Blog 23 June – Wednesday

We started off this morning by working on the changes that Xoliswa suggested.
As I have searched for a number of tools I had to add whether or not these tools can be regarded as open source tools/ technologies or not. This takes up quite some time as one needs to check the website of the tool, the frequently asked question of the site, the about or information page as well as the tool and open source coding in Google.

Another thing I worked on was the analysis of a virtual knowledge space named KP-Lab. This is what I found on KP-Lab

Background

The goal of KP–Lab system`s is to enable the creation and sharing of knowledge in an educational or workplace environment by designing and implementing extensive and flexible ICT systems. In order for these systems however to be successful, it needs to use the power of existing and emerging semantic web technologies. Many of these technologies support knowledge creation but because it is inflexible it need to be refined in order to address the need of learners, instructors as well as professionals, to ensure stability, performance and usability. (KP-Lab 2009)

KP-Lab Tools
Within KP-Lab system the following tools are available:

Knowledge Practices Environment (KPE)
By creating a shared knowledge space with tools that can be used for making comments, develop as well as manage knowledge artefacts support is given to collaborative knowledge creation. This tool aims to just that. (KP-Lab 2009)

Tool description

KPE is designed to support collaborative work by means of integration. A shared space is available with the necessary tools to develop and manage knowledge, people as well as processes. It also incorporates reflection on the different practises that take place from a variety of views such as the view from a content perspective, a process perspective and a community perspective. (KP-Lab 2009). According to KP-Lab (2009), The KPE consists of a number of tools that are used while working with knowledge objects. These tools include alerting services, a wiki, and note editing software, tagging software, commenting and chat mechanisms as well as a search function. What makes KPE such a good tool to have is the fact that it can be adapted to fit various practises and domains, which in effect mean that that the end-user can decide whether or not it is applicable to his/her project or not. (KP-Lab 2009). Relating to knowledge creation, because of its flexibility, this tool mediates collaborative work, supports creativity, and help to learn new strategies, which in the long run makes it easier and more acceptable to the user. (KP-Lab 2009)

Usage

According to KP-Lab (2009) organisations that work with knowledge creation and collaborative tasks such as these listed hereafter, is seen as the target group for this tool.”

1. “Higher education;
2. Student groups;
3. Internship courses;
4. Teacher training;
5. Teacher networks;
6. Disciplinary networks (across universities);
7. Schools;
8. Non-Profit organizations; and
9. Companies.”

The Visual Modelling (Language) Editor

In order to extend the functions of the standard KPE, The Visual Modelling (Language) Editor is used to enable users to work on visual models and visual modelling languages by means of creation, sharing, usage as well as the updating of these models. (KP-Lab 2009)

Tool description

According to KP-Lab (2009), the goal of the Visual Modelling (Language) Editor is to help in the process of collaborative modelling over a variety of disciplines by means of a semantically powerful tool that is simple and customisable. Examples of areas in which this tool can help are: collaborative analysis, problem modelling, designing of projects, analysis of models used in strategy development.

The Visual Modeling (Language) Editor further allows for both synchronous and asynchronous work, meaning that when changes are made, the effect can be seen in real time by other group members but the system also creates a log about this event in order for an off-line member to be able to see what changes have been made and how the final step has been reached. (KP-Lab 2009). In order to offer more support to the user, the tool also offer a chat and comment function. (KP-Lab 2009)

Usage

In communities where scientists, professionals and students need technical help in the development of conceptual tools, research support tools and knowledge creation tools, this tool will be of great value. (KP-Lab 2009)

CASS-Memo tool

The goal of this tool is to use multimedia and “note-taking” to capture the happening of essential actions and or events.
The software connected to this tool is created to be used on mobile phones. (KP-Lab 2009)

Tool description

The aim of this tool is to enable students as well as professionals to use it anywhere and be able to transmit data to the KPE from anywhere. It is designed to be interoperable with other tools of the KPE by providing the user with features such as audio/video recording, capturing of images and saving these entire file to the KPE with the metadata connected to it. (KP-Lab 2009)
The tool allows the option of selecting a directory to where a file should be stored, after which it is regarded as content in a shared knowledge space which is accessible to other users. From the usage side the users will be able to search for content on the shared space and download the items they need to their phones.(KP-Lab 2009)

Usage

According to KP-Lab (2009), Users that will definitely benefit from this tool is those working outside the office environment where computers and internet access is limited but whom is still required to participate in the creation, collection and management of knowledge as well as the depositing of knowledge into a storage space (Knowledge repository).

CASS-Query tool

In order to address the issue of collecting process and context sensitive data, the tools of the CASS system can be adapted to suit the needs of different users. CASS is a Java based application. (KP-Lab 2009)

Tool description

According to KP-Lab (2009) The Query tool is implemented on 3G compatible mobile devices such as the Nokia E70 with features such as a Symbian operating system, MP3 and video capabilities, GPS as well as wireless LAN.

The tool has 2 main functions: The first is that the query tool runs on the mobile phone which allows that the query get sent to the mobile application. The second is that it also includes a server databases which is responsible for the transmission and storage of data. This admin tool is operated via a admin website and is used for entering information and creating queries. (KP-Lab 2009)

Usage

This tool is most suitable for researchers as it helps to investigate the actions, ideas and experiences of different actors in the context of daily lives. (KP-Lab 2009)

Semantic Multimedia Annotation tool (SMAT)

According to KP-Lab (2009), The Semantic Multimedia Annotation Tool (SMAT) is: “a rich internet application. SMAT is a tool that offers the possibility of annotating any multimedia content item.”

Tool description

The main role of this tool according to KP-Lab (2009) is to manage knowledge, which in this instance is multimedia content, embedded in documents. In order to manage these documents semantics has to be anchored to the media within the document. Annotation can be described as a multipurpose activity as it can have many objectives such: “internalisation of mental models, internalisation of knowledge, awareness of social practices, partially articulating embedded knowledge and reflective transformation of practices”
This tool has the potential to annotate any item relating to multimedia and can also be adapted to the domain the user selected which leads to the description of a “rich internet application”.

Usage

The SMA - tool is primarily made for learning, but can also be used in areas of education, research and industry. (KP-Lab 2009). In terms of schools and learning this tool can be used as a collaborative review on a project to determine what went well and what did not, but it can also be used as a reflective activity based on an exercise recorded on video. (KP-Lab 2009).As mentioned above, the tool can be used in other areas as well, not only in the school environment. With little adaptation it can function as reflection on activities such as meetings in the industrial environment; it can be used in the sector of medicine and when imaging modalities such as scans need to be analyses and reflected on in order to form a diagnosis. (KP-Lab 2009)

In areas such as oceanography, environment and agriculture the use of video and audio has already begun, and with little help from SMAT, these areas will surely improve. KP-Lab (2009) continues by saying that: “video is an excellent means for gathering data”, when researching. This specific tool could be used for the coding of data, the analysis thereof and finally the visualisation.

Text Mining Services

Users need to be assisted in the process of creating and /or updating semantic descriptions of KP-Lab Knowledge artefacts, which includes the “object of activities”. This service addresses that need.

Tool description

The text mining tool provides a classification as well as a clustering service used to help users when they want to create or update “knowledge artefacts”. This service functions on analysed textual content as well as the semantic annotations of this content. After the Classification service has been trained it is able to categorise objects (knowledge artefacts) under a set of pre-determine categories which has the result of semantic descriptions already being made. The Clustering service on the other hand searches for clusters of artefacts that can be stored together and then acquire conceptual maps from them.

Operations associated with the Classification Service are the maintenance and organisations of models while operations associated with the Clustering Service are pre-processing of text and content map creation.

Usage

The Text mining service can be utilised by schools and universities, especially in the e-Learning environment where content needs to be organised and categorised all the time. It can also be used by research communities to act as the building blocks on which their applications are based.

RDF Suite

“RDF Suite is a set of high-level and scalable services enabling the realization of the full potential of the Semantic Web.” (KP-Lab 2009). The Resource Description Framework (RDF) enables users to create metadata and exchange this metadata with other users over the web. It is necessary that the meaning, usability, quality, relevance, authority and accessibility of resources are known in order to aid automated processing of sources.

Usage

Academicians and software developers will probably use this suite the most as it is used to validate data compatible with RDF/S for the Semantic web.

KMS-Persistence API

Definition: “Persistence API is a client library used for managing all Knowledge repository tasks.” (KP-Lab. 2009)

Tool description

Persistence API is used to fetch data from the repository and allows data to be centralised or decentralised into a repository. It functions on Java objects which can be indexed into a search feature, allowing the user to find resources him/herself. (KP-Lab. 2009)

Usage

The intended users of this tool are developers of front end and middleware software whom are required to work with resources inside the knowledge repository. Because it allows the usage of data in the form of Java objects it is useful for developers who want to create graphs from the data inside the knowledge repository. (KP-Lab. 2009) According to KP-Lab (2009) the tools and applications mentioned above, was developed in open source code, which means that it will be available under open source terms to external development and further research.

I had some help from KG and Phyllis in the analysis of this virtual space.

Our group then had a thinking session where we threw around a few ideas on what we should put on our storyboard and how it should look.

One of the ideas we had was using basic HTML to create a dummy website, but then we realized that none of us were experts on HTML programming and we had to come up with a new idea.
This was however a good starting point as the idea we came up with really looks good.
I think what can be learned from this experience is that an idea doesn`t necessarily have to be good the first time around. As long as that idea creates the base for follow up ideas by starting a creative energy, that idea has served its purpose.

I also realized that by using brainstorming as a method of creating something new, can lead to positive results if it is controlled, if not chaos will arise as people can easily lose track.
I spoke to Xoliswa about the storyboard, just to make sure we are on the right track. She suggested a few ideas as well as needs that we must consider for the storyboard and showed me a wish list on the Energy wiki, of tools/technologies that they would like on our storyboard.

In the beginning of our project our group leaders mentioned to us that we should feel some form of pressure and stress, and to be honest I`m starting to stress.
Everything has to come together now, which means that there is no time for mistakes. Hope all goes well…..