ABSTRACT
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. The expected benefit is the potential to decrease the effort in sharing abstractions as a prerequisite for information and process integration without requiring a much higher degree of organizational integration. Despite several reasons to start using semantic technologies now, a single PA may still hesitate to invest because (a) 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 (b) 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. Future research still needs to focus on organizational cost/benefit, user involvement, technical integration, and implementation strategy. Since providing information to the semantic Web requires a collaborative effort and 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.
