  One of the key challenges in electronic government (e-government) is the
development of systems that can be easily integrated and interoperated to
provide seamless services delivery to citizens. In recent years, Semantic Web
technologies based on ontology have emerged as promising solutions to the above
engineering problems. However, current research practicing semantic development
in e-government does not focus on the application of available methodologies
and platforms for developing government domain ontologies. Furthermore, only a
few of these researches provide detailed guidelines for developing semantic
ontology models from a government service domain. This research presents a case
study combining an ontology building methodology and two state-of-the-art
Semantic Web platforms namely Protege and Java Jena ontology API for semantic
ontology development in e-government. Firstly, a framework adopted from the
Uschold and King ontology building methodology is employed to build a domain
ontology describing the semantic content of a government service domain.
Thereafter, UML is used to semi-formally represent the domain ontology.
Finally, Protege and Jena API are employed to create the Web Ontology Language
(OWL) and Resource Description Framework (RDF) representations of the domain
ontology respectively to enable its computer processing. The study aims at: (1)
providing e-government developers, particularly those from the developing world
with detailed guidelines for practicing semantic content development in their
e-government projects and (2), strengthening the adoption of semantic
technologies in e-government. The study would also be of interest to novice
Semantic Web developers who might used it as a starting point for further
investigations.
