In this paper we propose refocusing the research from knowledge portals towards frameworks, which the end user can apply in many decision-making scenarios and which we call ‘personal portals’. Rather than pouring resources into a centralised access to knowledge repository, we suggest a more distributed approach to accessing knowledge. The core facets of such approach include: • choice from mult...

In the present paper we expound a methodology for the development of terminology systems and the construction of semantically founded knowledge systems. This method is based on ontological mappings using reference top-level ontologies, and is inspired by rigorous logico-philosophical principles. We outline a framework consisting of a system of formal tools designed to support the development of...

The information age is upon us and the main paradox is that there is no satisfactory and commonly accepted answer to the crucial question what information is. This results in a quantity of contradictions, misconceptions, and paradoxes related to the world of information. We consider the existing situation in information studies, which is very paradoxical and inconsistent, in the first part of t...

A contradictory and paradoxical situation that currently exists in information studies can be improved by the introduction of a new information approach, which is called the general theory of information. The main achievement of the general theory of information is explication of a relevant and adequate definition of information. This theory is built as a system of two classes of principles (on...

Critical realism is emerging as a viable philosophical paradigm for conducting social science research, and has been proposed as an alternative to the more prevalent paradigms of positivism and interpretivism. Few papers, however, have offered clear guidance for applying this philosophy to actual research methodologies. Under critical realism, a causal explanation for a given phenomenon is infe...

Information has become the most precious resource of society. At the same time, there is no consensus on the meaning of the term " information, " and many researchers have considered problems of information definition. This results in a quantity of contradictions, misconceptions, and paradoxes related to the world of information. To remedy the situation, a new approach in information theory, wh...

This paper describes an embedding of higher-order modal logics in the Coq proof assistant. Coq’s capabilities are used to implement modal logics in a minimalistic manner, which is nevertheless su cient for the formalization of significant, non-trivial modal logic proofs. The elegance, flexibility and convenience of this approach, from a user perspective, are illustrated here with the successful...

This paper seeks to examine the effect of the revolutions of 2011-2012 in the Arabic countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) on Israeli regime's ontological security and its strategy of closure and deviation in the regional level. In other word, the paper tries to find the challenges the ontological security and identity of Israel is facing with after the occurrence of the awakenin...

The modeling of knowledge and implementing it in software systems is not sufficiently supported by proper guidelines and well-established principles. An interdisciplinary approach seems to be necessary because the development of guidelines for ontologically sound knowledge modeling – in particular in medicine – requires knowledge and expertise from areas such as linguistics, informatics, medici...