Ontologies And Information And Communication Technology: Expert Systems, The Semantic Web And Integrated Management Of Electronic Government Purchases

Abstract

The consolidation of information and communication technology as a technical and economic paradigm suggests transformations in how science is practised. In fact, cutting edge research requires expressive processing and network capacities for handling geographically disperse data from different disciplines, marking the birth of “escience”, as in bioinformatics. In this context, this article introduces expert systems and the Semantic Web, whose construction depends on technologies for knowledge representation, such as ontologies. By spelling out a common set of concepts, these can make possible the integration of diverse and heterogeneous sets of data, facilitating the interoperability of information systems. This integration of data is a critical stage of the development of almost all computer systems, whether they are used in research activities, in new ways of organizing collaborative work, in e-science or in government or commercial activities. The article concludes by arguing that the construction of ontologies is a technological alternative for the interoperability of information systems, which may favor a new way of organizing collaborative work for the integrated management of electronic government purchases, particularly in the health sector.