The Semantic Web

1
The Semantic Web

• Prof. James Hendler
• Hendler_at_cs.umd.edu
• http//www.cs.umd.edu/hendler
• http//www.mindswap.org

Presentations and Demos on my web sites
2
The World Wide Web - good news

• On the order of 108 users
• Used in every country on Earth
• On every continent (incl. Antarctica), Mars link
  is in transit!
• A tiny percentage is trained in any way
• On the order of 1010 indexed web resources (text)
  in Google etc
• Orders of magnitude more on the Deep Web
• Massively distributed and open
• Anyone can play -- To someone on the Web, youre
  the nut
• A set of protocols and languages driven by a
  minimal standards approach
• Runs on every platform
• And easy to add if you create a new one

The secret is the network effect
3
The World Wide Web- bad news

• Doesnt work well for non-text resources
• Minimal image query using text as heuristic
• bad at video, sound
• bad at database query, search
• bad at programs/services
• Surprisingly good at text
• Doesnt work for information not on a single page
• minimal query within results capability
• Path composition managed by humans
• Conceptual complexity left to the user

4
The Web I want
How many cows are there in Texas?

• Query processed 73 answers found
• Google document search finds 235,312 possible
  page hits.
• Http//www/CowTexas.html claims the answer is
  289,921,836
• A database entitled Texas Cattle Association
  can be queried for the answer, but you will need
  authorization as a state employee.
• A computer program that can compute that number
  is offered by the State of Texas Cattlemans
  Cooperative, click here to run program.
• ...
• The sex network can answer anything that
  troubles you, click here for relief...
• The UFO network claims the all cows in Texas
  have been replaced by aliens

5
What we need

• Query processed
• A satellite image taken yesterday at 10 AM is
  available on the web at http//
• A new satellite image, to be taken today at 10AM,
  will be available for 100 click here to
  authorize transfer of funds and obtain image (you
  will need a valid credit card number from one of
  the following providers )
• In an emergency situation, a Coast Guard observer
  plane can be sent to any location within the area
  you indicate. Service Note You will be
  responsible for cost of flight if the situation
  does not result in emergency pickup. Click Here
  for more information.
• A high altitude observer can be sent to your
  location in 13 hours. Click here to initiate
  procedure. (You will need to provide US military
  authorization, A valid military unit code, and
  the name of commanding officer)
• A service entitled commercial service for
  providing satelite images is advertised as
  becoming available in 2004. See http// for more
  information

6
Getting there Make Web content machine-readable!
7
XML is NOT semantics
8
XML is NOT semantics
http//www.w3.org/timbl
Tim Berners-Lee

9
XML is NOT semantics
Xml schema is DOCUMENT checking photo has
multiple subject fields photo has one physical
location etc.
http//www.w3.org/timbl
Tim Berners-Lee

10
XML is NOT semantics
Xml schema is DOCUMENT checking photo has
multiple subject fields photo has one physical
location etc. WHICH SAYS NOTHING ABOUT TALKS,
SUBJECTS, PEOPLE, EVENTS, etc.
http//www.w3.org/timbl
Tim Berners-Lee

11
The SEMANTICS is in the links (e.g. to
ontologies)!
Eventtitle
main rdfresource"Picture"/
rdfresource person"/
EventWebPage
rdftype photoPhotograph, PhotoFile
http///imagesimage1, Phototopic
event1eventspeaker.
Event1 a Eventevent date May 7-11,
speaker http//timbl.html Title WWW
2002 TimBL rdftype w3c-ontperson name
Tim Berners-Lee
ologies/swrc-onto-2000-09-10.damlConference"
comment describes a generic conceptabout events

rdfresource"http//www.semanticweb.org/ontologie
s/swrc-onto-2000-09-10.damlEvent"/
om rdfresource"http//www.semanticweb.org/ontolo
gies/swrc-onto-2000-09-10.damlWorkshop"/
rictedBy rdfresource"http//www.semanticweb.org/
ontologies/swrc-onto-2000-09-10.damlgenid18"/
1/03/earl/0.95Person"
rdfresource"http//www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema
Class"/
w.w3.org/2001/03/earl/0.95Assertor"/
iption
12
Use the Links
PVT
Burkitts Lymphoma
Rearrangement of a DNA sequence homologous to a
cell-virus junction fragment in several Moloney
murine leukemia virus-induced rat thymomas
Web
PubMed
Oncogene(MYC) Found_In_Organism(Human).
Gene_Has_Function(Transcriptional_Regulation).
Gene_Has_Function(Gene_Transcription).
In_Chromosomal_Location(8q24).
Gene_Associated_With_Disease(Burkitts_Lymphoma).
Semantic Web
PVT
Burkitts Lymphoma
Rearrangement of a DNA sequence homologous to a
cell-virus junction fragment in several Moloney
murine leukemia virus-induced rat thymomas
8q24 PVT1
13
Sem Web Modeling
...
Graph limited logic
Graph
Labeled graph
Logic
...
Data Dictionary
Data Schema
...
RDF
RDF Schema
OWL
KIF?
All of these languages add semantic modeling
primitives to XML - so you can do this in XML
per se, but it is reinventing the wheel.
14
Network Effect

• Sem Web languages allow the linking of
• multimedia
• databases
• Services
• meta-data repository
• Or any other Web resource!

Hendler 03- Science
15
Network effect II

• The models can also link to other Semantic Web
  models
• partial mappings just fine
• this creates a web of models (semantics) much
  like the current web is a web of texts
• Network effect as mappings provide links to
  linked resources

BioMedCentral Article
Oncogene(MYC) Found_In_Organism(Human).
Gene_Has_Function(Transcriptional_Regulation).
Gene_Has_Function(Gene_Transcription).
In_Chromosomal_Location(8q24).
Gene_Associated_With_Disease(Burkitts_Lymphoma).
Vocabulary (RDFS)
NCI Cancer Ontology (OWL)
type"MYC subtype"old_arx_id"bcr-2-1-059ification
BioMedCentral Metadata (XML)
Web data set (XHTML)
16
The Semantic Wave
YOU ARE HERE
(Berners-Lee, 03)
17
The incoming tide
18
Now.

• RDF, RDFS and OWL are ready for prime time
• Recommendations stable, implementations maturing
• Major Research investment translating into
  application development and commercial spinoffs
• Adobe 6.0 embraces RDF
• IBM releases tools, projects ongoing
• HP extending Jena to OWL
• Proprietary OWL ontologies for vertical markets
• c.f. pharmacology, HMO/health care, ... Soft
  drinks
• Several new starts in SW space

19
Now huge potential

• Data integration identified as 100Bs world-wide
  market
• with significant govt interest creating a
  user-pull
• Ontology development efforts, in OWL, aimed at
  information mgt ongoing in US govt include
• NIST, NLM, EPA, DHS, DoD, DOJ, FDA, NIH, USGS,
  NOAA
• Huge potential follow-on market - EAI for the
  small business
• making external data and info resources
  integrable
• Could do for integration what Visicalc (excel)
  did for report generation

20
Now Tools for tool builders

• Like the pre-MOSAIC WWW
• but, it is much easier to get started than it
  was even a year ago,
• Parsers, APIs, triple-stores
• http//www.daml.org/tools
• http//www.w3.org/RDF
• End to end no longer takes a miracle
• Prototype OWL website took three undergraduates
  about 1 month.
• End user tools just starting to emerge
• Metaphors growing

21
Tools for markup...
PhotoStuff Demo
22
With Info Contexts
23
Leading to portals
24
With provenance
25
Real Soon shared calendaring
26
Coming sooner than you may think
27
Soon Tools for visualization and search
A number of tools for querying, browsing and
visualizing SW data are being developed
28
EmergingSemantic Web Services
Advanced information management capabilities
Discovery, Filtering, Composition
29
Get a BN price (In Euros)
30
Of a particular book
31
In its German edition?
32
(No Transcript)
33
Later Automated composition
34
Longer term? Adding Proof
35
And Using it for Trust
36
The Web I want
How many cows are there in Texas?

• Query processed 73 answers found
• Google document search finds 235,312 possible
  page hits.
• Http//www/CowTexas.html claims the answer is
  289,921,836
• A database entitled Texas Cattle Association
  can be queried for the answer, but you will need
  authorization as a state employee.
• A computer program that can compute that number
  is offered by the State of Texas Cattlemans
  Cooperative, click here to run program.
• ...
• The sex network can answer anything that
  troubles you, click here for relief...
• The UFO network claims the all cows in Texas
  have been replaced by aliens

37
may be here sooner than you think
Are there any mountains in Europe bigger than Mt.
Blanc?
document
service
database
38
Conclusion

• Semantic Web technologies are here now and being
  used
• Dont be afraid to get started
• Semantic Web technologies have a promising future
  and an exciting potential
• Keep your eye on the feed from research
• Or, do it!!!
• Together we can make it happen!
• Come on in, the waters great!!