This work includes the papers presented in the 12th European-Japanese Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases. Topics of research in this conference included the theory and practice of information modelling, conceptual modelling, and design and specification of information systems.

In the last decades, information modelling and knowledge bases have become hot topics not only in academic communities related to information systems and computer science, but also in business areas where information technology is applied. This book aims to exchange scientific results and experiences achieved in computer science and other related disciplines using innovative methods and progressive approaches. A platform has been established drawing together researchers as well as practitioners dealing with information modelling and knowledge bases. The main topics of this publication target the variety of themes in the domain of information modelling, conceptual analysis, design and specification of information systems, ontologies, software engineering, knowledge and process management, data and knowledge bases. The editors also aim at applying new progressive theories.

Information modelling and knowledge bases are now essential, not only to academics working in computer science, but also wherever information technology is applied. This book presents papers from the 26th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases (formerly the European Japanese Conference – EJC), which took place in Tampere, Finland, in June 2016. The conference provides a platform to bring together researchers and practitioners working with information modelling and knowledge bases, and the 33 accepted papers cover topics including: conceptual modelling; knowledge and information modelling and discovery; linguistic modelling; cross-cultural communication and social computing; environmental modelling and engineering; and multimedia data modelling and systems. All papers were improved and resubmitted for publication after the conference. Covering state-of-the-art research and practice, the book will be of interest to all those whose work involves information modelling and knowledge bases.

This book will provide research communities in Europe and Japan with an overview of scientific results and experiences achieved using innovative methods and approaches in computer science and other disciplines, which have a common interest in understanding and solving problems on information modelling and knowledge bases, as.

Focuses on theoretical disciplines including cognitive science, artificial intelligence, logic, linguistics and analytical philosophy.

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.

In the last decades information modelling and knowledge bases have become hot topics not only in academic communities related to information systems and computer science, but also in business areas where information technology is applied. This book includes papers submitted to the 17th European-Japanese Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases (EJC 2007). The EJC conferences constitute a world-wide research forum for the exchange of scientific results and experiences achieved in computer science and other related disciplines using innovative methods and progressive approaches. In this way a platform has been established drawing together researches as well as practitioners dealing with information modelling and knowledge bases. Thus the main topics of the EJC conferences target the variety of themes in the domain of information modelling, conceptual analysis, design and specification of information systems, ontologies, software engineering, knowledge and process management, data and knowledge bases. The organizers also aim at applying new progressive theories. To this end, much attention is being paid also to theoretical disciplines including cognitive science, artificial intelligence, logic, linguistics and analytical philosophy. The selected papers cover many areas of information modelling, namely theory of concepts, database semantics, knowledge representation, software engineering, WWW information management, context-based information retrieval, ontological technology, image databases, temporal and spatial databases, document data management, process management, and many others.