FOAF Session logistics 4.30-4.55 Danbri- FOAF 4.55 Questions 5.00-5.10 Edd Dumbill - FOAFBot 5.15 Lightning talks (8 x 5 mins)

4.30-4.55 Danbri- FOAF

4.55 Questions

5.00-5.10 Edd Dumbill - FOAFBot

5.15 Lightning talks (8 x 5 mins)

Fear of a FOAF planet? Dan Brickley (W3C) [email_address] O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference February 9-12, 2004

Overview What is this FOAF thing? What can we do with it? Why is it interesting? How do its technical and social characteristics relate? Where next? Are we ready to go mainstream?

What is this FOAF thing?

What can we do with it?

Why is it interesting?

How do its technical and social characteristics relate?

Where next? Are we ready to go mainstream?

Friend of a Friend (FOAF) basics Machine-readable home pages FOAF files (pages) and vocabulary (a dictionary of terms) RDF markup for “Person”, “mbox”, “homepage”, “workplaceHomepage”, “schoolHomepage”, “knows”, … Linked in a (semantic) Web to other FOAF files Freeform, loosly constrained, designed to be independently extended without breaking

Machine-readable home pages

FOAF files (pages) and vocabulary (a dictionary of terms)

RDF markup for “Person”, “mbox”, “homepage”, “workplaceHomepage”, “schoolHomepage”, “knows”, …

Linked in a (semantic) Web to other FOAF files

Freeform, loosly constrained, designed to be independently extended without breaking

An example FOAF profile <foaf:Person> <foaf:name>Peter Parker</foaf:name> <foaf:gender>male</foaf:gender> <foaf:title>Mr</foaf:title> <foaf:givenname>Peter</foaf:givenname <foaf:family_name>Parker</foaf:family_name> <foaf:mbox_sha1sum>cf2fd069302feb63fa7f20bd82</foaf:mbox_sha1sum> <foaf:homepage rdf:resource=&quot;http://www.peterparker.com&quot;/> <foaf:weblog rdf:resource=&quot;http://www.peterparker.com/blog/&quot;/> <foaf:knows> <foaf:Person rdf:nodeID=&quot;harry&quot;> <foaf:name>Harry Osborn</foaf:name> <foaf:homepage rdf:resource=“http://www.osborn.com/” /> <rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource=&quot;http://www.osborn.com/harry.rdf&quot;/> </foaf:Person> </foaf:knows> </foaf:Person>

<foaf:Person>

<foaf:name>Peter Parker</foaf:name>

<foaf:gender>male</foaf:gender>

<foaf:title>Mr</foaf:title>

<foaf:givenname>Peter</foaf:givenname

<foaf:family_name>Parker</foaf:family_name>

<foaf:mbox_sha1sum>cf2fd069302feb63fa7f20bd82</foaf:mbox_sha1sum>

<foaf:homepage rdf:resource=&quot;http://www.peterparker.com&quot;/>

<foaf:weblog rdf:resource=&quot;http://www.peterparker.com/blog/&quot;/>

<foaf:knows>

<foaf:Person rdf:nodeID=&quot;harry&quot;>

<foaf:name>Harry Osborn</foaf:name>

<foaf:homepage rdf:resource=“http://www.osborn.com/” />

<rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource=&quot;http://www.osborn.com/harry.rdf&quot;/>

</foaf:Person>

</foaf:knows>

</foaf:Person>

Visualising FOAF: FOAFNaut

Try it and see: the FOAF experiment What if machines could read our homepages? What do we lose by dumbing down to their level? What might search engines evolve into? How do we deal with lying, trust, reputation? Sneaking up on the big hard problems…

What if machines could read our homepages?

What do we lose by dumbing down to their level?

What might search engines evolve into?

How do we deal with lying, trust, reputation?

Sneaking up on the big hard problems…

Saying things in FOAF: “ I’m Dan and I work at W3C and I know Libby who works at ILRT and her FOAF profile is [over here] and here are the titles and descriptions of some documents we wrote together.” “ Here’s my photo like I’d use on my homepage. And here are some other photos, with info on the people and objects depicted in them” using FOAF extensions: ” I’m vegetarian. I’m a capricorn. I’m friends with Edd. Here’s my calendar in RDF form. I like the bands Massive Attack and New Order.”

“ I’m Dan and I work at W3C and I know Libby who works at ILRT and her FOAF profile is [over here] and here are the titles and descriptions of some documents we wrote together.”

“ Here’s my photo like I’d use on my homepage. And here are some other photos, with info on the people and objects depicted in them”

using FOAF extensions: ” I’m vegetarian. I’m a capricorn. I’m friends with Edd. Here’s my calendar in RDF form. I like the bands Massive Attack and New Order.”

FOAF tech: the acronym view… FOAF profiles are RDF/XML documents They can say anything (or nothing) FOAF vocabulary provides 50+ terms for making simple claims FOAF files can use any other RDF terms as well: eg. MusicBrainz, RSS1, Dublin Core, Wordnet, Creative Commons, FOAF Relationship schema, blood types, starsigns, [your idea here] The FOAF vocabulary is defined using W3C RDF Schema (RDFS) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL)

FOAF profiles are RDF/XML documents

They can say anything (or nothing)

FOAF vocabulary provides 50+ terms for making simple claims

FOAF files can use any other RDF terms as well: eg. MusicBrainz, RSS1, Dublin Core, Wordnet, Creative Commons, FOAF Relationship schema, blood types, starsigns, [your idea here]

The FOAF vocabulary is defined using W3C RDF Schema (RDFS) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL)

Why FOAF uses RDF and OWL RDF guarantees freedom of independent extension OWL provides fancy data-merging facilities -> Freedom to say what you like, using any RDF markup you want, and have RDF crawlers merge your FOAF documents with others and know when you’re talking about the same entities.

RDF guarantees freedom of independent extension

OWL provides fancy data-merging facilities

-> Freedom to say what you like, using any RDF markup you want, and have RDF crawlers merge your FOAF documents with others and know when you’re talking about the same entities.

FOAF recap: low-tech hi-tech New kind of Web page for machines (RDF) Echoes freedom and flexibility we enjoy in our homepages Low-tech solution: like RSS, just a file on your site Or published on your behalf by services A Web of files describing a Web of people

New kind of Web page for machines (RDF)

Echoes freedom and flexibility we enjoy in our homepages

Low-tech solution: like RSS, just a file on your site

Or published on your behalf by services

A Web of files describing a Web of people

FOAF on the Web Planning for lies, mischief, mistakes Importance of who-said-what (PGP, RDFdb, UI) Anyone can describe anyone Dataset is out of control, distributed Legal, privacy and etiquette issues

Planning for lies, mischief, mistakes

Importance of who-said-what (PGP, RDFdb, UI)

Anyone can describe anyone

Dataset is out of control, distributed

Legal, privacy and etiquette issues

Lessons from Social Networking tech “ I want my data back!” Each site partially describes our world He’s on Friendster; she’s on Orkut… Import/export sorely needed Friends, fans, ratings: “you have no foaf:friends” Allow for fakesters, fun, gaming, personas, secrets and lies.

“ I want my data back!”

Each site partially describes our world

He’s on Friendster; she’s on Orkut…

Import/export sorely needed

Friends, fans, ratings: “you have no foaf:friends”

Allow for fakesters, fun, gaming, personas, secrets and lies.

Where are we today? Growing number of self-hosted foaf-a-matic files Several services produce and/or consume FOAF profiles (Ecademy, TypePad/Cocolog; LiveJournal and Tribe looming) Chatbot, visual, HTML and machine interfaces to aggregated FOAF FOAF terms being used in other RDF formats

Growing number of self-hosted foaf-a-matic files

Several services produce and/or consume FOAF profiles (Ecademy, TypePad/Cocolog; LiveJournal and Tribe looming)

Chatbot, visual, HTML and machine interfaces to aggregated FOAF

FOAF terms being used in other RDF formats

Styles of FOAF description Explicit: FOAF extensions for “friend”, “best friend”, “arch-nemesis”, “cousin”, etc. Implicit: work for same organisation, went to same school, co-authored a doc, contribute to same project, appeared in same photos FOAF and image description

Explicit: FOAF extensions for “friend”, “best friend”, “arch-nemesis”, “cousin”, etc.

Implicit: work for same organisation, went to same school, co-authored a doc, contribute to same project, appeared in same photos

FOAF and image description

Applications Local: FOAFMobile, BlueFOAF Activist: FOAFCorp (fatcat FOAFs), DeanLink, Media annotation What is FOAF for? -> What is data for? Anything you can say in RDF/FOAF, you can ask of harvested FOAF data…

Local: FOAFMobile, BlueFOAF

Activist: FOAFCorp (fatcat FOAFs), DeanLink, Media annotation

What is FOAF for? -> What is data for?

Anything you can say in RDF/FOAF, you can ask of harvested FOAF data…

Recap and conclusions FOAF and RDF as freeform platform for experimentation ‘out of control’ by design Tech machinery (harvesting, merging) works Plenty of room for experimentation, evolution, stylistic variations Mainstream? A few lines of code can generate 1000s of new profiles Social, legal, privacy, issues need serious attention

FOAF and RDF as freeform platform for experimentation

‘out of control’ by design

Tech machinery (harvesting, merging) works

Plenty of room for experimentation, evolution, stylistic variations

Mainstream? A few lines of code can generate 1000s of new profiles

Social, legal, privacy, issues need serious attention

Questions and further reading http://www.foaf-project.org/ http://rdfweb.org/ and rdfweb-dev mailing list.

http://www.foaf-project.org/

http://rdfweb.org/ and rdfweb-dev mailing list.