An Ontology-Based Platform To Support Organisational Innovation Networks
An Ontology-Based Platform To Support Organisational Innovation Networks
Successful organisations innovate. Innovation in operational and business practice is essential in any organisation wishing to increase efficiency and profitability and adapt rapidly to changing external conditions, while changing fashions, the threat of terrorism, environmental concerns and diminishing natural resources all encourage demand for products and services that are not just new, but different. Despite this, the potential market for tools that can support innovation has largely been ignored by business software providers. To understand the means by which innovation can be supported, this thesis first outlines the close relationship between innovation and knowledge, examines mainstream organisational knowledge management processes and considers their limitations when applied to innovation-led organisations. An alternative, community-based knowledge management model is introduced that better suits these organisations. Existing technologies that address some element of this model are surveyed and their limitations identified. These findings inform the specification of a flexible, holistic innovation support architecture, Aware, based on a unified organisational conceptualisation, or ontology. Aware is an active platform, implemented using the JESS expert system shell, which maintains a dynamic organisational evaluation that supports a range of innovation support services. These include bulletin delivery, event management, social network identification and expert finder capability. It is shown that this single platform addresses all of the key environmental requirements of innovation, while providing functionality and a degree of integration that cannot be achieved with traditional multi system approaches. The platform is demonstrated using a kiosk client application for deployment within a single innovation-led organisation and further tested by exploration of an alternative usage scenario within the organic farming community.
Beales, Richard
ba7dc300-26dd-455d-8cb0-a8c211660441
Beales, Richard
ba7dc300-26dd-455d-8cb0-a8c211660441
Beales, Richard
(2004)
An Ontology-Based Platform To Support Organisational Innovation Networks.
University of Southampton, ECS, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
Successful organisations innovate. Innovation in operational and business practice is essential in any organisation wishing to increase efficiency and profitability and adapt rapidly to changing external conditions, while changing fashions, the threat of terrorism, environmental concerns and diminishing natural resources all encourage demand for products and services that are not just new, but different. Despite this, the potential market for tools that can support innovation has largely been ignored by business software providers. To understand the means by which innovation can be supported, this thesis first outlines the close relationship between innovation and knowledge, examines mainstream organisational knowledge management processes and considers their limitations when applied to innovation-led organisations. An alternative, community-based knowledge management model is introduced that better suits these organisations. Existing technologies that address some element of this model are surveyed and their limitations identified. These findings inform the specification of a flexible, holistic innovation support architecture, Aware, based on a unified organisational conceptualisation, or ontology. Aware is an active platform, implemented using the JESS expert system shell, which maintains a dynamic organisational evaluation that supports a range of innovation support services. These include bulletin delivery, event management, social network identification and expert finder capability. It is shown that this single platform addresses all of the key environmental requirements of innovation, while providing functionality and a degree of integration that cannot be achieved with traditional multi system approaches. The platform is demonstrated using a kiosk client application for deployment within a single innovation-led organisation and further tested by exploration of an alternative usage scenario within the organic farming community.
More information
Accepted/In Press date: December 2004
Organisations:
University of Southampton, Electronics & Computer Science, IT Innovation
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 266401
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/266401
PURE UUID: 4ebbf0ca-0af2-4e4d-b3fe-c17f8fb737a7
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Date deposited: 29 Jul 2008 12:41
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 08:28
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Contributors
Author:
Richard Beales
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