Enabling Collaborative Knowledge Modelling by Hiding Inherent Complexity from Non-Experts

Semantic technologies which visualise complete ontologies in network form are manifold; yet such semantic networks remain for the most part exclusively within the grasp of domain experts. In this paper, we suggest that semantic networks representing foreign domains can indeed present many benefits to the common enduser, as long as certain semantic objects from the domain are extracted and only these core objects are displayed to the user. This hypothesis we claim to test using our own self-developed knowledge modelling tool. Indeed, not all representations of foreign domains must overstrain the end-user. The visualisation must be object-centred on a semantic level, such that ontology objects which carry a meaning are represented. In this way, minimal explanation is needed to make it accessible to any end-user, whether domain expert or domain layman, and this increased understanding on behalf of the user turns the exercise of knowledge modelling into a collaborative activity.