Maximizing Collaboration Using Topic Maps-Based Ontology

Through both voluntary and enforced means, massive and varied types of information have been created and used in the digital space. Web 2.0 innovations allow people to be more productive than ever before. According to a study by Miniwatts Marketing Group (2008), the Internet usage growth between 2000-2008 was 305%. If we can effectively search and reuse or share this massive quantity of information, we can save our resources to reinvent wheels. However, the problem lies with searching. The enormous amount of information available on the Internet is mainly searched using search engines; however, search engines often return irrelevant and lengthy information. In order to find relevant information, users evaluate a lengthy list of irrelevant results, often resulting in information anxiety (Wurman, 1989) and cognitive overload. Cognitive overload occurs when users feel the burden of having to make decisions as to which links to follow and which to abandon (Conklin, 1987). Even though users spend their resources to filter massive amount of irrelevant information, they agree that collaboration is inevitable in the digital space. AbstrACt