Keynote Speakers

Keynote co-sponsors -

Faculty of Engineering - Lakehead University and

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

1. Dr. Harold Boley

Harold Boley is the co-inventor of RuleML and a pioneer in the Semantic Web

Dr. Harold Boley
Adjunct Professor at UNB, Faculty of Computer Science
Leader, Semantic Web Laboratory
Institute for Information Technology
National Research Council Canada
46 Dineen Drive
Fredericton, NB, E3B 9W4
Canada

URL: http://www.cs.unb.ca/~boley

Title

Distributed Semantic Web Knowledge Representation and Inferencing


Abstract

Knowledge on the Semantic Web is mainly represented as ontologies (e.g., classes defined via subclassing or properties) and rules (e.g., implications between properties). Data, mostly as facts (e.g., classifications or properties applied to instances). This allows inferences that make implicit facts explicit. Knowledge (and data) can be distributed across the Web using an Enterprise Service Bus such as Mule. Inferences can then often be kept local to Semantic Web knowledge modules, improving both inference efficiency and knowledge maintainability. The keynote exemplifies this with Rule Responder and its use for a deployed distributed query answerer about the RuleML Symposia. Rule Responder supports rule-based collaboration between the distributed members of a virtual organization. Human members of the organization -- e.g., the general, program, and panel chairs of a RuleML Symposium -- are assisted by Personal Agents. Each uses a rule module to formalize their owner's decision logic. The organization as a whole is assisted by an Organizational Agent, which acts as the contact point for External Agents. The Organizational Agent employs a role-assignment ontology to delegate external queries to appropriate Personal Agents and uses their answers for the organization's overall responses. Rule Responder allows agents to employ different syntaxes for their rule engines, as long as they interchange all rules, queries, and answers via semantics-preserving transformations through RuleML as the canonical language.


Short Biography

Dr. Harold Boley is leader of the Semantic Web Laboratory at NRC-IIT and Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada. He initiated and co-chairs RuleML. He is editor of the W3C Rule Interchange Format (RIF). His focus is on semantic knowledge representation combining ontologies and rules. He is currently exploring this for person/organization-centric profiles supporting FOAF-extending social networking, e-tourism, and expert finding, as realized, e.g., with RuleML FOAF in FindXpRT, eTourPlan, and Rule Responder.

 

2. Irma Becerra-Fernandez, Ph.D.

Professor and Director, Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center
Fellow, Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center
Florida International University, College of Business Administration
11200 SW 8th Street, CBC 226
Miami, FL 33199
USA

Irma_Becerra-Fernandez July 2009

 

Title:

Three Generations of Knowledge Management Systems
and their Impact on Organizational Learning

Irma_Becerra-Fernandez July 2009

Abstract

This presentation traces the field of knowledge management (KM) along the discipline of organizational learning (OL).  Knowledge resides in individuals in all organizations, as well as in groups because of the relationships among their members. Organizational learning theories recognize the importance of cognitive development and the value of learning as an organizational-level phenomenon, which is synergistic and not simply the cumulative result of each member's learning.  However, organizational learning takes place through individuals and the positive and negative outcomes that their members encounter from their behaviors.  In this presentation, we discuss some of the changes that have occurred over the last three decades in the field of KM, highlighting how the field has evolved to the current state and some of the ongoing changes.   Also, in this seminar, we discuss the development of contemporary KM systems to support learning from intelligent systems, to expertise-locators, and more recently to wikis.  Finally we reflect on how the interplay between ICT and social mechanisms supports the activities of learning organizations at the individual, group, and organizational levels.

Biography

Dr. Irma Becerra-Fernandez is Director and Fellow of the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center and Professor of Management Information Systems at Florida International University College of Business Administration. She was the MIT Sloan Visiting Scholar with the Center for Information Systems Research last spring. Also she’s the 2007 Kauffman Entrepreneurship Professor. Her research focuses on knowledge management (KM), KM systems, business intelligence, enterprise systems, disaster management, and IT entrepreneurship. She has studied and advised organizations, in particular NASA, about KM practices. She founded the FIU Knowledge Management Lab ten years ago, and has obtained funding as principal investigator for approximately $2.0 M from the National Science Foundation, NASA (Headquarters, Kennedy, Ames, and Goddard Space Flight Center), and the Air Force Research Lab to develop organizational KM strategies and innovative KM systems. She has published extensively in leading journals including the Journal of MIS, Decision Sciences, Communications of the ACM, European Journal of Operational Research, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, Knowledge Based Systems, International Journal of Expert Systems Research & Applications, and others. Dr. Becerra-Fernandez is an author of the books Business Intelligence: Practices, Technologies, & Management (Wiley, 2010), Knowledge Management: Systems and Processes (M.E. Sharpe, 2010), Knowledge Management: Challenges, Solutions, and Technologies (Prentice Hall, 2004) and co-editor of the monograph Knowledge Management: An Evolutionary View of the Field (M.E. Sharpe, 2008). She has delivered many invited presentations at many NASA Centers, the NAVY Research Lab, universities around the world, and many international conferences with both an academic and a practitioner focus. Dr. Becerra-Fernandez was the recipient of the 2004 Outstanding Faculty Torch Award, presented by the FIU Alumni Association, the 2006 FIU Faculty Teaching Award and the 2001 FIU Faculty Research Award. She is currently the Americas Region representative to the Association for Information Systems Executive Council. She has served as the faculty director for the Masters in MIS and the director of the MIS Ph.D. Program. She serves in the editorial boards of the International Journal of Knowledge Management, the International Journal of Knowledge and Learning, the International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, the International Journal of Doctoral Studies, the International Journal of Computers (IJoC), and the International Journal of Interdisciplinary Telecommunications and Networking (IJITN).