PR and Web 3.0

Welcome to The most exciting development in pr since the cluetrain.PROBABLY.well maybe.
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PR &The semantic webaka “Web 3.0”
Philip Sheldrake
Influence Crowd LLP
www.influencecrowd.com
LinkedIn /in/philipsheldrake
@sheldrake
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A presentation to members of the CIPR SM Panel and other geeks. London, 21st April 2010.

Introduction to the Semantic Web
LinkedData
XML and XPRL
The ontologies
How to get involved
Reading, collaboration, conversation.
This presentation includes:
21st April 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales
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The Semantic Web
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Whilst there is some confusion over the term, most people use “Web 3.0” to refer to the Semantic Web. I do.
Either way, the label is a bit of a distraction, but marketers love it, so what can I say!
I use the terms interchangeably here.
Web 3.0
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If Web 2.0 was all about (user generated) content and community participation, Web 3.0 is about the Web itself understanding the meaning of all the content and participation.
Indeed, the Web becomes a universal medium for data, information and knowledge exchange.
Web 2.0 and Web 3.0
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You can consider the development of the current Web (pre-Web 3.0) as having been informed by a document metaphor:
Files, desktop, documents
Open, read, close
Everything has a location (like files in a filing cabinet).
The document metaphor
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The location of a document is specified with a Unique Resource Locator (URL).
Eg, http://influencecrowd.com/philip_sheldrake/index.php
The URL
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The file.
The folder.
The domain name that relates to an IP address of a server (via a domain name server (DNS)), in this case right now a shared server at 69.89.31.175.
Stipulates the protocol for retrieving the resource.

But the URL is just one type of Unique Resource Indicator (URI), the other is a URN.
A URI identifies something on the Internet
A URL does so by addressing it (eg, where Stephen lives)
A URN does so by unique, persistent and location-independent name (eg, “Stephen Waddington”)
Although of course the one and only Stephen Waddington may not actually be the only, so [firstname, lastname] does not make for a good URN schema!
The URI and URN
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A hypothesis of the Semantic Web is that meaning can be conveyed via expressions known as triples:
Triples
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Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a language at the heart of the Semantic Web for expressing data models using statements expressed as triples.
RDFa is an approach to RDF that adds the information to normal Web pages for subsequent extraction by RDF tools.
And the secret sauce?... to avoid ambiguities, each and every subject, predicate and object of a triple can be expressed with a URI.
RDF, RDFa, Triples and URIs
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We could define all three of these locally, but all three are likely to be referred to elsewhere too, and that’s where the power of the Semantic Web starts to kick in.
Eg, this “Philip Sheldrake” may be defined uniquely with ref to: http://sheldrake.myopenid.comor http://philipsheldrake.com or http://www.google.com/profiles/philip.sheldrake.
Local and global
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But what about the concept of “knows”… how might that be defined globally and uniquely?
Well FOAF (Friend Of A Friend) is a machine-readable ontology describing persons, their activities and their relations to other people and objects.
To invoke reference to the FOAF ontology we write:
<rdf:RDFxmlns:foaf=“http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/”
FOAF
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At that URI we will find a definition of “knows”:
http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_knows
So now, when we express a statement as a triple like
Subject - http://philipsheldrake.com
Predicate - foaf:knows
Object - http://searls.com
there is no ambiguity as to what it means.
Note: this format is for explanation purposes only and does not constitute sound syntax!
FOAF /2
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How about?!
http://xkcd.com/stickman foaf:complicated http://xkcd.com/stickwoman
Simple complicated
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http://xkcd.com/355

A microformat is an alternative approach to semantic markup.
The eXtensible Friends Network (XFN) is the microformat most similar to FOAF for example. XFN is used to express how one blogger is related to another whose blog they list in their blogroll.
hCardand hCalendarare other microformats you may have come across.
See http://evan.prodromou.name/RDFa_vs_microformats for a more detailed comparison of RDF and microformats.
RDF and microformats
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I endorse the RDF approach for several reasons, the most important ones here being:
It comes under the purview of the W3C
Microformats cannot scale to achieve the Semantic Web’s full potential.
RDF is being used today by:
dbpedia – a project to represent Wikipedia content in RDF
data.gov.uk – making the UK’s data mashable!
Amazon.com – to mark up its and its partners’ products.
RDF is the future
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Wake up!
Wake up at the back!
Google’s coming next!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/morberg/3146874095
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

GoodRelations is the name of an ontology for ecommerce.
Jay Myers, Lead Web Development Engineer for Best Buy, reported that adding GoodRelations and RDFa:
Improved the rank of the respective pages in Google tremendously
Increased traffic on the BestBuy stores pages by 30%.
Search Engine Strategies 2009 conference, Chicago.
http://ebusiness-unibw.org/pipermail/goodrelations/2009-December/000152.html
Google loves RDF
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Google reads semantically marked up content and, as of May 2009, uses it to create “rich snippets” it in its search results. Eg,
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-rich-snippets.html
Google’s Rich Snippets
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This “rich snippet” is possible only because Pocket-lint marks its content up semantically and to a standard recognised by Google.

Yahoo!’s SearchMonkey and Microsoft Bing’sPowerset team are heavily invested in RDF too.
There will be more news on this front this year from all three big search providers, and Wolfram|Alpha of course.
Yahoo! and Bing
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I referred earlier to the Semantic Web’s full potential, and that full potential is described by a vision known as Linked Data.
The following diagram of Linked Data, and ones like it, are as important to PR and marketing professionals as any Web 2.0 illustration you will have seen bandied around over the years.
The full potential
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LinkedData image
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Chris Bizerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lod-datasets_2009-07-14_colored.png
Creative CommonsAttribution-ShareAlike 3.0

Linked Data is about using the Web to connect related data that wasn't previously linked, or using the Web to lower the barriers to linking data currently linked using other methods.
More specifically, Wikipedia defines Linked Data as "a term used to describe a recommended best practice for exposing, sharing, and connecting pieces of data, information, and knowledge on the Semantic Web using URIs and RDF.”
Source: http://linkeddata.org
Linked Data
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Linked Data is made possible because the URIs referred to in the triple statements are described universally and ontologically.
An ontology is a way to describe subjects, objects and predicates. It is an expression of a view of the world; a domain’s objects and concepts and their properties and relations.
Useful ontologies (ie, ones that can form building blocks of the Semantic Web Linked Data) are described in a formal ontological language. The one endorsed by W3C is the Web Ontology Language, or OWL for short.
Ontologies
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Some popular Semantic Web ontologies include:
The Dublin Core
FOAF
RSS
VCard
Creative Commons metadata
There are no ontologies yet, to my knowledge, emanating from or working within the field of public relations specifically (except the product review ontology perhaps).
Ontologies /2
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The International Press Telecommunications Council announced the official launch and widespread adoption of its G2 family of news exchange standards earlier this month, supported by:
Agence France-Presse
Associated Press
dpa
The Press Association
Thomson Reuters
It’s XML, and contains some RDF components.
News from the IPTC
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XML (eXtensibleMarkup Language) is a standardised approach to encoding documents.
When RDF is applied within a document, in a form called RDFa, this is an example of XML.
But XML is not RDF, so whilst prior work informing a standardised XML schema can be used to inform the design of an ontology, it is not ready as-is.
The benefits of the Semantic Web Linked Data cannot be achieved with XML alone.
Where does XML fit in?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Semantic-web-stack.png
The Semantic Web stack
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XPRL was a valiant effort to design an XML schema for common PR processes.
The first release aimed to encode the processes of:
Encapsulating a press release
Briefing a media reporting agency to report on media coverage
Reporting media coverage (clipping reports).
What happened to XPRL?
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In my opinion, XPRL was not adopted for the following reasons:
An XML approach is more valuable the higher the level of automation and data interchange – yet PR practice has historically very low levels
XML of itself does not possess the compelling, can’t-be-ignored, synergistic potential of RDF
The PR profession is not renowned for being the most technically savvy to date.
In conclusion, the PR industry simply could not see its value.
What happened to XPRL? /2
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In my opinion, PR and associated disciplines should be gearing up for Web 3.0 now because:
The level of automation and data interchange is growing rapidly, particularly with the massive growth of:
Web analytics
Retail analytics
Search engine optimisation
Search engine marketing
Social Web analytics
and the nascent social relationship management (SRM) and “ERPing” of the influence (marketing and PR) processes.
What’s changed?
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In my opinion, PR and associated disciplines should be gearing up for Web 3.0 now because (continued):
RDF’s synergistic potential cannot be ignored during the influence processes
It is happening now, and in ways no well-founded PR / influence campaign can ignore (eg, Google ranking!)
It doesn’t matter if today’s PR practitioner isn’t technically savvy – they will become ‘admin’ or be replaced by those who are.
I refer to the latter as the rise of the Influence Professional and the Chief Influence Officer; see my presentation on “Influence”.
What’s changed? /2
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Influence
Influence
http://www.flickr.com/photos/philip_sheldrake/2642725725

“Influence” is the name I use for all the disciplines, including PR, aimed at monitoring and improving the Six Flows of Influence™.
Influence
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Noun – the power or ability to affect someone’s beliefs or actions
Verb – to exert the power, exercise the ability
In other words…
You have been influenced when you think in a way you wouldn’t otherwise have thought, or when you do something you wouldn’t otherwise have done.
Influence, a definition
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Influence
Ontologies
http://www.flickr.com/photos/philip_sheldrake/2772635450

I contend that the PR and the other influence disciplines need at least two ontologies:
One for our world
One for the world out there
So what ontologies do we need?
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Trends informing the design of a PR Ontology, an ontology for the influence disciplines:
Convergence of marketing and PR teams
The increasing application of IT
The “ERPing” of marketing and PR
Greater demand for board level accountability
The increasing need for campaign adaptability / nimbleness
The need for campaigns to be more responsive
The need for all organisations to be more responsive
Team structure (esp. agency) adaptability – plug’n’play.
The ontology for our world
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Perhaps trying to answer the following questions will help inform the design of the PR Ontology:
What processes could be standardised because there is no room left for competitive advantage beyond workforce efficiency in their execution?
What can we learn from disciplines in which IT and such semantic approaches have become ingrained earlier?
How do we connect our data, information and knowledge into the wider organisation’s / client’s other operational data, information and knowledge?
What is the atom of influence?
The ontology for our world /2
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Following on from the assertion in my previous presentation that the influence disciplines should pursue an influence-centric rather than influencer-centric approach…
Helping our publics, our stakeholders better express and communicate their thoughts and actions can only benefit all parties.
The ontology for the world out there
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Our profession needs to develop…
The Ontology For Feelings About Things.
This may well be informed by extant work by Linda Childers Hon, James E. Grunig, Bruning and Ledingham, and many others I’m sure.
http://influencescorecard.wikispaces.com/The+original+email+about+the+ontology
http://influencescorecard.wikispaces.com/The+ontology+for+feelings+about+things
http://influencescorecard.wikispaces.com/Classes+and+properties+for+input+into+the+ontology+design
The ontology for the world out there /2
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For the WWW's social media participants to be part of Web 3.0 as well as Web 2.0, they need a set of easy-to-understand and easy-to-use extensions / add-ons / plugins / apps to augment their current applications and services.
To mark-up their contributions with their feelings, semantically.
The Ontology For Feelings About Things informs the design and user experience of such apps and services.
And then what?
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Properly applied, the Ontology For Feelings About Things should:
Empower all social media participants to increase the utility of every social media contribution with very little additional effort
Allow brands to gain a better understanding of their stakeholders' (incl. customers' and prospects') points of view courtesy of their analytics services, to get into the conversation and to improve their products and services
Feed into the Vendor Relationship Management Project.
The Ontology For Feelings About Things
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Development of the ontologies is open, collaborative and subject to the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License.
Development of associated software is open and subject to GPLv3.
I'm delighted thatWooThemes‘ AdriaanPienaar is helping lead this side of things. If you don't know these guys, you might see that they come second only to wordpress.org in Google's search results for "Wordpress themes”. They are simply a very talented bunch!
Get involved
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Just drop in and register at the wiki, or contact Philip @sheldrake or philip@influencecrowd.com.
Get in touch
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Thanks to Steve Waddington and Speed Communications for hosting this event.
@wadds / www.speedcommunications.com
Thanks
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With the current paucity of “meaning”, forgive me for helping search engines help others find this presentation:
Marketing and Web 3.0
Marketing and the Semantic Web
Marketing and Linked Data
Advertising and Web 3.0
Advertising and the Semantic Web
Advertising and Linked Data
Public relations and Web 3.0
Public relations and the Semantic Web
Public relations and Linked Data
Online PR and Digital PR
Optimisation slide
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http://semanticweb.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web
http://linkeddata.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_data
http://influencescorecard.wikispaces.com - the wiki for the emergence of an overarching methodology
http://www.philipsheldrake.me.uk - my blog
CIPR Social Media group: #ciprsm / http://twitter.com/sheldrake/cipr-digital-group
Reading, collaboration, conversation
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http://stuartbruce.biz	129
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http://www.speedcommunications.com	12
http://conversation.cipr.co.uk	8
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PR and Web 3.0

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PR and Web 3.0

by Philip Sheldrake

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PR and Web 3.0 Presentation Transcript

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