Formal Ontologies Meet Industry

This book is a collection of papers addressing the multi-shaped character of knowledge, new studies and applications in the field of ontology and semantic technology. The semantic dimension of information plays an increasingly central role in a networked, knowledge-centered economy and the need to encode information into computer systems has led to a bias towards knowledge engineering (KE) solutions as opposed to knowledge management (KM). Although the intersection between KE and KM has led to a general improvement of information systems, the overlap between these two fields has tended to eclipse interest in genuine knowledge processes. For this reason, the fourth Formal Ontologies Meet Industry (FOMI) workshop was held to coincide with the 10th European Conference of Knowledge Management (ECKM), with the explicit aim of bringing together KR and KM (sub)-communities, providing a platform for discussion of these topics. The double focus on methodological and applicative issues represents the main feature of these FOMI 2009 articles. This comprehensive perspective will advance progress towards new frontiers in information systems and knowledge management, where research and development in formal ontology will play a leading role.