Semantic-based Groupware System for Collaborative Support in Public Administration Processes

In this article a Semantic-based Groupware System (GWS) implemented within the SAKE project (Semantic Agile Knowledgebased E-government) is presented. The overall objective of the SAKE project is to specify, develop and deploy a holistic framework and supporting tools for an agile knowledge-based e-government that will be sufficiently flexible to adapt to changing and diverse environments and needs. Public administration processes are knowledge-intensive, dependant on valid legislation, and experts in specific domains are needed for their management. The core of the whole SAKE system is represented by an integrated knowledge space unifying different perspectives and interpretations of existing knowledge resources. It enables to assign metadata to each knowledge object, allowing thus more sophisticated retrieval. The main objective of the Technical University of Kosice research team was to provide a semantic-based groupware system supporting public servants in sharing their knowledge using the collaborative software as well as to help them in managing and creation of expert working groups, which are frequently used in governmental internal administration processes. One of the main contributions to the semantic enhancement of the system, described in this paper, is based on a method of discussion forums analysis and calculation of users’ ranking, based on the actual annotated discussion topic.