Clark & Parsia is a semantic software startup focused on providing distributed reasoning services through its PelletServer, which allows access to various reasoning capabilities via a RESTful HTTP interface. The server supports functionalities like consistency checking, classification, explanation, and SPARQL querying, with plans for future enhancements including SPARQL updates and improved administration interfaces. The document outlines the design principles, motivation, and related work in the field, highlighting the benefits of leveraging remote computing resources for reasoning tasks.

1. PelletServer
HTTP and OWL2 Reasoning
Blazej Bulka Evren Sirin
blazej@clarkparsia.com evren@clarkparsia.com
OWLED 2010
07/02/10

2. Who we are
• Clark & Parsia is a semantic software startup
• Offices in DC and Cambridge, MA
• Software products for end-user and OEM use
• Provides software development and integration
services
• Specializing in Semantic Web, web services, and
advanced AI technologies for federal and enterprise
customers
07/02/10

3. Outline
• Motivation
• PelletServer design principles
• Reasoning services
• Demonstration
• Future work
• Related work
07/02/10

4. Motivation
• Framework that will provide access to distributed
reasoning services
– Use of computing resources (CPU, memory) that are not
available locally (e.g., on a desktop machine)
– Taking advantage of parallel execution
– Ability to use different reasoners
• Language independent binding for reasoning
services
07/02/10

5. PelletServer design principles
• RESTful interface
– Access over HTTP (language independency)
– Resources are knowledge bases (KB)
• Abstraction of a data source
• Have reasoning services associated with them
• Different providers of reasoning services
– HTTP content negotiation for output results
– Service and resource discovery
07/02/10

6. Reasoning services
• Reasoning services provided by Pellet
– Consistency, classification and realization
– Explanation
– Query (SPARQL and Terp)
• Generic query service (using Empire framework)
• Semantic search service
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7. Demonstration of PelletServer
• Demonstration version of PelletServer 0.9.2 is
available at ps.clarkparsia.com (No GUI interface
yet.)
• Service discovery documents (JSON, RDF)
• Namespace service
• Consistency
• Classification
• Explanation
• Query
07/02/10

8. Future work
• SPARQL Update support
• Pellet Integrity Constraints Validator (ICV)
• Specialized reasoning services with other reasoners
– Reasoners tailored for certain kinds of domains
– Machine learning services
– Planning services
• More human-friendly administration interface
07/02/10

9. Related work
• DIG and OWLLink
– Different use-case
– Not a RESTful service
– Not a SPARQL endpoint
• Bock et al. (OWLED 2009) client-server
framework for multiple reasoners
– Tight coupling with Java (use of OWLAPI)
07/02/10

10. Questions?
Thank you for your attention!
07/02/10