Assumptions of problem-solving methods refer to necessary applicability conditions of problem-solving methods, indicating that a problem-solving method is only applicable to realize a task, if the assumptions are met. In principle, such assumptions may refer to any kind of condition involved in a problem-solving method's applicability, including its required domain knowledge. In this paper, we propose a conceptual organization for assumptions of problem-solving methods and suggest a formal language to describe them. For illustration we take examples from the Propose & Revise problem-solving method and from diagnosis.

. In this paper we present an approach to document enrichment, which consists of associating formal knowledge models to archives of documents, to provide intelligent knowledge retrieval and (possibly) additional knowledge services, beyond what is available using 'standard' information retrieval and search facilities. The approach is ontology-driven, in the sense that the construction of the knowledge model is carried out in a top-down fashion, by populating a given ontology, rather than in a bottom-up fashion, by annotating a particular document. In the paper we give an overview of the approach and discuss its application to the domains of electronic news publishing, scholarly discourse and medical guidelines. 1. INTRODUCTION An important activity in knowledge management is "to convert text to knowledge" (O'Leary, 1998). This activity is central to knowledge management for two reasons: i) work practices and information flow in organisations tend to be document-centred and ii)...

. A problem-solving method describes a reasoning process that efficiently achieves a goal by applying domain knowledge. However, a problem-solving method cannot directly be applied because of the existence of a gap between, on the one hand, a problem-solving method and the domain knowledge it uses, and, on the other hand, a problem-solving method and the goal that it is supposed to achieve. In this paper, we distinguish two types of assumptions based on an architecture of problem-solving methods, that are able to bridge the gap: one type of assumption is used to strengthen a problem-solving method, and the other to weaken the goal to be achieved. We also show how the effect of one assumption type can be substituted by the effect of the other type, and refer to this as "the law of conservation of assumptions". 1 Introduction The notion of problem-solving method (PSM) is present in many current knowledge engineering frameworks such as Generic Tasks [6], Role-Limiting Methods [15], KADS ...

Performing the complex task of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) requires a break-down of the task-complexity to enable the possibilityofperforming the KDD-task. Since even more techniques will appear in the future that can solveavarietyof KDD-problems, a domain expert that wants to analyse his domain should have the means to work with tools that integrate several of these techniques as well as the techniques themselves. In this paper a framework is proposed for a strategy component that is to be used for a KDD-system that can guide users in breaking down the complexity of a typical KDD-task and supports him in selecting and using several ML-techniques. The goals

. In this document we present a library of generic, reusable components whose purpose is to support the specification and operationalization of classification problem solvers. In addition, it is envisaged that this library will provide a test case for future version of the IBROW component brokering and configuration system. The library has been specified in the OCML modelling language, according to the IBROW framework for reuse. It comprises ontologies, task specifications and problem solving methods. In the document we discuss our approach to modelling classification problem solving, we describe the various parts of the library, we illustrate its application to a pre-existing domain model and we discuss related work and open issues. Contact Information Email: {e.motta, w.lu}@open.ac.uk 1. INTRODUCTION Research on problem solving methods (Benjamins and Fensel, 1998) and ontologies (Gruber, 1995) aims (among other things) to identify and formalise classes of generic compone...

We consider a knowledge management scenario in which members of an academic community collaboratively construct and share a common archive of news items. Given this scenario, a number of knowledge management challenges arise: how to organize a speedy, low overhead publication process which can nevertheless yield high quality results; how to provide semantic search and knowledge retrieval facilities in an effective and sustainable way; how best to provide individualized presentations and news alerts. To address these questions we have drawn on a number of technologies, including knowledge modelling, autonomous agents, software visualization, knowledge acquisition and distributed computing. In the paper we describe the resulting Planet-Onto architecture, which provides an integrated set of tools to support news publishing, ontology-driven document formalization, story identification and personalized news feeds and alerts.

An important issue in the newborn discipline of ontological engineering is the construction of libraries of ontologies which are designed for maximum reusability. Van Heijst et. al. suggested that a central part of ontology libraries is the definition of what they called a core ontology, containing elements that are as generic and method-independent as possible. However, their specification of how these core ontologies should be constructed is highly pragmatical, and leaves many problems unresolved. In this article we propose and discuss a number of specific principles for the construction of core ontologies. We demonstrate the advantages of these principles using as an example a core ontology we have built for the domain of law. Several conclusions about the construction of ontology libraries based on core ontologies are drawn. 1 Introduction An important issue in the newborn discipline of ontological engineering is the construction of libraries of ontologies which are desig...

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this document are: (i) An overview of the On-To-Knowledge building blocks and their relationships, (ii) a methodology for introducing and maintaining ontology based knowledge management solutions into enterprises with a focus on Knowledge Processes and Knowledge Meta Processes and, last but not least, (iii) the illustration of process steps by examples and lessons learned derived from applying the OTK tool suite in the OTK case studies according to the methodology

An important recent idea to facilitate knowledge sharing is to provide libraries of reusable components (models, ontologies) to end users. However, when libraries become large, finding the right library components is a knowledge demanding task in itself. Our suggestion therefore is that methods will be needed that help the user to gradually construct such knowledge.