MORN : Multimedia Object Relation Network A Knowledge System to Support Research Projects A.Nuri Basoglu 1 , M. Atilla Oner 2 1 2 TurkConsult, Innovation and Technology Relay Center, Kozyatagi, Kaya Sultan Sk 98/11, 81090 Kadikoy, Istanbul, Turkey Abstract-MORN is an object-based system where concept index, external and internal links can manipulated from multimedia objects. The system is a knowledge base applied as an information infrastructure of the research project on "Technology and Rural Development: Assessing Technology Needs of Southeastern Anatolia Project in Turkey" whose present members are located in different parts of Istanbul and whose prospective members are residing in different parts of Turkey. I. INTRODUCTION Information infrastructure for statistical and scientific research in fields like biomedicine, astronomy and socio- economics require knowledge-based system (KBS) support that basically differs from classical database applications like production management and bank management in their conceptual data modelling as well as in their application environment. In one sense, these research applications are concept/attribute-rich instead of being data-rich. Various theoretical and empirical attempts have been made to overcome the shortcomings of traditional information/data modelling systems to improve the support for statistical, scientific and technological computing domain [1,5]. In literature it is possible to find many theoretical models and successful application of KBS’s [3]. Knowledge-based systems are usually implemented in domains rather narrow in scope [7]. However there are many management tasks in which even the most sophisticated-KBS lacks the general knowledge, broad cognition and subjective judgement capabilities [6]. There are limited but growing number of studies in broad and ill-structured management problems [7,8,9,10]. At the initial stages of the "Technology and Rural Development: Assessing Technology Needs of Southeastern Anatolia Project (SAP) in Turkey" project, the project team became aware of a list of needs related with project management and modeling: 1. Easy Access to every piece of document accumulated as the project progresses; 2. Share information/knowledge among team members; 3. Organize the information: Group, associate and sort by relevance/importance. A more profound analysis of the problem has led to the following specifications: The system, 1. manages a collection of views, news, facts, concepts, beliefs, hypothesis and proofs then collaborates, blends and uses these "pieces" of statements to construct or validate the model. 2. creates this environment which makes the discussion among team members possible. 3. stores every piece information to capture an "organizational" memory. With this practice, some pieces of information which is underestimated, may be utilized later in some way. 4. makes this study continuous, so that it will be possible to get the picture of the model at different points in time. An information system for knowledge organization is proposed.. The system is based on a semantic network which is published on www, where team members have the opportunity to access and manipulate this network. II. THE APPROACH AND APPLICATION OF MORN The model is based on a semantic network which consists of nodes and arcs (link). Each node, as an object, represents an idea, statement, concept, document, website, hypothesis etc. With the objective of establishing an harmonic unification of information, the system has been designed to store any sort of object (abstract or concrete). The daily operation is to collect and store any piece of "thing" in the knowledge base, then gradually drive them into more appropriate "positions". In regular sessions, association of nodes are searched and defined by the team members. A network of statements represents the whole information asset which allows users to choose the way he looks, i.e. many hierarchic patterns/multiple perspectives may be emdeded in a network. Some parts of the network may be formed as a lattice (directed graph) where user may represent hiearchical structures such as causal relationship and structural breakdown. The model has many sub-types for node class; some predefined sub-types are given in Table I. Basically, there are internal and external links with different functions. Internal links form the logical construct of the model. There are various types of relationships where some pre-defined relationship types are given in Table II. Any node may oppose an existing statement or support it. Some nodes may be member of a super node (Fig.1). In such a case, a part-of relationship may be established between nodes. Redefine relationship may be set when a statement is refined and declared as alternative of another statement.