EMPOWER-SSE is an R&D project funded under the Indo-Portuguese Programme for Cooperation in Science & Tecnology launched by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and the Department of Science and Technology of India (DST). This programme funds mobility of researchers. In EMPOWER-SSE, it funds per year four travels and stays: two for Indian researchers and two for Portuguese researchers.
Objectives
In this collaborative project, we primarily aim to establish a strong collaboration between NIT, Durgapur (India), BPPIMT, Kolkata (India) and University of Minho (Guimarães, Portugal). This proposal focuses on modeling a Semantic Web and Linked data Technology based framework to consolidate players of unorganized sector enabling a paradigm shift towards development of a social and solidarity economy (SSE), also called third sector. The unorganised sectors struggle with the problem of lack of information, data sharing and interoperability across system and organisational boundaries and lose the business benefits/profits as most of it do not reach the end of the chain. A unified view of the business and the ability to analyse distributed yet interdependent data, is critical to effective decision making. One solution is to use Semantic Web technologies. Once these technologies have been applied, it opens a broader level of interoperability through the application of Linked Open Data (LOD) principles. This proposal primarily focuses on mathematical modeling, application of analysis techniques & easy interpretation of results that aims to address the challenges faced by the people working in different unorganized sectors enabling them to reach out to potential customers by profile analysis done on data extracted from social forums and empowering them for taking informed decisions.
Justification of the cooperation
The expertise and experience of Indian and Portugal partners are similarly strong and complement each other. The Portuguese partners have a strong expertise in modeling LOD applications and have applied some of this expertise in the SSE domain for which they have created a Metadata Application Profile (MAP). The Indian partners are already working in the area of semantic web with the application of Social Network Analysis, federated graph databases, etc. in various domains. Together, we have the knowledge required to reach the project goals, and the financial support enables us to create an integrated framework that can get more attention from public bodies and people to take up the solutions provided.
This project has as an observer Prof. Ricardo Sant’Ana (Paulista State University, Brazil). Prof. Sant’Ana has a vast curriculum of using Information & Communication Technologies(ICT) to empower less privileged communities in Brazil, especially the ones related to local agriculture.
Reference
[1] Berners-Lee, T. (2009). Linked Data - Design Issues. Retrieved from http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html