Current knowledge about the early phases of ontology construction is insufficient to support methods and techniques for a collaborative construction of a conceptualization. Following an approach inspired in cognitive semantics, the application and extension of the Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT) to the realm of collaborative semantic tools is proposed. A formal framework is presented together with some examples in the collaborative networks context. A collaborative semantic architecture is presented. This architecture supports the two components of the proposed method: collective conceptualization and consensus reaching.

The development of new products or processes involves the creation, re-creation and integration of conceptual models from the related scientific and technical domains. Particularly, in the context of collaborative networks of organisations (CNO) (e.g. a multi-partner, international project) such developments can be seriously hindered by conceptual misunderstandings and misalignments, resulting from participants with different backgrounds or organisational cultures, for example. The research described in this article addresses this problem by proposing a method and the tools to support the collaborative development of shared conceptualisations in the context of a collaborative network of organisations. The theoretical model is based on a socio-semantic perspective, while the method is inspired by the conceptual integration theory from the cognitive semantics field. The modelling environment is built upon a semantic wiki platform. The majority of the article is devoted to developing an informal ontology in the context of a European R&D project, studied using action research. The case study results validated the logical structure of the method and showed the utility of the method.