Government Ontology and Thesaurus Construction: A Taiwanese Experience

Abstract

Due to the quantity and the diversity involved in e-government presentations and operations, traditional approaches to web site information management have been found to be rather inefficient in time and cost. Consequently, the necessity of establishing a government knowledge management system, so as to speed up information lookups, sharing, and linkups, naturally arises. Moreover, this knowledge management system would in turn enhance e-government effectiveness as it helps to store and transmit information, be it explicit or implicit in nature. The first step in creating this knowledge management system is to build up the government ontology and thesaurus. Upon the completion of the ontology and thesaurus needed, semantic searching can be conducted, which in turn kickstarts other mechanisms required for effective information management.

Our research team has been commissioned by the Executive Yuan of Taiwan to establish the draft of government ontology and thesaurus and to design a framework for multiple-layered information management systems upon which the ontology and thesaurus can be constructed. The goal of this paper is to present the government ontology and thesaurus which our research team has come up with as well as the related infrastructure and function of the multiple-layered information management system.