Awareness Matters in Virtual Communities: An Awareness Ontology

Abstract

A methodology is introduced in this chapter for sharing the contextual knowledge in virtual communities. Context is represented by a set of semantic concepts and their relationships that form specific collaborative business processes within the virtual community. Two sets of objects/concepts are identified: (i) objects that make up a community member’s actual contextual knowledge, and (ii) objects that make up the contextual knowledge expected from a community member, by a specific task object that the member performs within the community, that are sufficient to enable the member to perform the task and/or to participate in relevant interactions. The excess of the objects in (ii) compared to the objects in (i) is identified. These objects need to be put within the focus of the community member in order to enable him/her to successfully get involved in various tasks within the community.