An inter-enterprise semantic web system to support information autonomy and conflict moderation

This paper discusses a semantic web architecture for formation of an extended project team manufacturing system engineering moderator (EEMSEM) which includes four major modules: ontology acquisition, ontology mapping, knowledge acquisition, and design moderation. This collaborative system architecture focuses on how to support information autonomy that allows individual enterprises to keep their own preferred terminology or languages rather than requiring them to adopt a single standardized vocabulary. Different engineering information terminologies are interpreted and automatically connected to the corresponding terminologies through mapping into the mediated ontology model. A case study is provided to demonstrate how the EEMSEM applies its ontology during the moderation of an extended enterprise, supply chain focused project.