Managing knowledge through electronic commerce applications: a framework for integrating information coming from heterogeneous web sources

The paper aims at investigating the interplay existing between Electronic Commerce (EC) technologies, knowledge and Knowledge Management (KM), an issue that has raised attention in the academic and professional literature in recent times. To this end, a careful examination of the logic and working mechanisms of MOMIS is conducted, a semi-automatic framework for integrating information coming from heterogeneous sources that is under development at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Modena e Reggio Emilia. In particular, the use of MOMIS to create virtual catalogues (i.e. EC instruments that dynamically retrieve information from multiple heterogeneous sources) is discussed in depth from a knowledge-based point of view. The analysis seems to confirm that EC and KM are not unrelated managerial issues, but rather that they can (and must) be beneficially integrated. More specifically, it seems possible to state that a better and more accurate understanding of knowledge management processes are essential to design and realise more effective EC applications.