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Knowledge- and communication-intensive domains still long for a better support of creativity that considers legal requirements, compliance rules and administrative tasks as well, because current systems focus either on knowledge representation or business process management. The purpose of this paper is to discuss our model of integrated knowledge and business process representation and its presentation to users.

The authors follow a design science approach in the environment of patent prosecution, which is characterized by a highly standardized, legally prescribed process and individual knowledge study. Thus, the research is based on knowledge study, BPM, graph-based knowledge representation and user interface design. The authors iteratively designed and built a model and a prototype. To evaluate the approach, the authors used analytical proof of concept, real-world test scenarios and case studies in real-world settings, where the authors conducted observations and open interviews.

The authors designed a model and implemented a prototype for evolving and storing static and dynamic aspects of knowledge. The proposed solution leverages the flexibility of a graph-based model to enable open and not only continuously developing user-centered processes but also pre-defined ones. The authors further propose a user interface concept which supports users to benefit from the richness of the model but provides sufficient guidance.

The balanced integration of the data and task perspectives distinguishes the model significantly from other approaches such as BPM or knowledge graphs. The authors further provide a sophisticated user interface design, which allows the users to effectively and efficiently use the graph-based knowledge representation in their daily study.

A major problem of business process modelling languages that primarily express the flow of activities is the limited support for actor modelling provided by rigid swimlane concepts. Thus, the aim of this work is to present a general approach for actor modelling in business processes that supports different layers of abstraction, thereby increasing the expressiveness and avoiding inaccuracy and redundancy.

The proposed actor modelling approach supports task-based assignment of actors and roles based on deontic logic and speech act theory. The semantics of the approach is formally specified based on abstract state machines.

The new approach for actor modelling is more expressive and provides the possibility to reduce the structural complexity of the process flow as shown by a case study and a comparison of an ordinary business process modelling approach using swimlanes and the actor modelling approach based on the workflow resource patterns. In particular, the evaluation showed that important patterns such as separation of duties and retain familiar are only supported by the actor modelling approach.

The research is to some degree in the context of the business process model and notation as a representative of a business process modelling language using swimlanes.

Different gradations concerning the extent to which actor modelling is supported make the new approach outstanding for modelling activities, actors, and constraints in an expressive and legible way.

This contribution targets the need to manage the balancing act faced by middle-sized, non-elite universities between serving as educational institutions with a strong regional focus on the one hand and research institutions that meet international standards on the other hand. The difficulties of meeting these diverging demands will be assessed and spelled out with regard to how university governance and strategic research planning can proceed while taking into account legal, institutional and financial constraints.

The argument proceeds in three steps. First, the normative framework provided by the fundamental right to academic freedom is established. Second, the chapter develops the specific question of whether academic freedom is at stake in cases (as happened in the middle of twentieth century) where universities have been created with a view to bringing higher education to a region without a strong academic background and this in the aim of serving both the population and the local economy. Third, it is shown that the problem can be overcome by the dynamics that academic work unfolds.