Bachelor Thesis - Federal Dossier as an Ontology
Concept and implementation of an ontology (OWL) for flexible, process-independent document navigation (GEVER).
Technical Challenges
- Modeling complex GEVER file plans (based on St. Gallen Management Model) in OWL
- Overcoming rigid process-oriented folder hierarchies for support roles
- Integrating semantic inference rules (Rulebases) into Oracle Semantic Technologies
- Designing user-specific, dynamic views (UserViews) for document navigation
Solutions
I developed an OWL ontology and SPARQL queries that allow documents to be flexibly linked to various processes. Using an Oracle-based rulebase, navigation hierarchies were derived dynamically without changing the physical structure.
Outcomes
- Successfully modeled the GEVER standard as an extensible ontology
- Realized user-specific document views (UserViews) decoupled from fixed filing schemes
- Developed reasoning rules (hasRubrikDeclaration) for automatic classification
- Directly integrated semantic concepts into product development at the i-engineers AG
This project began as my Bachelor thesis at FHNW Brugg-Windisch and focused on making classical hierarchical filing systems in public administration (GEVER) more flexible and user-friendly through semantic web technologies.
Research Focus
In collaboration with the i-engineers AG, I investigated semantic web standards (RDF, OWL2) to model GEVER document structures. The core case study involved the armasuisse filing plan, which was structured by core business processes. This process-centric layout presented navigation challenges for users in support or management roles who needed to collect documents scattered across different processes.
Implementation
Using Protégé and Oracle Semantic Technologies, I designed an ontology that abstracted the GEVER metadata model. By implementing
inference rules (hasRubrikDeclaration) and SPARQL queries, documents were linked to multiple dimensions. This allowed users to generate
customized, user-specific navigation hierarchies (UserView) without modifying the primary physical filing system.
Outcomes
The thesis successfully demonstrated the practical viability of semantic web technologies for improving document management systems’ usability. The concepts and models developed during the project directly influenced future product design and development at the i-engineers AG.