semantic web and the social web

Robin Fay, robinfay.net

Semantic web and the social web

Robin Fay, robinfay.netOctober 2009

Find me at robinfay.net, facebook, twitter, linkedin, youtube, blogger, slideshare, etc. Aka georgiawebgurl


o Brief introduction All materials available at

http://del.icio.us/georgiawebgurl/semantic_web_presentationo Semantic web

Introduction A little terminology Examples

o Social media and the semantic webo Challenges of the semantic web

Robin Fay, robinfay.net, 2009/10


• Social media/social networking/social web o Focus is on providing a user centered experienceo Content created by userso Metadata frequently created by users in the form of assigning rights

(creative commons such as at flickr), assigning metadata (tags, description) and more.

o read/write web• Semantic web, aka Web 3.0

o Focus on data and harvesting o Machine driven; rules basedo Relies on structureo Portal/personal webo Early early stages



So:Web 1.0 = we used the web as a tool• primarily html based; few database

driven sites; little interactivity Web 2.0 = we interacted, enhanced, and controlled our experience• Many database driven websites,

search engines within websites, widgets, highly customizable

Web 3.0 = we teach it, it learns



The web as we know it (and think of it) links together documents (html, pdf, dynamic documents created from databases, etc.) The Semantic web links together data.



• At its core, the semantic web comprises:o a set of design principles,o collaborative working groups,o and a variety of enabling technologies.o Some elements of the semantic web are expressed as

prospective future possibilities that are yet to be implemented or realized

o Other elements of the semantic web are expressed in formal specifications

o (wikipedia, 2009)




Many terms associated with the Semantic Web are used or based upon information architecture, database, and information science fields

• RDF = Resource Description Framework

• RDFS = Resource Description Framework Schema

• OWL = Web Ontology Language

• URI = Uniform Resource Identifier


• RDF = Resource Description Frameworko is a general-purpose language for representing information in the Web (a

metadata data model) o is a W3C specificationo is a conceptual descriptiono is based upon making statements about web resources (triplets)o More or less : XMLo Think sentence structure :

subject – predicate(verb)-object My dog eats dogfood.

Robin Fay, robinfay.net, 2009/10 A few examples



RDF concept


W3C model

Simple RDF concept markup


So, we have the framework, but how do we apply it? RDFS = Resource Description Framework SchemaA schema is

o outline: a schematic or preliminary plan o A structure described in a formal language supported by the

database management system ; in a relational database [such as MySQL), the schema defines the tables, the fields in each table, and the relationships between fields and tables.

o a description of the structure and rules a document must satisfy for an XML document type

o http://tinyurl.com/yj442vr (define: schema -- google)



• Popular choices for schemas includeo Creative Commons: embeds RDF into mp3s o FOAF (Friend of Friend) : address books, contact lists, etc. o MusicBrainz: music CD informationo DC (Dublin Core): multi-format, cross domaino RDF Site Summary: anything with a RSSo Schemas are sometimes called vocabularies o There are many, many schemas….


A couple of examples



FOAF


Robin Fay, robinfay.net, 2009/10… okay so that doesn’t look so bad.... ….

Very Simple Dublin Core in RDF

FOAF + DC



• OWL = Web Ontology Languageo invented to link ontologies

(classification systems)o Attempts to define objects

and their relationships o Different “flavors”o “interpreted as a set of

"individuals" and a set of "property assertions" which relate these individuals to each other” (wikipedia 2009)


It all fits together, though….

Being that this is data driven, we can query, using SPARQL, a standard query language.

It all fits together except….



• Who is going to create all of this new data?

• Libraries, museums, and other resources already have huge record sets of structured data for their resources.

• Many social networking sites (del.icio.us, flickr, etc.) create metadata.



• The social web is collaborative and a mix of human and machine derived data

• For example, tags are assigned by humans, yet data about those tags is assigned by machines diagram source: http://web2.wsj2.com/


Robin Fay, robinfay.net2009/10

• Drupal (opensource content management system) is adding semantic web features ; Wordpress has a SIOC plugin

• dbpedia is a project from wikipedia • SIOC (Semantically –linked Online Communities)

is the semantic web model for social media websites ; attempts to connect forums, blogs, & more

• ..but can this happen? Really?



The social web/social media/social networking is about people. Its focus has been less on standards, controlled vocabularies, RULES…. After all, here comes everybody… ..but that is not exactly true. In order for blog posts to display sequentially, in order for discussions to be threaded, there must be an underlying order – a structure -- rules.



Much of the technology (databases, servers, etc.) already exists – at least for the initial stages of the semantic web. A great deal of the criticism of the semantic web hinges on either artificial intelligence OR on human inability – in other words, the computers can’t learn and we won’t code correctly for the computers, either.



In order for the semantic web to reach its potential:• We need smarter

computers.

• We need better web standards.• We need a better behind-the-scenes structure (RDF).• We need more built in metadata generation tools on

social networking sites. • We’ll need better search engines



• Let’s look at a few semantic search engineso http://hakia.com/o http://www.exalead.com/search/o http://www.yr-bcn.es/demos/microsearch/



• Questions? Thoughts? • Many many links @ • http://del.icio.us/georgiawebgurl/semantic_web• Presentation also at slideshare.net/robinfay/

semantic web and the social web

Technology

readwrite web semantic

web ametadatadatamodel

customizable web

semantic web robin fay

semantic web links

semantic web challenges

social web rdf

social web robin fay