This is the tenth volume in a series on information modelling and knowledge bases. The topics of the articles cover a wide variety of themes in the domain of information modelling, design and specification of information systems and knowledge bases, ranging from foundations and theories to systems construction and application studies. The contributions in this volume represent the following major themes: models in intelligent activity; concept modelling and conceptual modelling; conceptual modelling and information requirements specification; collections of concepts, knowledge base design, and database design; human-computer interaction and modelling; software engineering and modelling; and applications.

This is the 12th volume in a series on information modelling and knowledge bases. The topics of the articles cover a wide variety of themes in the domain of information modelling, design and specification of information systems and knowledge bases, ranging from foundations and theories to systems construction and application studies. The contributions in this volume represent the following major themes: models in intelligent activity; concept modelling and conceptual modelling; conceptual modelling and information requirements specification; collections of concepts, knowledge base design, and database design; human-computer interaction and modelling; software engineering and modelling; and applications.

This is a collection of papers presented in the 11th European Japanese Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases held in Maribor, Slovenia. This annually organized conference brings together the leading researchers from Europe and Japan to introduce the latest results of their research.

Provide research communities in information modelling and knowledge bases with scientific results and experiences achieved by using innovative methodologies in computer science and other disciplines related to linguistics, philosophy, and psychology.

Because of our ever increasing use of and reliance on technology and information systems, information modelling and knowledge bases continue to be important topics in those academic communities concerned with data handling and computer science. As the information itself becomes more complex, so do the levels of abstraction and the databases themselves. This book is part of the series Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases, which concentrates on a variety of themes in the important domains of conceptual modeling, design and specification of information systems, multimedia information modeling, multimedia systems, ontology, software engineering, knowledge and process management, knowledge bases, cross-cultural communication and context modeling. Theoretical disciplines, including cognitive science, artificial intelligence, logic, linguistics and analytical philosophy, also receive attention. The selected papers presented here cover many areas of information modeling and knowledge bases including: theory of concepts, semantic computing, data mining, context-based information retrieval, ontological technology, image databases, temporal and spatial databases, document data management, software engineering, cross-cultural computing, environmental analysis, social networks, WWW information management, and many others. This new issue also contains papers initiated by the panels on: “Cross-cultural Communication with Icons and Images” and “Conceptual Modelling of Collaboration for Information Systems”. The book will be of interest to all those interested in advances in research and applications in the academic disciplines concerned.

Modelling of information is necessary in developing information systems. Information is acquired from many sources, by using various methods and tools. It must be recognized, conceptualized, and conceptually organized efficiently so that users can easily understand and use it. Modelling is needed to understand, explain, organize, predict, and reason on information. It also helps to master the role and functions of components of information systems. Modelling can be performed with many different purposes in mind, at different levels, and by using different notions and different background theories. It can be made by emphasizing users' conceptual understanding of information on a domain level, on an algorithmic level, or on representation levels. On each level, the objects and structures used on them are different, and different rules govern the behavior on them. Therefore the notions, rules, theories, languages, and methods for modelling on different levels are also different. It will be useful if we can develop theories and methodologies for modelling, to be used in different situations, because databases, knowledge bases, and repositories in knowledge management systems, developed on the basis of models and used to technically store information, are growing day by day. In this publication, the interest is focused on modelling of information, and one of the central topics is modelling of time. Scientific and technical papers of high quality are brought together in this book.

Information modelling and knowledge bases have become crucially important subjects in the last few decades. They continue to be increasingly relevant, not only in academic communities, but in every area of commerce and society where information technology