Collective Knowledge Composition in a P2P Network

Today's data and information management tools enable massive accumulation and storage of knowledge that is produced through scientific advancements, personal and corporate experiences, communications, interactions, and so forth. In addition, the increase in the volume of this data and knowledge continues to accelerate. The willingness and the ability to share and use this information are key factors for realizing the full potential of this knowledge scattered over many distributed computing devices and human beings. By correlating these isolated islands of knowledge, individuals can gain new insights, discover new relations (Sheth, Arpinar & Kashyap, 2003), and produce more knowledge. Despite the abundance of information, knowledge starvation still exists because most of the information cannot be used effectively for decision-making and problem-solving purposes. This is in part due to the lack of easy to use knowledge sharing and collective discovery mechanisms. Thus, there is an emerging need for knowledge tools that will enable users to collectively create, share, browse, and query their knowledge.