Ovono, Gerald2024-07-022024-07-022022-08-30https://hdl.handle.net/10352/731M. Tech. (Department of Information and Communications Technology, Faculty of Applied and Computer Sciences), Vaal University of Technology.Background: In recent years, the expansive growth of technologies has similarly increased the amount of information stored. This has been the case in local government areas that by nature involve various entities with the need to exchange and reuse information. Furthermore, as eGovernment initiatives are being realised in municipalities, researchers and academics are starting to standardise the Linked Data technology to foster the necessary reuse of information. In South Africa, municipalities are the closest point of service delivery to the communities. Ontology modelling makes possible the description of municipalities' knowledge domains in computer processing. In view of standardizing and achieving South African municipalities’ services interoperability, this research study shows great interest. The study started by reviewing the literature on semantic web technology and Linked Data (LD) technology in the field of government and open government. The review has led to the development of a framework for the municipalities' ontology model. Methodology: The municipalities’ ontology model has been conceptualised and evaluated by a set of Competency Questions (CQs) translated into SPARQL queries through experimentation. The experiment's first phase was to perform a goal modelling to capture the CQs from the municipalities’ General Inquiries (GI) and then construct the SPARQL queries. Tropos methodology and CQs Translation (CQT) approach have been used in that phase. Four CQs categories were identified such as Boolean questions, factual questions, list questions, and complex questions. The second phase was to conceptualize the municipalities' ontology model in Web Ontology Language (OWL) supported by Protégé ontology management tools. The third phase was to evaluate the municipality ontology model. The ontology validation was performed from the use of the Pellet reasoner plugin of Protégé to match the ontology design principles, while the evaluation was to execute the SPARQL queries against the municipality ontology model using protégé. Results and discussion: The resulting classes, terms and instances from the SPARQL queries were presented to participants to be rated on a scale of 1 to 5 on how the CQs have been answered. The analysis of the participants' responses indicated 72% weighted mean in Boolean questions, 96% weighted mean in factual questions, 56% weighted mean in list questions and 84% weighted mean in complex questions, Conclusions: The participants’ responses selection rates analysis has demonstrated that the conceptualised municipalities’ ontology model evaluation resulted in positive participants’ selected percentage weighted means values. Hence, Linked Data technology improves data access in South African municipalities.enLinked Data TechnologySemantic Web TechnologyLinked Data GenerationCompetency Questions (CQ)South African MunicipalitiesDissertations, Academic -- South Africa.Ontologies (Information retrieval).Linked data.Thesis