Currently computers shift from a single isolated device to an entry point in a world wide network of information exchange and business transactions. Therefore, support in data, information, and knowledge exchange becomes the key issue in current computer technology.
Ontologies provide a shared and common understanding of a domain that can be communicated across people and application systems. Therefore, they may play a major role in supporting information exchange processes in various areas. The talk will show the role ontologies my play in knowledge management and in electronic commerce (both in the B2C and the B2B areas).
Finally we will discuss how arising web standards such as RDF and XML can be used as an underlying representation languages for ontologies.