paper examines information/content searching and knowledge sharing behavior among academic staff and students in the “University Of Colombo School Of Computing” in Sri Lanka along with the semantic searching concepts. Factors affecting the willingness to search knowledge and the proposed solution include an intranet which will be used by university students and staff members along with a semantic search technique which will be useful for the research groups and staff members of the university. This thesis consists of semantic search custom web parts which extend the standard SharePoint-Search with Semantic Web features to find documents quicker and more efficiently. They make use of taxonomies that are enriched with semantic information. They guide users actively in the search process, offer alternative search possibilities and provide comprehensive ways to navigate in search hits. Further solution introduces Semantic Web standards to improve taxonomy management features and information access and presentation as well. Also there are semantic web features integrated and developed such as ontology search which process RDF/XML/OWL files. The document includes literature review, analysis and design of proposed solution, implementation, testing results, evaluation, future enhancements and the final remarks.