An ontology-driven approach for monitoring collaborative design knowledge

The building industry has become aware that an ergonomic fit project information management system is one of the fundamental needs at the project outset so that knowledge corresponds to the activities conducted throughout the project life can be managed effectively. The project information management system has evolved from the conventional paperbased mechanism to the nowadays digital based mechanism. However, the implementation of the digital based project information system does not respond perfectly to the demands of the building industry yet indicated weaknesses identified from the current web technologies. This paper presents a hypothetical knowledge management system supported by the semantic web in which ontological approach is applied for knowledge modeling purposes. The outlines of this paper is divided into two parts where the current practice of project information management will be analyzed followed by a comprehensive description of the hypothetical system that is to improve the pitfalls identified from the current practice.