glossaLAB: Enabling the Co-creation of Interdisciplinary Knowledge Through the Reviving of Long-Term Conceptual Elucidation

By: José María Díaz-Nafría (Madrid Open University, Spain; BITrum-RG, Spain), Antonio Jesús Muñóz-Montoro (Madrid Open University, Spain; Universidad de Oviedo, Spain), Isaac Seoane (Madrid Open University, Spain), Javier Bravo-Agapito (Madrid Open University, Spain), Gerhard Chroust (Institute for a Global Sustainable Information Society, Austria), Modestos Stavrakis (University of the Aegean), Teresa Guarda (Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena, Ecuador)

Published in: Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1485. Springer, Cham, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90241-4_2

Abstract: As we have discussed in previous works, glossaLAB project is devoted to the integration of an extensive encyclopedic corpus into a system of interdisciplinary glossaries -whose concept has been described thoroughly-. By that means, glossaLAB intends to offer a platform for the co-creation of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge that revives sound endeavours to strengthen the capacity of systems science and information studies -including a panoply of related disciplines- based on the clarification of concepts, theories, metaphors and problems addressed by these disciplines. For this purpose, the first step consists of the transference of contents from the original non-standard formats -mostly focused on a particular way of presentation- to an interoperable coding through which the content can be delivered to multiple platforms, and particularly to the elucidation platform, based on MediaWiki technology in which the co-creation of contents is to be continued. The magnitude of the corpus -over six thousand articles in a hypertext of more than one hundred thousand links- requires the automation of the process. We describe the process developed to make the content interoperable and to deploy it into the glossaLAB platform set up for the continuation of the elucidation process. Furthermore, glossaLAB is devised as a federated system of interdisciplinary glossaries which evolve autonomously but cooperate in the development of a network of transdisciplinary concepts whose performance is intended to grow over time. This organisation also serves to the qualification of the integration of knowledge achieved through the elucidation process based on a bi-dimensional measurement of the diversity of the co-created knowledge and the effectiveness of the integration achieved.

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Evaluation of Knowledge Integration through Knowledge Structures and Conceptual Networks

Conceptual network as: a) passive network of concepts evolving through scientific inquiry and communication; b) network of interacting agents (scientists who have their own conceptual network {K} evolving through scientific communication).

By: José María Díaz-Nafría (BITrum Research Group, Spain; Madrid Open University, Spain), Mark Burgin (University of California, Los Angeles, USA), Blanca Rodriguez-Bravo (Universidad de León, Spain)

Published in: G. Dodig-Crnkovic, M. Burgin (eds.), Philosophy and Methodology of Information, Singapore: World Scientific Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/9789813277526_0021

Abstract: The chapter addresses the general problem of assessing the integration of knowledge from different scientific disciplines joined in interdisciplinary settings and its specific application to the study of information. The method is based in the development of Interdisciplinary-Glossaries as tools for the elucidation of the network of concepts involved which also serve as proxies of the corresponding knowledge integration. We show the results obtained from the application of the network approach to a specific interdisciplinary-glossary devoted to the study of information. These results show the capacity of the methodology depicted to guide the future development of knowledge integration by the corresponding interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary teams, as well as to assess their integration achievements. However, the results described are rather qualitative with respect to the knowledge integration attainments. In order to offer a quantitative assessment, we propose an enhanced methodology in which each contribution and participant in the elucidation process is identified by the knowledge domains involved using a set of domains adapted from the higher categories of the Universal Decimal Classification. Such identification allows assessing the integration through a multidimensional perspective based on: (i) the diversity of the disciplines involved, measured in terms of Shannon Diversity Index, and (ii) The effective integration achieved through the meeting of different perspectives, measured through the analysis of both the semantic network of elucidated concepts and the network of participant researchers, in terms of the average minimal distance between any two nodes and the clustering coefficient, which are combined through the small-world-coefficient, σ.

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A Network Theoretical Approach to Assess Knowledge Integration in Information Studies

glossariumBITri’s Co-occurrence network. Term frequency occurrence & co-ocurrence > 50; Colours: semantic clusters determined by intermediation measurements. Adverbial and prepositional categories are excluded.

By: José María Díaz-Nafría (BITrum-Research Group, Spain; Munich University of Applied Sciences, Germany), Teresa Guarda (Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena, Ecuador; Algoritmi Centre, Minho University, Portugal), Iván Coronel (Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena, Ecuador)

Published in: Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 94.
Springer, Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78605-6_31

Abstract: The paper presents a general approach to assess knowledge integration as a basis to evaluate the performance of transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches with respect to their knowledge integration capacity. The method is based on the development of Interdisciplinary-glossaries as tools for the elucidation of the conceptual networks involved in interdisciplinary studies. Such ID-glossaries are used as proxies of the corresponding knowledge integration, which is measured through the structural analysis of the co-occurrence network of terms. This approach is applied to an ID-glossary devoted to the general study of information, called glossariumBITri. The results show the capacity of the approach to detect integration achievements, challenges and barriers. Its qualitative nature is complemented by an enhanced methodology in which both the diversity   of disciplines and the knowledge integration can be measured in a bi-dimensional index. To that purpose each contribution to the target ID-glossary is identified by the knowledge domains involved (using a set of knowledge domains adapted from the higher categories of the Universal Decimal Classification), while the integration is measured in terms of the small-world coefficient of the co-occurrence of terms.

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Information: A Multidimensional Reality

By: José María Díaz Nafría (Universidad de León, Spain; Munich University of Applied Sciences, Germany)

Published in: Emilia CURRÁS & Nuria LLORET (eds.) (2012), Systems Science and Collaborative Information Systems: Theories, Practices and New Research, pp. 37-70, Hershey PA: IGI Global publication.

Abstract: Making an incursion in the forest of problems and theories of information, beyond observing a lack of mutual understanding among information theorists, we find out that information can be understood as a multifaceted reality. The variety of theories is in itself a reflection of the complex nature of information. A systematic approach to these theories, looking for common and divergent understandings render– so to speak – a cubist picture of what information really is, showing for instance its multidimensionality. In other words, when we say there is information in cables and organisms, in antennas and societies, in robots and mental states, we do not have to be mistaken: information is considered in each case in different aspects.
Delving into the nature of observation, we will find a solid ground to pose information as a bridge between objects and subjects, therefore providing the possibility to overcome the inveterate segregation of the objectivist and subjectivist understandings. As we will see, such vision also provides the possibility to articulate an understanding of information in its multifaceted reality.

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