Work in Progress Report Subject Centric IT in Local Government

1
Work in Progress Report - Subject Centric IT in
Local Government

• Gabriel Hopmans, Peter-Paul Kruijsen
• Morpheus Software
• TMRA 2005

2
Introduction

• Presentation of ongoing work in ON-TOP project
• Collaboration between BCT and Morpheus
• BCT offers CORSA
• Document Management System
• Deployed at local governments, hospitals, etc.
• Morpheus offers Topic Maps implementations
• Implementation partner of Ontopia
• Collaboration to
• Combine Corsa and Topic Maps
• Allow a Dynamic Information Facility (DIF)

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Current vs improvement

• Current situation
• CORSA is a well-built DMS, used extensively
• Data storage is application centric
• Morpheus was asked to
• Provide intuitive interfaces to data ...
• For various target group users ...
• Without knowing user requirements ...
• And possibility to chain with other processes /
  organisations
• Morpheus approach
• Make data storage subject centric
• Allow sharing with applications (CORSA, ...)
• Provide a framework for user modeling
• Rather than explicit programming efforts

4
Step 1 Upconversion

• From a database delivery
• Scripts were written to convert DB to TM
• Based on Ontopias upconversion tools
• An application was built to enable
• User friendly mapping from DB to TM
• A mapping tool is presented to users
• To map fields in tables to ontology concepts
• This all results in a Topic Maps representation
  of existing data sets enabling
• Intuitive browsing via Omnigator
• Removal of duplicates
• Enrichment with extra domain information

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DB-ONTO-mapping screenshot
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Step 2 Visualisation

• The Topic Maps representation of the original
  database is visualised
• In an Omnigator-like interface
• Subject-centric-ness is key issue
• Display all information per subject
• Users searches are directed by
• Search entries as starting points
• Navigation paths towards actual information

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Visualisation screenshot
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Step 3 Restrictions (ACL)

• A generic model was developed that
• Defines navigation steps from topic (type) to
  topic (type) through association (types)
• Restricts occurrences (types) for topics (types)
  for certain target groups
• This model is filled for specific target groups
  to
• Present navigation paths through data for
  civilians who do not (have to) know the actual
  data structure
• Hide certain information from certain employees
• Aggregate information for managers

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Navigation model
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Restriction screenshot
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Step 4 Restriction manager

• A management interface is (being) set up to fill
  the navigation model
• Based on the ontology
• Allows users to fill the model
• For one or more target groups
• Results in an interface in which end users
• Define the behaviour of a full web application
• Allows building Topic Maps based web portals
• Without any need for programming

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Step 5 Chaining

• The current work involves assignment of PSIs
• Data from CORSA provides good concepts
• Broader scope towards local governments
• When applied, chaining can be achieved
• First only between different CORSA applications
• Later on between various applications in the
  domain of (local) governments
• Touches upon other initiatives like ADNOM

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Future developments

• More / better search entries
• Based on personal info / settings
• Aggregating data
• Needed for proper reporting
• Integration with other applications
• other than CORSA
• Towards a full framework
• Specific page / topic layout
• Towards Neo for Topic Maps