The Semantic Grid BOF

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The Semantic Grid BOF

• David De Roure
• University of Southampton, UK
• Carole Goble
• University of Manchester, UK

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Agenda

• 1. Presentation by David De Roure and Carole
  Goble
• What is the Semantic Grid? (dder)
• Why do we need it? (carole)
• The story so far (dder)
• 2. Discussion of Proposed GGF Research Group and
  roadmap
• 3. Discussion of charter and officers
• 4. Future meetings
• 5. Any other business
• http//www.semanticgrid.org/GGF/

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BOF for proposed GGF Research Group

• The purpose of a GGF BOF is to present to the
  community a proposed WG or RG, providing a venue
  for discussion about the new group and for
  refining a proposed charter.
• Our draft charter is on http//www.semanticgrid.o
  rg/charter.html
• The goal of the BOF is to strengthen the
  charter, increasing the group's chances of
  succeeding at defining and delivering specific
  value, generally encapsulated in GGF documents.
• The BOF should also attempt to gauge community
  interest in participating in the work of the
  group, as differentiated from watching others do
  the work (via attending meetings or monitoring
  websites).
• You want folks to be interested in watching, but
  unless there is critical mass in working, there
  is nothing to watch.

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Five or Six Steps to Proposing GGF Working Groups
or Research Groups

• Proposed group leader(s) discuss charter with one
  or more Area Directors and/or GGF Chair.
• GGF Chair ensures that the proposed group is
  assigned to an area, and draft charter is posted
  to the area mailing list and website for
  discussion.
• Area Directors work with GGF Chair and GFSG to
  evaluate the group
• Upon approval by GFSG, group chair will work with
  GGF Secretariat to integrate information and
  links to the GGF website.
• Within 30 days of approval the new group will be
  announced via general GGF email and at the GGF
  website.

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Combechem

• David De Roure
• University of Southampton, UK
• Carole Goble
• University of Manchester, UK

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Absent friends

• Nigel Shadbolt, University of Southampton
• Nick Jennings, University of Southampton
• Mark Baker, University of Portsmouth
• Carole and Nigel are giving Ontologies Tutorial
  on Thursday

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What is the Semantic Grid?
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Its a vision

• Grid computing is (sometimes) heralded as the
  future of the Internet.
• Semantic Web is heralded as the future of the
  Web.
• Are these orthogonal futures?!
• No - we see Grid applications as Semantic Web
  applications
• Hence a need to bridge communities

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Classical Web
Classical Grid
More computation
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Commonality

• "Grid computing has emerged as an important new
  field, distinguished from conventional
  distributed computing by its focus on large-scale
  resource sharing, innovative applications, and,
  in some cases, high-performance orientation...we
  review the "Grid problem", which we define as
  flexible, secure, coordinated resource sharing
  among dynamic collections of individuals,
  institutions, and resources - what we refer to as
  virtual organizations."
•  
• From "The Anatomy of the Grid Enabling Scalable
  Virtual Organizations" by Foster, Kesselman and
  Tuecke

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Commonality

• The Semantic Web is an extension of the current
  Web in which information is given a well-defined
  meaning, better enabling computers and people to
  work in cooperation. It is the idea of having
  data on the Web defined and linked in a way that
  it can be used for more effective discovery,
  automation, integration and reuse across various
  applications. The Web can reach its full
  potential if it becomes a place where data can be
  processed by automated tools as well as people
• From the W3C Semantic Web Activity statement

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Semantic Web
Richer semantics
Classical Web
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W3C
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Semantic Grid

• There is currently a gap between grid computing
  endeavours and the vision of Grid computing in
  which there is a high degree of easy-to-use and
  seamless automation and in which there are
  flexible collaborations and computations on a
  global scale.
• To support the full richness of the grid
  computing vision we need both grid and semantic
  web i.e. the Semantic Grid 
• www.semanticgrid.org

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Semantic Grid
Semantic Web
Richer semantics
Classical Web
Classical Grid
More computation
Source Norman Paton
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Why do we need it?
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(No Transcript)
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Machine processable Meaning on the Web

• Unique identity of resources and objects- URI
• Metadata Annotations
• Data describing the content and meaning of
  resources
• But everyone must speak the same language
• Terminologies
• Shared and common vocabularies
• For search engines, agents, curators, authors and
  users
• But everyone must mean the same thing
• Ontologies
• Shared and common understanding of a domain
• Essential for exchange and discovery (cue
  tutorial plug)
• Inference
• Apply the knowledge in the metadata and the
  ontology to create new metadata and new knowledge

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Minimum requirements

• Identity
• Metadata annotations
• Ontologies
• Repositories for both
• Languages for both
• Inference

RDFS, DAMLOIL -gt OWL, RuleML
RDF
RDF
FaCT Racer Cerebra
Jena RDFDB Sesame
Jena RDFDB Sesame
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Some other bits
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Grid is metadata based middleware
Astronomy Sky Survey Data Grid
1. Portals and Workbenches
2.Knowledge Resource Management
Bulk Data Analysis
Metadata View
Data View
Catalog Analysis
3.
Standard APIs and Protocols
Concept space
4.Grid Security Caching Replication Backup Schedu
ling
Information Discovery
Metadata delivery
Data Discovery
Data Delivery
5.
Standard Metadata format, Data model, Wire format
Catalog Mediator
6.
Data mediator
Catalog/Image Specific Access
7.
Compute Resources
Catalogs
Data Archives
Derived Collections
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Grid is metadata based middleware

• Metadata drives the Grid.
• Metadata services are the Semantic Grid.
• At ALL level of the Grid (e.g. resource
  brokering, load balancing, provenance, trust,
  workflow, context, PSM, database schema and on
  and on and on).
• The technologies developed by the Semantic Web
  for metadata are important.
• Particularly building large and complex
  ontologies for controlling content is well
  established.

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Grid isdynamic marshalling of resources

• Needs describing the resources, mapping between
  resources.
• Semantic web technologies for shared meaning
  (through ontologies), shared models and shared
  metadata (e.g. exporting results through RDF and
  using inference over them).

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Isnt information all computationally accessible
already?

• Document publishing paradigm.
• Descriptive knowledge.
• Ontologies for controlling content already used.
• Evolving, non-predictive schemas
• XML is king.

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Grid is services, services, services

• The first generation of Grid was protocol based.
• Second generation is service based Open Grid
  Service Architecture.
• Semantic Web description and annotation
  technologies core to service sophisticated
  service description and processing.

• Descriptions gt Automated discovery search,
  selection, (imprecise) matching, composition
  interoperation, invocation, execution monitoring
• Reasoning is darn handy

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Isnt the Grid just application integration?
Teams
Laboratories
Repositories
People
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The Semantic Grid isknowledge management

• Q What ATPase superfamily proteins are found in
  mouse?
• P21958 (from Swiss-Prot).
• InterPro is a pattern database and could tell you
  if you had permission and paid.
• Attwoods lab expertise is in nucleotide binding
  proteins
• Jones published a new paper on this in Nature
  Genetics two weeks ago
• Smith in your lab already asked this question

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Remarks

• Semantic Web is a part of the Grid vision?
• Semantic Web technologies should be relevant for
  Grid metadata at all levels.
• There isnt one Grid, there are collections of
  Grids for communities might be a more tractable
  model for the Semantic Web.
• Most facts will stay in databases. Metadata about
  the (scientific) process and facts could be in
  RDF.
• E-Science (everyone?) loves XML and ignores RDF
• Annotations sit in other (non RDF) databases.
• Reliability, scalability, performance,
  explanation, longevity, evolution

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What is the Semantic Web?

• Whatever you want it to be
• Enquire / Xanadu / Memex revisited
• How many cows in Texas?
• Query answering a knowledge base
• All have the right to comment on all
• Power searching
• Technologies for applications that benefit from
  metadata on resources
• Descriptions of content in a web language
• Knowing what a resource is
• Web services
• Distributed Agents revisited?
• A solution looking for a problem? Is it the
  Grid?
• Your idea hereafter all, what was the web for?

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The Road Ahead Scientific Data Integration with
the Semantic Web ?
Ivory Tower
Integrated Data Views
SOAP
DAMLOIL
Data-Grid
From Bertram Ludäscher, SDSC
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Stuff we learnt from the Web

• No-one expected a lettuce to have a url.
• There will be no ONE semantic web but multiple
  specific semantic webs (enterprise Grids?)
• Scalability of technologies and management.
• Something like search engines to jump between
  them.
• Low-level of entry.
• Metadata must be incidental.
• Emergent semantics.
• Assume it will break fix it or get over it.
• This is what made the web successful and
  hypermedia fail.
• Metadata breaks. Ontologies break. Ontology 404.

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The story so far
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Source Keith Jeffery
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Agent Technology A Canonical View
Agent
Interactions
Organisational relationships
Environment
Sphere of influence
Source Jennings, CACM
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Grid Computing
e-Science
Agents
Web Services
e-Business
Source De Roure, NN
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Research Agenda for theSemantic GridA Future
e-Science Infrastructure

• Technical Report of the National e-Science Centre
• UKeS-2002-02, 2001.

David De Roure - Distributed Systems, Web Nigel
Shadbolt - Advanced Knowledge Technologies Nick
Jennings - Agent Based Computing Mark Baker -
Grid technologies
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Aim

• A Research Agenda aiming to move from the
  current state-of-the-art in e-Science
  infrastructure to the future infrastructure that
  is needed to support the full richness of the
  e-Science vision.

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Motivation

• Vision of e-Science with high degree of easy to
  use and seamless automation, with flexible
  collaborations and computations on a global scale
• Gap between vision of e-Science and current
  endeavours
• Three layer model compelling but much hand-waving
  about knowledge layer
• Concern about scalability assumptions
• Lack of holistic approach Grid starting at
  socket on wall
• Need for universal architecture
• Need to bridge communities

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Evolution

• Report commissioned for UK e-Science Programme
• Aim to bridge Grid and Semantic Web communities,
  not a comprehensive survey, e.g. physical layer
  and comms out of scope
• Draft distributed in July 2001 to e-Science TAG
• Samizdat publication was influential
• Completed in December after further comment cycle
• Now split into two documents
• The Evolution of the Grid (De Roure, Baker,
  Jennings, Shadbolt)
• The Semantic Grid (De Roure, Jennings, Shadbolt)

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Major Keynotes Panels SW -gt

• Keynotes
• EDBT, March 2002
• AISB, April 2002
• Web Services E-Business and the Semantic Web, May
  2002
• NETTAB Agents in Bioinformatics 2002, July 2002
• CADE, July 2002
• GGF5, July 2002
• AIMSA2002, Sept 2002 .
• Semantic Grid Panels
• EDBT, March 2002
• WWW2002, May 2002 .

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Conferences

• WWW2002
• Semantic Web Track
• Chairs Carole Goble Eric Miller
• 12 refereed papers, 2 panels, 2 workshops, lots
  of posters
• 50 developers day at sem web track.

1st International Semantic Web Conference
ISWC Chairs Ian Horrocks Jim Hendler 4
tutorials, 40 refereed papers
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Links Grid -gt Web
Keynotes Ian Foster at WWW2002 Carl
Kesselman at ISWC2002
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   WWW2002 Panel N11   The Semantic Grid The
Grid meets the Semantic Web   Moderator David
De Roure   Panelists
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Semantic Grid Panel
WWW2002 Semantic Grid Panel
Grid meets Web
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• Ian Foster is a leader and innovator in Grid
  computing the Globus and GriPhyN projects that
  he co-leads provide technologies that are at the
  heart of major e-science projects worldwide, and
  that are increasingly seeing adoption in
  industry. The book "The Grid Blueprint for a New
  Computing Infrastructure" that he co-edited with
  Carl Kesselman has helped shape this field.
• Eric Miller is the Activity Lead for the W3C
  World Wide Web Consortium's Semantic Web
  Initiative. Before joining the W3C, Eric was a
  Senior Research Scientist at OCLC Online Computer
  Library Center, Inc. and the co-founder and
  Associate Director of the The Dublin Core
  Metadata Initiative.

Jim Hendler is a Professor at the University of
Maryland and the Director of Semantic Web and
Agent Technology at the Maryland Information and
Network Dynamics Laboratory. He is also the
former Chief Scientist of the Information Systems
Office at the US Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA). Jim is the chair of the
W3C's Web Ontology Working Group. Carole Goble is
a Professor in the Department of Computer Science
in the University of Manchester, UK, where she
coleads the Information Management Group and is
Director of her Regional e-Science Center. As
Director of a major testbed under the UK
e-Science programme, she is building a semantic
web for the bioinformatics community - so is
really building a semantic grid
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Questions

• What do grid computing and semantic web have in
  common? Where do they differ?
• Does the Grid need the Semantic Web?
• Does the Semantic Web need the Grid?
• Where do you think it's going in 50 years?
• What is the biggest challenge we must address to
  realise the semantic grid?

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Links W3C
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Links
http//www.daml.org
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Links
http//www.ontoweb.org
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Links Web -gt Grid

• Web-gt Grid
• GGF5 July 21-24, Edinburgh
• Ontologies Tutorial
• (Carole Goble Nigel Shadbolt)
• Semantic Grid BOF
• Semantic Grid report
• http//www.semanticgrid.org

Web services
Grid protocols
Open Grid Services Architecture
Semantic Web
http//www.globus.org/osga
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Conclusion so far

• Incremental rollout of tools and technologies
• You dont have to have it all to be useful
• Simple stuff goes a long way (8020)
• Web Ontology Language is under development and
  can be used to inform current projects
• There are open research issues at higher levels

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So

• What is the role of a
• GGF Semantic Grid Research Group

?
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So
What is the roadmap?
Primer? Reality check? Exemplar?
?
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Semantic Grid RG Draft Charter

• Goals
• Many grid applications are set to benefit from
  semantic web tools and techniques. The semantic
  web includes standards and tools for immediate
  use (e.g RDF), ongoing activities (such as the
  W3C Web Ontology Working Group) and an active
  community of researchers. This RG provides a
  forum to track semantic web community activities,
  determine relevance to grid activities, provide a
  route for transfer of information and ideas
  between the communities and coordinate activities
  as appropriate.

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Semantic Grid RG Draft Charter

• Projected Tasks
• Track semantic web activities
• Coordinate and interact with other GGF groups
  (for example, Data Access and Integration
  Services)
• Feed requirements and experiences from the grid
  community back to the semantic web community
• Operate a community web portal to facilitate the
  bridge
• Create focused Working Groups as appropriate
  (e.g. one can envisage a working group relating
  to ontologies).

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Semantic Grid RG Draft Charter

• Group Leadership
• Chair David De Roure
• Co-Chair Carole Goble
• Secretary Omer Rana? ?
• Lifetime
• This RG has an indefinite life time.