The Semantic Web

1. The Semantic Web An introduction

2. <ul><li>In linguistics , semantics is … devoted to the study of meaning … on the syntactic levels of words, phrases, sentences </li></ul><ul><li>http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic </li></ul>

3. Title Author Publisher Genre Price

4. <ul><li>“ The Semantic Web is a web of data , in some ways like a global database” 1 </li></ul><ul><li>“ first step is putting data on the Web in a form that machines can naturally understand, or converting it to that form. This creates what I call a Semantic Web-a web of data that can be processed directly or indirectly by machines” 2 </li></ul><ul><li>1. http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html </li></ul><ul><li>2. Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web . Harper, San Francisco. 1999. </li></ul>

6. <ul><li><h1>Library Management Team</h1> </li></ul><ul><li><h2>Director of Library Services</h2> </li></ul><ul><li><p>Deborah Shorley - Director of Library Services<br /> </li></ul><ul><li><a href="mailto:d.shorley@imperial.ac.uk">d.shorley@imperial.ac.uk</a><br /> </li></ul><ul><li>Telephone: +44 (0)20 7594 8881</p> </li></ul><ul><li><h2>Assistant directors</h2> </li></ul><ul><li><h3>Assistant Director: Administration and Planning</h3> </li></ul><ul><li><p>Susan Howard<br /> </li></ul><ul><li><a href="mailto:s.howard@imperial.ac.uk">s.howard@imperial.ac.uk</a><br /> </li></ul><ul><li>Telephone: +44 (0)20 7594 8622<br /> </li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/s.howard"> </li></ul><ul><li>www.imperial.ac.uk/people/s.howard</a></p> </li></ul><ul><li><h3>Assistant Director: E-Strategy and Information Resources</h3> </li></ul><ul><li><p>Owen Stephens<br /> </li></ul><ul><li><a href="mailto:o.stephens@imperial.ac.uk">o.stephens@imperial.ac.uk</a><br /> </li></ul><ul><li>Telephone: +44 (0)20 7594 8829<br /> </li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/o.stephens"> </li></ul><ul><li>www.imperial.ac.uk/people/o.stephens</a></p> </li></ul><ul><li><h3>Assistant Director: Faculty Support Services for Learning and Research</h3> </li></ul><ul><li><p>Liz Davis<br /> </li></ul><ul><li><a href="mailto:e.davis@imperial.ac.uk">e.davis@imperial.ac.uk</a><br /> </li></ul><ul><li>Telephone: +44 (0)20 7594 8877<br /> </li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/e.davis"> </li></ul><ul><li>www.imperial.ac.uk/people/e.davis</a></p> </li></ul>

8. How do we get a semantic web? <ul><li>Slowly! </li></ul><ul><li>Applications getting better at understanding human semantics (‘Top Down’) </li></ul><ul><li>More structured formats are gaining wider use (‘Bottom Up’) </li></ul><ul><li>More database driven sites, so less need for humans to understand it all </li></ul><ul><li>‘Semantic web’ applications appearing </li></ul>

9. Top Down <ul><li>Depends of ‘more intelligent’ computers </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Google Book Search </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>LibX Toolbar </li></ul></ul><ul><li>http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_difficulties_with_classic_approach.php </li></ul>

12. Bottom Up <ul><li>Depends on more structured data using agreed standards </li></ul><ul><ul><li>URIs </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>RDF </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>OWL </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Many sceptics </li></ul><ul><ul><li>http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_difficulties_with_classic_approach.php </li></ul></ul>

13. URI <ul><li>Uniform Resource Identifier </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“a simple and extensible means for identifying a resource” </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>A URL is a type of URI </li></ul></ul>

14. What is RDF? <ul><li>Resource Description Framework </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“ a language for representing information about resources in the World Wide Web” </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>“ RDF can also be used to represent information about things that can be identified on the Web, even when they cannot be directly retrieved on the Web” </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Uses URIs or Literals </li></ul></ul><ul><li>http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/ </li></ul>

15. <ul><li>Jane Eyre </li></ul><ul><li>has a </li></ul><ul><li>creator </li></ul><ul><li> whose name is </li></ul><ul><li>Charlotte Bronte </li></ul>Subject Predicate Object

16. <ul><li>Jane Eyre </li></ul><ul><li>has a </li></ul><ul><li>creator </li></ul><ul><li> whose name is </li></ul><ul><li>Charlotte Bronte </li></ul>Subject Predicate Object http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/creator http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1260/1260-h/1260-h.htm Charlotte Bronte

18. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte Penguin Book is a has creator has publisher Person is a

19. RDF Schemas <ul><li>Define vocabularies for a community </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Define a class of objects ‘Books’ </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Define a property ‘Creator’ </li></ul></ul>

20. OWL (Web Ontology Language) <ul><li>When a Schema just isn’t enough! </li></ul><ul><li>Allows you to put limits of relationships </li></ul><ul><ul><li>a Person has one and only one biological mother </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Allows you to say ‘this is the same as that’ </li></ul><ul><ul><li>This thing that I call a ‘Car’ is the same as that thing that you call an ‘Automobile’ </li></ul></ul>

22. <ul><li>Data: </li></ul><ul><li>< http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1260/1260-h/1260-h.htm > <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title> “Jane Eyre" </li></ul><ul><li>Query: </li></ul><ul><li>SELECT ?title WHERE {< http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1260/1260-h/1260-h.htm > <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title> ?title . } </li></ul><ul><li>Result: </li></ul><ul><li>“ Jane Eyre” </li></ul>

23. Some actual applications! <ul><li>Cinespin (Freebase) </li></ul><ul><li>Nugget, Cenote (Talis) </li></ul><ul><li>RDA, DCMI, FRBR, FRAD etc. </li></ul>

24. RDA <ul><li>Resource Description and Access </li></ul><ul><li>New standard for resource description and access designed for the digital world – building on AACR2 </li></ul><ul><li>Uses FRBR and FRAD concepts </li></ul><ul><li>http:// www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/jsc/rda.html </li></ul>

25. DCMI <ul><li>Dublin Core Metadata Initiative </li></ul><ul><li>An open organization engaged in the development of interoperable online metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models </li></ul><ul><li>http:// dublincore.org / </li></ul>

26. RDA and DCMI <ul><li>The participants recommend that the RDA Committee of Principals and DCMI seek funding for work to develop an RDA Application Profile -- specifically that the following activities be undertaken: </li></ul><ul><li>development of an RDA Element Vocabulary </li></ul><ul><li>development of an RDA DC Application Profile based on FRBR and FRAD </li></ul><ul><li>disclosure of RDA Value Vocabularies using RDF/RDFS/SKOS </li></ul>

27. RDA and DCMI <ul><li>Outcomes: </li></ul><ul><li>The benefits of this activity will be that: </li></ul><ul><li>the library community gets a metadata standard that is compatible with the Web Architecture and that is fully interoperable with other Semantic Web initiatives </li></ul><ul><li>the DCMI community gets a libraries application profile firmly based on the DCAM and FRBR (which will be a high profile exemplar for others to follow) </li></ul><ul><li>the Semantic Web community get a significant pool of well thought-out metadata terms to re-use </li></ul><ul><li>there is wider uptake of RDA </li></ul><ul><li>http:// www.bl.uk/services/bibliographic/meeting.html </li></ul>

28. RDF for Bib Metadata <ul><li>http://vocab.org/frbr/core </li></ul><ul><li>http://cidoc.ics.forth.gr/frbr_drafts.html </li></ul><ul><li>http:// myee.bol.ucla.edu/rdfmodelintro.html </li></ul>

29. Acknowledgments <ul><li>Jane Eyre </li></ul><ul><ul><li>http:// www.flickr.com/photos/andthenpatterns / </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Sad Computer </li></ul><ul><ul><li>http://www.flickr.com/photos/loririelly/ </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Power of Three </li></ul><ul><ul><li>http:// www.flickr.com/photos/hale_popoki </li></ul></ul>

The Semantic Web

ostephens

The Semantic Web