Integrating concept mapping and semantic Web technologies for effective knowledge management

Exploring a new technology space is always a daunting task. Its complexity is increased when the area of interest spans thousands of publications with multiple definitions of terms, authors, and dimensions of investigations; when the technology space is many times a secondary but important element of the investigation being reported upon; and where there are many application domains. Furthermore, when the space must not only be reviewed but must also be analyzed to determine trends, state of the art/practice, and to provide promising research agendas, there is a need to find mechanisms and strategies for codifying the knowledge. The goal is an integrated knowledge map so that concepts can be captured, queried, and perhaps most importantly connections discovered and reasoned about. Such is the project that has motivated our exploration of concept mapping tools and has subsequently led us into the semantic web space with a vision that the integration of these two technologies would lead to a powerful knowledge management environment for unexplored and complex domains of study. We present here the results of an initial investigation into the exploration of a complex space, situate it in the context of an extended knowledge life cycle, and discus how semantic technologies can be leveraged to enhance concept mapping tools.