eGovernment Ontologies: Social Participation in Building and Evolution

eGovernment has the aim of developing computer-based solutions to support the interaction of citizens with the public institutions and, more in general, to improve their participation in the public and social life. Semantic technologies, used to develop advanced eGovernment solutions, require eGovernment ontologies. The latter, to be effective, must be built within a participative, social process. Such a socially participative method must be adopted also in later phases, when the ontology needs to be periodically updated and maintained. In this paper we present the SOBE (Social Ontology Building and Evolution) Methodology, based on a clearly defined social process, with clearly defined intermediate steps, actors and roles, and outcomes produced.