Combining RDF vocabularies for expert finding

This paper presents a framework for the reuse and extension of existing, established vocabularies in the Semantic Web. Driven by the primary application of expert finding, we will explore the reuse of vocabularies that have attracted a considerable user community already (FOAF, SIOC, etc) or are derived from de facto standards used in tools or industrial practice (such as vCard, iCal and Dublin Core). This focus guarantees direct applicability and low entry barriers, unlike when devising a new ontology from scratch. The Web is already populated with several vocabularies which complement each other (but also have considerable overlap) in that they cover a wide range of necessary features to adequately describe the expert finding domain. Little effort has been made so far to identify and compare existing approaches, and to devise best practices on how to use and extend various vocabularies conjointly. It is the goal of the recently started ExpertFinder initiative to fill this gap. In this paper we present the ExpertFinder framework for reuse and extension of existing vocabularies in the Semantic Web. We provide a practical analysis of overlaps and options for combined use and extensions of several existing vocabularies, as well as a proposal for applying rules and other enabling technologies to the expert finding task.