that the relationships among classes in PKIC
represent only the “has subclass” type, the instances
are not connected among each other directly, while
the main types of the relationships in this models
represent the relationships between classes and their
instances. An example illustration of the PKIC is
addressed in Figure 7. This Figure illustrates a list of
classes for the profile knowledge and some existing
records for these classes from a member
organization of Swiss Microtech (SMT) - a VBE
from Switzerland. In this Figure, the record for the
“General data” is expanded, so that the records for
its attributes can be viewed, For example, the record
for the “Creation date” is “1956”. It also illustrates
that the “Resource” class does not have direct
instances/records, rather it has records only through
one of its sub-classes, e.g. through the “Human
resource” class.
6 CONCLUSIONS
This paper addresses an approach for ontology-
based modeling and management of characteristic
knowledge collected from organizations/companies
collaborating in CNOs and specially in VBEs. Each
organization is presented in VBEs by its “profile”
and specifically by its “competency” - a fundamental
element of the profile. This paper starts with the
definitions of organizations’ profiles and
competencies. It addresses the motivations,
requirements, and technical challenges for ICT-
based modeling and management of organizations’
profiles and competencies in VBEs. It introduces the
“VBE profile and competency sub-ontology” to
support modeling and management of organizations’
knowledge in VBEs. Furthermore, the functionalities
for profile and competency management are
presented that are based on the ontological
representation of the organization’s knowledge
model. As steps required for specification and
development of the Profile and Competency
Management System (PCMS) for VBEs, the designs
of both: the database and the GUI for profile and
competency knowledge, are addressed. More details
about specification and modeling of organizations’
competencies as well as about the PCMS’s
development fall outside the scope of this paper, and
are the topics for forthcoming papers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work on this paper is supported in part by the
FP6 IP project ECOLEAD, funded by the European
Commission.
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