Enriched Access to a Large War Historical Text using the Back of the Book IndexVictor de Boer
This document discusses enriching access to a large historical text using the back of the book index. It presents a system that links concepts in the index to external knowledge bases to provide additional context. Users are then able to ask questions by searching or querying the enriched index. The system was developed by researchers at VU University Amsterdam to enhance access to a Dutch war history text.
The document provides an introduction to the concepts of linked data, the semantic web, and how they build upon existing web technologies like the internet and world wide web; it describes how Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web and later proposed the semantic web to make web data readable by machines through standards like URIs, RDF, and linking data across the web. The presentation then demonstrates hands-on examples of building linked open data using these standards and techniques.
Voorlichting voor studenten Informatie Multimedia & ManagementVictor de Boer
Talk given for the new IMM students (2011). It shows a number of examples of research in the field of information sciences and relates it to the specific courses.
Eswc2012 presentation: Supporting Linked Data Production for Cultural Heritag...Victor de Boer
The document describes how the Amsterdam Museum converted its collection metadata into Linked Open Data using a methodology and set of tools. The metadata was extracted from XML sources, transformed into RDF using XMLRDF, restructured interactively using rules in ClioPatria, mapped to the Europeana Data Model, and aligned with external vocabularies using Amalgame. The resulting LOD graph of over 5 million triples representing the museum's 73,000 objects is published and queried using a SPARQL endpoint.
VOICES project slides for introduction guest lecture at VUVictor de Boer
Slides for a 1.5 hour guest lecture on the VOICES project. The slides show the need to bridge the digital divide using voice technologies. They show the three systems we deployed in Mali, Africa and provide some lessons for ICT (4D) projects
This document provides an overview of Linked Open Data and examples of applications that use LOD. It defines key concepts like Linked Data and the 5 star system. It discusses where to find LOD datasets and how to access and work with remote LOD through HTTP requests, SPARQL queries, or downloading datasets. Examples are given of LOD browsers, mashups, and intelligent web applications that have been built using LOD. The presenter's own projects involving cultural heritage data, history texts, and international aid data are described. Overall the document aims to illustrate the benefits and potential of LOD for developers and provide inspiration for new applications.
Enriched Access to a Large War Historical Text using the Back of the Book IndexVictor de Boer
This document discusses enriching access to a large historical text using the back of the book index. It presents a system that links concepts in the index to external knowledge bases to provide additional context. Users are then able to ask questions by searching or querying the enriched index. The system was developed by researchers at VU University Amsterdam to enhance access to a Dutch war history text.
The document provides an introduction to the concepts of linked data, the semantic web, and how they build upon existing web technologies like the internet and world wide web; it describes how Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web and later proposed the semantic web to make web data readable by machines through standards like URIs, RDF, and linking data across the web. The presentation then demonstrates hands-on examples of building linked open data using these standards and techniques.
Voorlichting voor studenten Informatie Multimedia & ManagementVictor de Boer
Talk given for the new IMM students (2011). It shows a number of examples of research in the field of information sciences and relates it to the specific courses.
Eswc2012 presentation: Supporting Linked Data Production for Cultural Heritag...Victor de Boer
The document describes how the Amsterdam Museum converted its collection metadata into Linked Open Data using a methodology and set of tools. The metadata was extracted from XML sources, transformed into RDF using XMLRDF, restructured interactively using rules in ClioPatria, mapped to the Europeana Data Model, and aligned with external vocabularies using Amalgame. The resulting LOD graph of over 5 million triples representing the museum's 73,000 objects is published and queried using a SPARQL endpoint.
VOICES project slides for introduction guest lecture at VUVictor de Boer
Slides for a 1.5 hour guest lecture on the VOICES project. The slides show the need to bridge the digital divide using voice technologies. They show the three systems we deployed in Mali, Africa and provide some lessons for ICT (4D) projects
This document provides an overview of Linked Open Data and examples of applications that use LOD. It defines key concepts like Linked Data and the 5 star system. It discusses where to find LOD datasets and how to access and work with remote LOD through HTTP requests, SPARQL queries, or downloading datasets. Examples are given of LOD browsers, mashups, and intelligent web applications that have been built using LOD. The presenter's own projects involving cultural heritage data, history texts, and international aid data are described. Overall the document aims to illustrate the benefits and potential of LOD for developers and provide inspiration for new applications.
One day workshop Linked Data and Semantic WebVictor de Boer
As taught at UNIMAS July 2019. based on a three day summer school by Knud Hinnerk Moeller and Victor de Boer. Includes hands on excercises using SWI-Prolog ClioPatria
The Benefits of Linking Metadata for Internal and External users of an Audiov...Victor de Boer
Slides for the MTSR2018 presentation for the paper The Benefits of Linking Metadata for Internal and
External users of an Audiovisual Archive by Victor de Boer, Tim de Bruyn, John Brooks and Jesse de Vos
Like other heritage institutions, audiovisual archives adopt structured vocabularies for their metadata management. With Semantic Web and Linked Data now becoming more and more stable and commonplace technologies, organizations are looking now at linking these vocabularies to external sources, for example those of Wikidata, DBPedia or GeoNames. However, the benefits of such endeavors to the organizations are generally underexplored. In this paper, we present an in-depth case study into the benefits of linking the “Common Thesaurus for Audiovisual Archives” (or GTAA) and the general-purpose dataset Wikidata. We do this by identifying various use cases for user groups that are both internal as well as external to the organization. We describe the use cases and various proofs-of-concept prototypes that address these use cases.
UX Challenges of Information Organisation: Assessment of Language Impairment ...Victor de Boer
Presentation at #ICTOPEN2018 for the ABC-KB project "UX Challenges of Information Organisation: Assessment of Language Impairment in Bilingual Children" by Dana Hakman, Cerise Muller, Victor de Boer, Petra Bos
Interactive Dance Choreography Assistance presentation for ACE entertainment ...Victor de Boer
The document describes research into developing an automated tool to assist choreographers in their creative process. A survey found that some choreographers are interested in such a tool. A proof-of-concept mobile app was created with different dance styles and rule-based strategies for generating variations. An evaluation found that variations based on an ontology were better than random variations. Presentation through 3D animation was preferred over text, 2D animation or audio. Future work includes developing better dance movement representations and reasoning capabilities.
Fahad Ali's slides for Machine to-machine communication in rural conditions ...Victor de Boer
This document describes KasadakaNet, a machine-to-machine communication system for sharing data in rural areas using a "pass-by" approach. It uses a combination of sneakernet transport of devices called Kasadakas along with local WiFi networks created by a device called the Wifi-donkey. The system was evaluated through experiments measuring factors like success rates and request times under different conditions like travel speed and query sizes. The results showed the system can enable knowledge sharing in rural scenarios with low-cost hardware and open source components, providing a viable approach for machine-to-machine capabilities in information and communication technologies for development.
Linking African Traditional Medicine Knowledge - by Gossa LoVictor de Boer
Slides for Gossa Lo's presentation on Linking African Traditional Medicine Knowledge (Lo, de Boer, Schlobach) at the SWAT4LS conference.
abstract African Traditional Medicine (ATM) is widely used in Africa as the first-line of treatment thanks to its accessibility and affordability. However, the lack of formalization of this knowledge can lead to safety issues and malpractice. This paper investigates a possible contribution of the Semantic Web in realizing the formalization and integration of ATM with data on conventional medicine. As a proof of concept we convert various ATM datasets and link them to conventional medical data. This results in a Linked ATM knowledge graph. We finally give some examples with some interesting SPARQL queries and insightful results.
Enriching Media Collections for Event-based ExplorationVictor de Boer
Slides for the MTSR2017 presentation on event enrichment in DIVE+ in the context of CLARIAH.
By: Victor de Boer, Liliana Melgar, Oana Inel, Carlos Martinez Ortiz, Lora Aroyo, and Johan Oomen
Abstract: Scholars currently have access to large heterogeneous media collections on the Web, which they use as sources for their research. Exploration of such collections is an important part in their research, where
scholars make sense of these heterogeneous datasets. Knowledge graphs which relate media objects, people and places with historical events can provide a valuable structure for more meaningful and serendipitous browsing. Based on extensive requirements analysis done with historians and media scholars, we present a methodology to publish, represent, enrich, and link heritage collections so that they can be explored by domain expert users. We present four methods to derive events from media object descriptions. We also present a case study where four datasets with mixed media types are made accessible to scholars and describe the building blocks for event-based proto-narratives in the knowledge graph.
The document discusses two techniques explored by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision to enrich archival audiovisual material: 1) Developing a text-to-speech engine using the voice recordings of a famous Dutch news anchor to generate audio for text, and 2) Using deep learning to colorize old black-and-white video footage. It provides details on developing a limited-domain text-to-speech system and experimenting with colorizing video frames from newsreels. The techniques showed potential for engaging new audiences with the archival collections, though challenges remained in speech recognition, video quality, and colorization accuracy.
User-centered Data Science for Digital HumanitiesVictor de Boer
User-centered Data Science for Digital Humanities: DIVE, Dutch Ships and Sailors and ArchimediaL as presented during the "Network Institute meets CLUE+" event.
Continuous enrichment and linking of heterogeneous collections brings new possibilities for access, analysis. Using automatic methods. Always with human(s) in the loop
Linked Data for Audiovisual Archives (Guest lecture at NISV)Victor de Boer
Guest lecture for the Master programme "Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image" from UvA about "Linked Data for Audiovisual Archives". The guest lecture was part of educational activities at Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
Semantic Technology for Development: Semantic Web without the Web?Victor de Boer
Slides for my keynote address for the joint session of the SALAD workshop and DBPedia day at SEMANTiCS2017. The talk addresses the need for research into the opportunities and challenges for Linked Data in the context of ICT for Development. It shows current work on Kasadaka, Semantic Web in an SMS and sneakernets http://salad2017.linked.services/ http://semantics.cc
1) DIVE+ is a project that aims to provide interactive exploration and discovery of integrated online multimedia collections using linked open data to connect metadata from various cultural heritage collections.
2) It extracts events, actors, places and other entities from collection metadata using both original thesauri and automated techniques like named entity recognition. These are linked to media objects to support event-centric browsing.
3) Over 350,000 media objects from four collections have been enriched with over 200,000 events and other entities through these techniques. The data is available through a SPARQL endpoint for deep exploration of interconnected entities in the collections.
A few slides to introduce the cultuurlink tool developed by Spinque for Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. These were presented at the second CLARIAH LOD workshop.
Intro to Linked, Dutch Ships and Sailors and SPARQL handson Victor de Boer
The document discusses Linked Data and SPARQL concepts including linking heterogeneous data sources without forcing a single data model. It describes using HTTP URIs and RDF to identify and describe resources on the web according to the four rules of Linked Data. The document provides an example of linking Dutch ship and sailor data from different sources and querying it using SPARQL. It emphasizes that Linked Data allows for flexible integration and reuse of existing data sources.
VU ICT4D symposium 2017 Francis Dittoh Mr. MeteoVictor de Boer
Mr. Meteo is a proposed system to provide weather information to rural farmers in a developing country via multiple channels. It would adapt to the local context based on input from farmers, local institutions, and NGOs. The system would source weather data from national meteorological services and local weather stations, and deliver personalized forecasts to farmers through voice calls, SMS, radio, and the internet using appropriate technologies. The goal is to develop a sustainable and user-centered solution to help farmers deal with issues like variable weather conditions.
The document discusses killer applications, which are apps that are so useful or desirable that they drive adoption of the larger platform. Examples given include Google Maps, news/weather SMS services, email/messaging apps, and banking apps. The document also discusses developing mobile apps for farmers and NGOs in Africa to improve their work and lives, with lessons learned around understanding local culture, organizations, technology adoption in rural areas, available devices, and infrastructure constraints.
VU ICT4D symposium 2017 Gayo Diallo Towards a Digital African Traditional Hea...Victor de Boer
This document discusses using semantic web technologies to help improve access to and use of African traditional medicine (ATM). It proposes developing an integrated ICT approach that would allow various stakeholders to safely and effectively access ATM knowledge and practices. This would involve formalizing ATM knowledge into a graph stored as linked open data and delivered through voice-based queries. Services would address end users' needs while addressing issues like ethics, intellectual property, and sustainability. The goal is to leverage ATM through technology solutions that facilitate inclusion in local languages.
VU ICT4D symposium 2017 Wendelien Tuyp: Boosting african agriculture Victor de Boer
The document discusses two perspectives on boosting African agriculture: the industrial agribusiness model promoted by G8 countries and the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition initiative, and the smallholder farming model. The industrial model focuses on large-scale monocultures, high yields, and cash crops for global markets using mechanization and external inputs. However, this approach raises questions about who benefits and can displace farmers. In contrast, smallholder farms are more resilient, use crop diversity for local markets, and are key to global food security despite being more labor intensive and lower yielding. Experts argue for supporting the smallholder model through advisory services and helping farmers innovate sustainably.
One day workshop Linked Data and Semantic WebVictor de Boer
As taught at UNIMAS July 2019. based on a three day summer school by Knud Hinnerk Moeller and Victor de Boer. Includes hands on excercises using SWI-Prolog ClioPatria
The Benefits of Linking Metadata for Internal and External users of an Audiov...Victor de Boer
Slides for the MTSR2018 presentation for the paper The Benefits of Linking Metadata for Internal and
External users of an Audiovisual Archive by Victor de Boer, Tim de Bruyn, John Brooks and Jesse de Vos
Like other heritage institutions, audiovisual archives adopt structured vocabularies for their metadata management. With Semantic Web and Linked Data now becoming more and more stable and commonplace technologies, organizations are looking now at linking these vocabularies to external sources, for example those of Wikidata, DBPedia or GeoNames. However, the benefits of such endeavors to the organizations are generally underexplored. In this paper, we present an in-depth case study into the benefits of linking the “Common Thesaurus for Audiovisual Archives” (or GTAA) and the general-purpose dataset Wikidata. We do this by identifying various use cases for user groups that are both internal as well as external to the organization. We describe the use cases and various proofs-of-concept prototypes that address these use cases.
UX Challenges of Information Organisation: Assessment of Language Impairment ...Victor de Boer
Presentation at #ICTOPEN2018 for the ABC-KB project "UX Challenges of Information Organisation: Assessment of Language Impairment in Bilingual Children" by Dana Hakman, Cerise Muller, Victor de Boer, Petra Bos
Interactive Dance Choreography Assistance presentation for ACE entertainment ...Victor de Boer
The document describes research into developing an automated tool to assist choreographers in their creative process. A survey found that some choreographers are interested in such a tool. A proof-of-concept mobile app was created with different dance styles and rule-based strategies for generating variations. An evaluation found that variations based on an ontology were better than random variations. Presentation through 3D animation was preferred over text, 2D animation or audio. Future work includes developing better dance movement representations and reasoning capabilities.
Fahad Ali's slides for Machine to-machine communication in rural conditions ...Victor de Boer
This document describes KasadakaNet, a machine-to-machine communication system for sharing data in rural areas using a "pass-by" approach. It uses a combination of sneakernet transport of devices called Kasadakas along with local WiFi networks created by a device called the Wifi-donkey. The system was evaluated through experiments measuring factors like success rates and request times under different conditions like travel speed and query sizes. The results showed the system can enable knowledge sharing in rural scenarios with low-cost hardware and open source components, providing a viable approach for machine-to-machine capabilities in information and communication technologies for development.
Linking African Traditional Medicine Knowledge - by Gossa LoVictor de Boer
Slides for Gossa Lo's presentation on Linking African Traditional Medicine Knowledge (Lo, de Boer, Schlobach) at the SWAT4LS conference.
abstract African Traditional Medicine (ATM) is widely used in Africa as the first-line of treatment thanks to its accessibility and affordability. However, the lack of formalization of this knowledge can lead to safety issues and malpractice. This paper investigates a possible contribution of the Semantic Web in realizing the formalization and integration of ATM with data on conventional medicine. As a proof of concept we convert various ATM datasets and link them to conventional medical data. This results in a Linked ATM knowledge graph. We finally give some examples with some interesting SPARQL queries and insightful results.
Enriching Media Collections for Event-based ExplorationVictor de Boer
Slides for the MTSR2017 presentation on event enrichment in DIVE+ in the context of CLARIAH.
By: Victor de Boer, Liliana Melgar, Oana Inel, Carlos Martinez Ortiz, Lora Aroyo, and Johan Oomen
Abstract: Scholars currently have access to large heterogeneous media collections on the Web, which they use as sources for their research. Exploration of such collections is an important part in their research, where
scholars make sense of these heterogeneous datasets. Knowledge graphs which relate media objects, people and places with historical events can provide a valuable structure for more meaningful and serendipitous browsing. Based on extensive requirements analysis done with historians and media scholars, we present a methodology to publish, represent, enrich, and link heritage collections so that they can be explored by domain expert users. We present four methods to derive events from media object descriptions. We also present a case study where four datasets with mixed media types are made accessible to scholars and describe the building blocks for event-based proto-narratives in the knowledge graph.
The document discusses two techniques explored by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision to enrich archival audiovisual material: 1) Developing a text-to-speech engine using the voice recordings of a famous Dutch news anchor to generate audio for text, and 2) Using deep learning to colorize old black-and-white video footage. It provides details on developing a limited-domain text-to-speech system and experimenting with colorizing video frames from newsreels. The techniques showed potential for engaging new audiences with the archival collections, though challenges remained in speech recognition, video quality, and colorization accuracy.
User-centered Data Science for Digital HumanitiesVictor de Boer
User-centered Data Science for Digital Humanities: DIVE, Dutch Ships and Sailors and ArchimediaL as presented during the "Network Institute meets CLUE+" event.
Continuous enrichment and linking of heterogeneous collections brings new possibilities for access, analysis. Using automatic methods. Always with human(s) in the loop
Linked Data for Audiovisual Archives (Guest lecture at NISV)Victor de Boer
Guest lecture for the Master programme "Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image" from UvA about "Linked Data for Audiovisual Archives". The guest lecture was part of educational activities at Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
Semantic Technology for Development: Semantic Web without the Web?Victor de Boer
Slides for my keynote address for the joint session of the SALAD workshop and DBPedia day at SEMANTiCS2017. The talk addresses the need for research into the opportunities and challenges for Linked Data in the context of ICT for Development. It shows current work on Kasadaka, Semantic Web in an SMS and sneakernets http://salad2017.linked.services/ http://semantics.cc
1) DIVE+ is a project that aims to provide interactive exploration and discovery of integrated online multimedia collections using linked open data to connect metadata from various cultural heritage collections.
2) It extracts events, actors, places and other entities from collection metadata using both original thesauri and automated techniques like named entity recognition. These are linked to media objects to support event-centric browsing.
3) Over 350,000 media objects from four collections have been enriched with over 200,000 events and other entities through these techniques. The data is available through a SPARQL endpoint for deep exploration of interconnected entities in the collections.
A few slides to introduce the cultuurlink tool developed by Spinque for Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. These were presented at the second CLARIAH LOD workshop.
Intro to Linked, Dutch Ships and Sailors and SPARQL handson Victor de Boer
The document discusses Linked Data and SPARQL concepts including linking heterogeneous data sources without forcing a single data model. It describes using HTTP URIs and RDF to identify and describe resources on the web according to the four rules of Linked Data. The document provides an example of linking Dutch ship and sailor data from different sources and querying it using SPARQL. It emphasizes that Linked Data allows for flexible integration and reuse of existing data sources.
VU ICT4D symposium 2017 Francis Dittoh Mr. MeteoVictor de Boer
Mr. Meteo is a proposed system to provide weather information to rural farmers in a developing country via multiple channels. It would adapt to the local context based on input from farmers, local institutions, and NGOs. The system would source weather data from national meteorological services and local weather stations, and deliver personalized forecasts to farmers through voice calls, SMS, radio, and the internet using appropriate technologies. The goal is to develop a sustainable and user-centered solution to help farmers deal with issues like variable weather conditions.
The document discusses killer applications, which are apps that are so useful or desirable that they drive adoption of the larger platform. Examples given include Google Maps, news/weather SMS services, email/messaging apps, and banking apps. The document also discusses developing mobile apps for farmers and NGOs in Africa to improve their work and lives, with lessons learned around understanding local culture, organizations, technology adoption in rural areas, available devices, and infrastructure constraints.
VU ICT4D symposium 2017 Gayo Diallo Towards a Digital African Traditional Hea...Victor de Boer
This document discusses using semantic web technologies to help improve access to and use of African traditional medicine (ATM). It proposes developing an integrated ICT approach that would allow various stakeholders to safely and effectively access ATM knowledge and practices. This would involve formalizing ATM knowledge into a graph stored as linked open data and delivered through voice-based queries. Services would address end users' needs while addressing issues like ethics, intellectual property, and sustainability. The goal is to leverage ATM through technology solutions that facilitate inclusion in local languages.
VU ICT4D symposium 2017 Wendelien Tuyp: Boosting african agriculture Victor de Boer
The document discusses two perspectives on boosting African agriculture: the industrial agribusiness model promoted by G8 countries and the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition initiative, and the smallholder farming model. The industrial model focuses on large-scale monocultures, high yields, and cash crops for global markets using mechanization and external inputs. However, this approach raises questions about who benefits and can displace farmers. In contrast, smallholder farms are more resilient, use crop diversity for local markets, and are key to global food security despite being more labor intensive and lower yielding. Experts argue for supporting the smallholder model through advisory services and helping farmers innovate sustainably.
5. Can the Web (be made to) mean
something for knowledge sharing even
under very constraining conditions?
No internet, no computer, no electricity
Multitude of languages, levels of literacy
8. • Integrate local community radios and mobile ICT for knowledge
sharing
• Better support and integrate local languages in voice-based
services
– Development of appropriate speech elements (text-to-speech
and Speech recognition)
• Develop a free and open source toolbox for local developers.
• Investigate self-sustainability
– Develop appropriate business models
– In collaboration with local communities.
9. (adapted) Living Labs
• Involvement of local communities
– Trust and ownership
– Co-creation
• Rapid cycles
– Use case gathering
– Observation and prototyping
– Test, adapt
10. Business Model integration
First cycle: Third cycle: Fourth cycle Fifth cycle:
Second cycle:
Knowledge Requirements Use case and Use case and
Use Case elicitation and
sharing for elicitation and Requirements Requirements
selection
regreening v alidation v alidation v alidation
RadioMarché:
RM: 2nd v ersion
Pilot System RM: 3rd v ersion
(production RM: 4th v ersion
dev elopment (Bambara,Bomu)
v ersion)
(Malian French)
Foroba Blon: FB: 2nd v ersion FB: 3rd v ersion
pilot v ersion (Bambara,Bomu) (Bambara,Bomu)
Sept 2009 Jan 2010 Jan 2011 Jan 2012 Jan 2013 June 2013
First field trip: Third field trip Fifth field trip
Cycle 0
Burkina Faso Mali Mali
Preliminary v isit
Sixth
BF sept 2009
planned field trip
Mali
Second field trip
Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana Fourth field trip
Mali
11. Context-specific issues
• Lack of infrastructure
– Web
– Power
• Illiteracy, ‘small’ languages
– Bambara
– Bomu
• Local ownership and maintainability
– Costs
– Maintenance
• Distance between developer and user
– Physical
– Cultural
15. RadioMarché system
Local market data
Data / communique layer
Interface handler layer
Web Email SMS GSM/Voice
Local
radio
Farmers Buyers
(producers) (consumers)
16. SMS
Radio 1:
French and Bambara
Radio 2:
French and Bomu
17. SMS
Radio 1:
French and Bambara
Radio 2:
French and Bomu
18. Web frontend for Market data management
and communiqué generation
RadioMarche.com
19. Voice channel: Multiple solutions
HTTP
Netbook
Orange Emerginov Platform
Netbook SIP over
running Ethernet
Prophecy
Officeroute
running Asterix
Netbook Bluetooth
running
Prophecy + Mobile phone
Asterix
20. Audio communiqué
• Audio communiqué generated by slot-
and-filler Text-to-speech system
– concatenating prerecorded phrases
– Each radio host uses own voice (!)
• Malian French (initial version)
• Bambara
• Bomu
21. VoiceXML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<vxml version="2.0" lang="en">
<form>
<prompt bargein="false">
Welcome to RadioMarche!
<audio src=“audio/communique_1_bambara.wav"/>
</prompt>
<option dtmf="1" value=“1">Press one for X</option>
<option dtmf=“2" value=“2">Press two for Y</option>
...
</vxml>
24. Evaluation
• Limited usage due to:
– Political situation
– Ecological situation
– Social barriers
– Technical issues
• Feedback informs next phase
– More languages (Bambara, Bomu)
– More radio stations
– End user
25. Subsequent phases
• More languages: Bambara and Bomu
• More usage
• In a way, we are “too succesful”: Too
much demand
– not serving the value chain
– Should we include this in the application?
– Cf. Marktplaats?
28. Sharing across regions
Local market data
Local mar ket dt a
a
Data / communique layer RadioMar ché m ket inf r at ns ys e
ar om io t m
D a / com niqueplat f r m
at mu o
Interface handler layer
Web Email SMS G SM/V ce
oi
Web Email SMS GSM/Voice
Local r adio
Far mer s Buyer s
( pr oducer )
s ( cons umer s
)
RadioMarché in second region
Local
radio
Farmers Buyers
(producers) (consumers)
29. Linked Data for Development (LD4D)
Inst. of Dev elopment
Studies LOD
Sahel Pluv ial
data
SemanticXO
DBpedia
GeoNames
Citizen Journalism
Agrovoc data
RadioMarché
Linked market data
31. Foroba Blon
“a place where everyone may speak
in front of the chief; the truth must told
respectfully, without insulting anyone”
32. Use Case 2: Foroba Blon
• Citizen journalism platform
– using the same technology as
RadioMarché
• Multiple use cases
– Letters to editor
– Trusted users ‘journalists’
• Funded by IPI news innovation contest
36. Feedback
Messages about deaths, missing
animals
Problems with registration
Voice Interface difficulties
Costs
New business models:
‘advertiser’ pays through credit
Voice Twitter?
37. Use Case 3: M-Event
• Event organizer for Sahel Eco
• User profile
– Name, phone number,
language(s)
• Call everyone and note
responses
• “Tabale”: the sacred drum
41. This is not the Web (yet), but:
We do parts of it:
RadioMarché Ebay/Marktplaats
Foroba Blon (Micro)Blog
Tabale Email? Soc. Network?
The web wasn’t built top down either
Start with real use cases, show value to make
uptake more likely
Use Web standards (free, extensible, supported)
42. Research questions
• Q1 [immediate]: Can the Web (be
made to) mean something for
knowledge sharing even under very
constraining conditions?
– No internet, no computer, no
electricity
– Multitude of languages, levels of
literacy
• Q2 [Web future]: Can we have a Web of
Speech?
43. Research questions
• Web of Speech
– Data management via voice
– Data presentation/UI
– Voice-based browsing
• Linked data / microservers
– Downscale2012 @ ESWC
– LD4D Tutorial @ ISWC & @ WWW
– Downscale2013?
• Integration with (development)
economy
• ICT development in rural areas
– Living Labs, Sustainability
47. Out of Africa: Lessons for ICT projects
• Problem- rather than solution-driven
• Many cycles
• Open mind
– (low tech may be the best solution)
• Integrated approach
– Context, business model
• Be inclusive rather than exclusive
48. Literature Questions
• Web Foundation: Why is it not enough to just deploy hardware
and infrastructure (e.g. computers and internet connections)
when we want to have people in developing regions access
the Web?
– Content, languages
• van Aart et al: You have probably all experienced a voice
menu before ("Welcome to the electronic helpdesk of X, press
1 if you have a problem with your modem, press 2..."). Most
people are quickly annoyed by these voice menus. Are you as
well? If so why?
– Geen overzicht, je weet niet wat je te wachten staat
• What is a major shortcoming of such a voice menu,
compared to normal web pages?
– Geen overzicht. Lineair vs. tree-like
50. Eerste levensbehoefte?
• Er zijn plaatsen op de wereld waar nog niet eens
drinkwater te vinden is. Is het dan verstandig om
daar bepaald infrastructuur wel te installeren?
• Lopen we met het integreren van internet in
ontwikkelingslanden niet op de zaken vooruit? Er
zijn gebieden in die landen die nog geeneens
schoon drinkwater en medische hulp hebben.
Hebben ze dan wel voordeel aan een internet
netwerk? Moeten ze niet eerst hun
basisbehoeften op orde hebben en leren lezen en
schrijven voor we hier geld in gaan stoppen?
51. Infrastructuur
• Is het niet vele malen duurzamer om te investeren
in het aanleggen van een internet-netwerk dan
het opzetten van een voice-driven tool?
• Welk proces zal op de eerste plaats moeten
komen om het uitrollen van pc’s en internet in
ontwikkelingslanden te versnellen, kijkend naar de
besproken gap’s?
• Er zijn gebieden in ontwikkelingslanden die slecht
bereikbaar zijn of onveilig, hoe kan je deze
barriers overbruggen en toch zorgen dat
infrastructuur voor internet komt?
52. Language
• Moet men de taalbarriére dichten door
internetpagina’s aan te passen? Er bestaat al
een schat aan informatie, die natuurlijk niet
allemaal te vertalen is. Is het niet beter de
mensen een extra taal aan te leren?
• Er zijn allemaal verschillende dialecten in
ontwikkelingslanden, ook dialecten die niet eens
geregistreerd zijn, kunnen de voice-based web
services hiermee werken of ondersteund dit
alleen talen zoals engels, spaans, chinees etc.?
53. Extent of the Web of Voices
• Indien er enkel Voice based websites komen,
kan men alle info dan wel nog opslaan of
achterhalen, zoals men nu kan nagaan wie
wat typt? Gaat er dan niet veel ‘kostbare’
informatie verloren voor bv.marketeers?
• Zouden de gesprekken, zoals beschreven in
het artikel van van Aart, ook sociale
contacten moeten gaan vervangen?
Bijvoorbeeld gesprekken met een psycholoog
of een vriend/vriendin?
54. Other
• Vormt corruptie (waar aanwezig) een grote
barriere voor de ontwikkeling van ICT in derde
wereld landen?
• Is het niet mogelijk om de niet-bereikte mensen
een toegevoegde waarde te geven voor het
Web? Op deze manier heeft het Web er wat aan
en kunnen deze mensen er gebruik van maken.
Want nu is er behoefte van 1 kant en van beide
kanten zal het proces wellicht versnellen. Hoe
zouden de niet bereikte mensen een
toegevoegde waarde kunnen zijn voor het web?