Knowledge Management for the Construction Industry: the E-cognos Project

The paper focuses upon the contribution which adequate use of the latest development in Information and Communication Technologies can make to the enhancement, development and improvement of professional expertise in the Construction domain. The paper is based on the e-COGNOS project, which aims at specifying and developing an open model-based infrastructure and a set of tools that promote consistent knowledge management within collaborative construction environments. The specified solution emerged from a comprehensive analysis of the business and information / knowledge management practices of the project endusers, and makes use of a Construction specific ontology that is used as a basis for specifying adaptive mechanisms that can organise documents according to their contents and interdependencies, while maintaining their overall consistency. The e-Cognos web-based infrastructure will include services, which allow the creation, capture, indexing, retrieval and dissemination of knowledge. It also promotes the integration of third-party services, including proprietary tools. The e-COGNOS approach will be tested and evaluated through a series of field trials. This will be followed by the delivery of business recommendations regarding the deployment of eCOGNOS in the construction sector. The research is ongoing and supported by the European Commission under the IST programme – Key Action II.