The semantic web and the future of the Internet

For more information on this item please visit the CANARIE CA*net 4 =
Optical=20
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[Because the semantic web makes knowledge and information readable by
computers it will play a critical role in service oriented architectures =
and
workflow grids for research and education. Thanks to Ezra R. Miller for =
this
pointer.  Some excerpts from the original MIT article --BSA]


From Technology Review
<http://www.techreview.com/articles/04/10/frauenfelder1004.asp>=20
=20

Sir Tim Berners-Lee=20
 Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, but he had something =
bigger in
mind all along. He tells TR how his 15 years of work on the "Semantic =
Web"
are finally paying off.



The Semantic Web, coupled with other specifications and tools being
developed at W3C, including accessibility standards for disabled people =
and
software for mobile devices, is part of Berners-Lee's grand vision of "a
single Web of meaning, about everything and for everyone."=20

B-L: The common thread to the Semantic Web is that there's lots of
information out there-financial information, weather information, =
corporate
information-on databases, spreadsheets, and websites that you can read =
but
you can't manipulate. The key thing is that this data exists, but the
computers don't know what it is and how it interrelates. You can't write
programs to use it.
=20
But when there's a web of interesting global semantic data, then you'll =
be
able to combine the data you know about with other data that you don't =
know
about. Our lives will be enriched by this data, which we didn't have =
access
to before, and we'll be able to write programs that will actually help
because they'll be able to understand the data out there rather than =
just
presenting it to us on the screen.
=20

TR: How does the Semantic Web understand data?

B-L: Suppose you're browsing the Web and you find a seminar advertised, =
and
you decide to go. Now, there is all sorts of information on that page, =
which
is accessible to you as a human being, but your computer doesn't know =
what
it means. So you must open a new calendar entry and paste the =
information in
there. Then get your address book and add new entries for the people
involved in the seminar. And then, if you wanted to be complete, find =
the
latitude and the longitude of the seminar, and program that into your =
GPS
[Global Positioning System] device so you could find it.
=20
It's very laborious to do all this by hand. What you would like to be =
able
to do is just tell the computer, "I'm going to this seminar." If there =
were
a Semantic Web version of the page, it would have labeled information on =
it
that would tell the computer "this is an event," and what time and date =
it
is. And it would automatically add your travel to your event book. It =
would
add the people to your address book, and it would program your GPS to =
give
you directions. It would have the relationships between the event and =
the
various people chairing it. And those people would have Semantic Web
personal pages, which contained information about how you could contact
them.
=20

TR: It would seem an impossibly huge task. How does the technology work?

B-L: The Semantic Web technology tackles the problem in two stages. The =
more
mundane is a common data format. You can take a database or a calendar =
or an
address book or a bank statement or a weather reading-basically anything
with hard data in it-and make the machine write it in the basic Semantic =
Web
language, instead of some proprietary or application-specific format. =
This
solves the "syntactic" problem.
=20
It still doesn't solve the "semantic" one, though. For that, the =
Semantic
Web first gives names to the basic concepts involved in the data: date =
and
time, an event, a check, a transaction, temperature and pressure, and
location. These are all defined just to mean whatever they mean in the
system which produces the data-for example, "Transaction date as I get =
on a
bank statement," and so on. This set of concepts is called an ontology.
Then, where there are connections between ontologies, such as when the =
date
and time on a photograph is the same concept as the time on a weather
report, we write rules to take advantage of these connections. This =
allows
one to query the Semantic Web agent for photos taken on sunny days, for
example. Bit by bit, link by link, the data becomes connected, =
interwoven.
The exciting thing is serendipitous reuse of data: one person puts data =
up
there for one thing, and another person uses it another way.
=20
TR: What kinds of Semantic Web applications are people making for the =
next
phase?

B-L: Exciting things are happening in the life sciences. The big =
challenges
such as cancer, AIDS, and drug discovery for new viruses require the
interplay of vast amounts of data from many fields that =
overlap-genomics,
proteomics, epidemiology, and so on. Some of this data is public, some =
very
proprietary to drug companies, and some very private to a patient. The
Semantic Web challenge of getting interoperability across these fields =
is
great but has huge potential benefits.
=20
=20
=20
B-L: If you want to play with the Semantic Web, you can make a
friend-of-a-friend file. In a FOAF file [the data component of a =
personal
home page, formatted in a standardized way], you can publish stuff about
yourself, your organization, your publication, places, or photographs. =
You
can have a pointer that says "this is a photograph about me" and other =
data
about the photograph, such as who else is in it.
=20
 To create a FOAF file, you must fill out a form, such as the one at
www.ldodds.com/foaf/foaf-a-matic.html
<http://www.ldodds.com/foaf/foaf-a-matic.html> . From this information, =
a
Semantic Web-readable text file is generated that you can add to your
personal website. There are semantic websites that will pull that data =
up
and give you things like a list of photographs linking you to somebody =
else.
I'm three photographs from Frank Sinatra because I'm photographed with =
Bill
Clinton who's been photographed with one of the Kennedys who's been
photographed with Frank Sinatra. That's a silly application, but it =
really
shows the power of the reuse of information.
=20

TR: Can you describe a more serious example?

B-L: It's exciting to see industry focused on implementing these =
standards.
Tool kits from HP and IBM, authoring applications from Adobe, smart =
content
management solutions from Profium and Brandsoft, and search engines from
Network Inference are all working to create a Semantic Web at various
scales. These and other technologies are being adopted by communities =
that
in turn revolutionize how these groups collaborate and communicate. This =
is
what's happening in life sciences, which we spoke about earlier.
=20
In the U.K., the Semantic Web Environmental Directory is a prototype of =
a
new kind of directory of environmental organizations and projects. =
Rather
than centralizing the storage, management, and ownership of the =
information,
SWED simply harvests data and uses it to create the directory. From a =
social
perspective, there's an application nicknamed Fatcats from FoafCorp [a
Semantic Web project that extends the friend-of-a-friend format to =
corporate
entities] that allows you to pick a company, and it shows you who's on =
its
board by displaying a graph of connected people. When you click on one =
of
the people, it shows you all the boards they're a member of. You can =
start
exploring the spheres of influence in American corporate culture.
=20





_____________________________________________
Mr. Ezra R. Miller
Principal, Ibex Consulting R

_____Analysis, Strategy, Communication_____
          For the knowledge-based economy

phone.............. (613) 567-8192
e-mail:............. [email protected]
_____________________________________________

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