The Semantic Web: what you need to know and why it’s important for your user community Terry Hulbert Director of Business Development American Institute of Physics XXIX Charleston Conference Charleston, SC 5 November 2009

Contents Why is semantic technology a hot topic? What can we do and what are some doing? Some examples at AIP

Why is semantic technology a hot topic?

What can we do and what are some doing?

Some examples at AIP

Why? 98% of STM researchers prefer & use online journals (Hemminger et al, 2007) No. of articles read per researcher was 30% higher in ‘06 than ’96 (Tenopir & King, 2008) Reading time per article is falling, from 32 minutes in ‘96, to 24 in ‘06 (Tenopir & King, 2008)

98% of STM researchers prefer & use online journals (Hemminger et al, 2007)

No. of articles read per researcher was 30% higher in ‘06 than ’96 (Tenopir & King, 2008)

Reading time per article is falling, from 32 minutes in ‘96, to 24 in ‘06 (Tenopir & King, 2008)

Why? Researchers are actually trying to avoid reading as much as possible during “discovery phase”, preferring instead to evaluate article “components”…indexing terms, related content, citations, and other “indicators of value” to isolate articles worth their “real” reading time.

Researchers are actually trying to avoid reading as much as possible during “discovery phase”, preferring instead to evaluate article “components”…indexing terms, related content, citations, and other “indicators of value” to isolate articles worth their “real” reading time.

Why? “ Scientists skim journal articles to discover valuable information. They scan for terminology, segments, diagrams, and summaries of particular interest. But they don’t read individual articles left-to-right, top-to-bottom” Allen H. Renear and Carole L. Palmer, Science 325 (5942), 828 (14 August 2009) doi: 10.1126/science.1157784

“ Scientists skim journal articles to discover valuable information. They scan for terminology, segments, diagrams, and summaries of particular interest. But they don’t read individual articles left-to-right, top-to-bottom”

Allen H. Renear and Carole L. Palmer, Science 325 (5942), 828 (14 August 2009) doi: 10.1126/science.1157784

Online reading “ Reading” an online journal approximates a bookstore visit – a place to skim, flit, discover, fritter, twitter, connect, talk, be surprised, and socialize – but most of all, not to read too deeply during initial search and discovery mode .

“ Reading” an online journal approximates a bookstore visit – a place to skim, flit, discover, fritter, twitter, connect, talk, be surprised, and socialize – but most of all, not to read too deeply during initial search and discovery mode .

Strategic reading; power browsing Preference for atomised/deconstructed article “nuggets” that reveal the essence of the science within. Trend toward scanning for critical ‘cues & clues’, ‘hooks & hints’ to “flash determine” the value of an article – is it worthy of a closer, deeper read?” Scanning for accurate signposts to the literature, not the literature… not yet (“close reading” reserved for articles of interest found along the way)

Preference for atomised/deconstructed article “nuggets” that reveal the essence of the science within.

Trend toward scanning for critical ‘cues & clues’, ‘hooks & hints’ to “flash determine” the value of an article – is it worthy of a closer, deeper read?”

Scanning for accurate signposts to the literature, not the literature… not yet (“close reading” reserved for articles of interest found along the way)

How to help strategic reading Faceting Authors, topics, popularity,… Data visualisation Citation density, author connections, geo viz Related linking, ‘More Like This’ “ Bite”-serving Article extracts, snippets, image thumbnails, video/audio, trending

Faceting

Authors, topics, popularity,…

Data visualisation

Citation density, author connections, geo viz

Related linking, ‘More Like This’

“ Bite”-serving

Article extracts, snippets, image thumbnails, video/audio, trending

How are publishers doing this? Reengineering production workflows Implementation of semantic engine(s) & tools e.g. Temis, Silverchair, Access Innovations, Collexis automatic categorisation intelligent association taxonomy management Enhanced XML repository (MarkLogic) Content enrichment, text mining, entity & fact extraction, etc.

Reengineering production workflows

Implementation of semantic engine(s) & tools

e.g. Temis, Silverchair, Access Innovations, Collexis

automatic categorisation

intelligent association

taxonomy management

Enhanced XML repository (MarkLogic)

Content enrichment, text mining, entity & fact extraction, etc.

Content enrichment Highlight the meaning of content Enhances granularity e.g. book, chapter, image, topics, etc. Taxonomy is key for normalisation e.g. PACS, MeSH, MSCs

Highlight the meaning of content

Enhances granularity

e.g. book, chapter, image, topics, etc.

Taxonomy is key for normalisation

e.g. PACS, MeSH, MSCs

What is the output? Entities products, people, places, technologies, organisations, companies infer facts related to relationships, functions,… Richer, semantic content linking and tagging easier navigation better discoverability

Entities

products, people, places, technologies, organisations, companies

infer facts related to relationships, functions,…

Richer, semantic content linking and tagging

easier navigation

better discoverability

What will this enable? Search precision reveal hard-to-find objects and information New products e.g. image/video/animation/multimedia collections Microproducts; mash-ups VJs, learning objects, etc. Profiling; social networking; personalisation

Search precision

reveal hard-to-find objects and information

New products

e.g. image/video/animation/multimedia collections

Microproducts; mash-ups

VJs, learning objects, etc.

Profiling; social networking; personalisation

AIP examples AIP UniPHY social networking site for physical sciences some obvious uses of granularity plus ‘scientific context”

AIP UniPHY

social networking site for physical sciences

some obvious uses of granularity

plus ‘scientific context”

AIP examples Geotagging research by geo area geophysics – seismic activity plotted or plot an area and highlight research published Tag products e.g. Review of Scientific Instruments

Geotagging

research by geo area

geophysics – seismic activity plotted

or plot an area and highlight research published

Tag products

e.g. Review of Scientific Instruments

Other examples - chemistry Royal Society of Chemistry ChemSpider (acquired May 2009) aggregating and indexing chemical structures and associated information literature, chemical vendor catalogs, molecular properties, environmental data, toxicity data, analytical data, etc. Search by chemical reactions, solvents, reactants – all extracted from documents

Royal Society of Chemistry

ChemSpider (acquired May 2009)

aggregating and indexing chemical structures and associated information

literature, chemical vendor catalogs, molecular properties, environmental data, toxicity data, analytical data, etc.

Search by chemical reactions, solvents, reactants – all extracted from documents

Summary Rapid review of: why semantic tagging, semantic technologies and the semantic Web is becoming increasingly important top level view of what’s possible some examples more detailed knowledge & expertise from my colleagues

Rapid review of:

why semantic tagging, semantic technologies and the semantic Web is becoming increasingly important

top level view of what’s possible

some examples

more detailed knowledge & expertise from my colleagues

Thank you. Terry Hulbert Director of Business Development XXIX Charleston Conference Charleston, SC 5 November 2009 [email_address] www.twitter.com/thulbert www.friendfeed.com/tcjh007 www.delicious.com/tcjh007