ABSTRACT
This chapter takes the viewpoint of a public administration (PA) that is considering the use of semantic technologies and the semantic Web to enhance the quality of its services and to improve its overall performance. Despite several reasons to start using semantic technologies, a single PA may still hesitate to invest because the required effort and cost drivers on this path are manifold and can be identified along the three areas of infrastructure components, annotation and migration, and preparation for take-up of new applications, and second is the benefits can be harvested only when many information providers contribute in a coordinated way and a large number of information consumers use these applications. Since the benefits of using the semantic Web are mutual, understanding and managing PA networks can be assumed to be the key to overcoming the current uncertainty about investment and to implementing the next generation of information and process integration.
