An ontological framework for user-driven system specification

User-driven specification of network information systems is required in many virtual professional communities, such as research networks. The paper introduces a method and an accompanying tool being developed to support the legitimate user-driven specification of network information systems. The need for method ontologies, organized in an ontological-framework, is motivated. A key part of this framework, the core process ontology, is described. The application of the framework is illustrated with some case study examples. It is shown how ontological and normative knowledge can be combined to model the user-driven specification process. Its formal semantics are described using dynamic deontic logic.