Semantic Web and the Social Web

Robin Fay, robinfay.net

Semantic web and the social web Robin Fay, robinfay.net October 2009 Find me at robinfay.net, facebook, twitter, linkedin, youtube, blogger, slideshare, etc. Aka georgiawebgurl

Semantic web and the social web
Brief introduction
All materials available at http://del.icio.us/georgiawebgurl/semantic_web_presentation
Semantic web
Introduction
A little terminology
Examples
Social media and the semantic web
Challenges of the semantic web
Robin Fay, robinfay.net 2009/10

Social media/social networking/social web
Focus is on providing a user centered experience
Content created by users
Metadata frequently created by users in the form of assigning rights (creative commons such as at flickr), assigning metadata (tags, description) and more.
read/write web
Semantic web, aka Web 3.0
Focus on data and harvesting
Machine driven; rules based
Relies on structure
Portal/personal web
Early early stages
Robin Fay, robinfay.net October 2009

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:
a set of design principles,
collaborative working groups ,
and a variety of enabling technologies.
Some elements of the semantic web are expressed as prospective future possibilities that are yet to be implemented or realized
Other elements of the semantic web are expressed in formal specifications
(wikipedia, 2009)

RDF = Resource Description Framework
RDFS = Resource Description Framework Schema
OWL = Web Ontology Language
URI = Uniform Resource Identifier
Robin Fay, robinfay.net 2009/10 Many terms associated with the Semantic Web are used or based upon information architecture, database, and information science fields

RDF = Resource Description Framework
is a general-purpose language for representing information in the Web (a metadata data model )
is a W3C specification
is a conceptual description
is based upon making statements about web resources (triplets)
More or less : XML
Think sentence structure :
subject – predicate(verb)-object
My dog eats dogfood.
Let’s look at some examples

Semantic web and the social web Robin Fay, robinfay.net October 2009 RDF concept

Semantic web and the social web W3C model Simple RDF concept marked up

So, we have the framework, but how do we apply it?
RDFS = Resource Description Framework Schema
A schema is
outline : a schematic or preliminary plan
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.
a description of the structure and rules a document must satisfy for an XML document type
http://tinyurl.com/yj442vr (define: schema -- google)

Popular choices for schemas include
Creative Commons: embeds RDF into mp3s
FOAF (Friend of Friend) : address books, contact lists, etc.
MusicBrainz: music CD information
DC (Dublin Core): multi-format, cross domain
RDF Site Summary: anything with a RSS
Schemas are sometimes called vocabularies
There are many, many schemas….
A couple of examples Robin Fay, robinfay.net 2009/10

Semantic web and the social web Robin Fay, robinfay.net October 2009 FOAF

Semantic web and the social web … okay so that doesn’t sound so bad …. But it can get even more defined… Robin Fay, robinfay.net 2009/10 Very Simple Dublin Core in RDF We can combine FOAF + DC

OWL = Web Ontology Language
invented to link ontologies which are classification systems
Attempts to define objects and their relationships
Different “flavors”
“ interpreted as a set of "individuals" and a set of "property assertions" which relate these individuals to each other” (wikipedia 2009)
Not a requirement

Semantic web and the social web Robin Fay, robinfay.net 2009/10

Semantic web and the social web 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
Robin Fay, robinfay.net October 2009 diagram source: http://web2.wsj2.com/

Drupal (opensource content management system) is adding semantic web features ; Wordpress has a SIOC plugin
Dpbedia is project combining wikipedia and RDF
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 engines
http://hakia.com/
http://www.exalead.com/search/
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/

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Semantic Web and the Social Web

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