Using domain ontology in a semantic blogging system for construction professionals

Smooth communication is essential for the success of construction projects. As an easy-to-use, context-rich, and high-capacity communication tool, blogging is gaining popularity in construction industry. In this paper, the features of blogging technology and how it could benefit construction organizations are presented. To further improve the effectiveness of blogging technology in information and knowledge sharing, an ontology-based semantic blogging system is proposed. Semantic blogging is an extension of conventional blogging and ontology is the key enabling technology for it. Domain-ontology-based semantic blogging site is composed of a network of concepts, which are clearly defined and interlinked according to their context and bound to certain behaviors. This paper reports how the e-Cognos ontology was implemented into a blogging system and how the system functions to process its contents. The paper concludes that using ontology-based semantic blogging site can greatly enhance information sharing between construction professionals and it is a very promising tool for construction communities to publish and share their experience.