Conzilla2 – our second generation concept browser – is a knowledge management tool with many purposes. Among other things, it aims to be
- an efficient collaborative knowledge environment / modeling tool.
- a versatile interface for editing and styling RDF.
Conzilla presents knowledge in terms of specific maps, Context-maps. A Context-map displays nodes and arcs, from now on referred to as concepts and concept-relations, with specific box-forms, icons, arrow-heads, linestyles etc. To get an idea look at the screenshots below, click on them for full scale versions:
 Startmap – examplifies different types of concepts in a single context-map |
The start map in edit mode |
Conzilla2 features
- Conzilla2 supports an open ended set of different diagram types. Per default the UML class, activity, Use-case, and process diagrams are provided.
- Each concept and concept-relation has a ‘life of its own’. This means that the same concept and concept-relation can occur in different maps, which is in accordance with the knowledge manifold information topology. It is also possible to provide a simple hyperlink from each concept or concept-relation to another context-map.
- Context-maps, concepts, and concept-relations can be endowed with metadata.
- Concepts or concept-relation can be filled with content components in the form of links to other resources, e.g. webpages or books in a library, persons etc.
- A context-map, a concept or a concept-relation can be distributed, allowing people to extend them easily. In this case they must be loaded from different sources. Each of these sources we refer to as a Knowledge Patch.
- A Knowledge Manifold typically contains a set of Context-maps and has a responsible publisher which we call a knowledge gardener.
- The apperance in Conzilla2 is controlled by stylesheets.
- Everything is stored in RDF allowing integration with other tools.
- Conzilla2 includes an editor for Context-maps.
- Since Conzilla 2.1 context-maps can be published easily to an information directory: Collaborilla.
- Published maps can be loaded by everyone who has access to Collaborilla (which means literally everyone, since this access is not restricted).
- Everyone can comment on or contribute to published maps.