The Semantic Web: The Next Generation Digital Library

1
The Semantic Web The Next Generation Digital
Library?

• Vipul Kashyap
• National Library of Medicine, NIH
• kashyap_at_nlm.nih.gov
• July 15, 2002

2
Outline

• The Next Generation Digital Library Some
  Characteristics
• What is the Semantic Web?
• Functional Components of the Semantic Web
• Related Work at NLM
• From the Digital Library ? The Semantic Web

3
The Next Generation Digital Library Some
Characteristics

• Accommodate and adapt according to diverse
  communities of users
• Lay Public, Scientists, Hobbyists, Professionals,
  Policy Makers
• On Demand Plug and Play for different
  (community-specific) classifications/access
  schemes and content
• Dynamic Self-annotating, Self-classifying,
  Self Integrating, Self organizing digital
  libraries
• Evolving classifications and metadata standards
• Self describing digital content
• Novel types of content for the Next Generation
  Digital Library
• Text, images, experiment plans, bio-medical
  clinical protocols
• Services Perform this experiment for me
• People Get me someone who can answer this
  questionOR Tell me what scientist X thinks about
  theory Y
• Socially-aware digital libraries
• Consensus Analysis, Social Networks, Trust
  networks

4
What is the Semantic Web?

• Mesh of linked information that is machine
  processable
• Data is useful in contexts other than the one it
  was published for
• Metadata-based description of web resources which
  can be
• Web resources using RDF
• Ontology descriptions using DAMLOIL
• Service Descriptions using WSDL, WSFL, DAML-S
• The Semantic Web may be viewed as
• A global database of information
• A interacting (possibly collaborating) set of
  services available for execution on a global
  platform

5
An example RDF Statement

• Ralph Swick says that Ora Lassila is the creator
  of the resource http//www.w3.org/Home/Lassila

AttributedTo
Ralph Swick
ltrdfRDF xmlnsrdfhttp//www.w3.org/1999/02/22-r
df-syntax-ns xmlnsa"http//description.org/sch
ema/"gt ltrdfDescription about"http//www.w3.org
/Home/Lassila" bagIDD_001 /gt ltaCreatorgtOra
Lassilalt/aCreatorgt lt/rdfDescriptiongt ltrdfDesc
ription aboutD_001gt ltaAttributedTogtRalph
Swicklt/aAttributedTogt lt/rdfDescriptiongt lt/rdfR
DFgt
6
RDF Schema Examples

• ltrdfRDF
• xmlnsrdf"http//www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-synta
  x-ns" xmlnsrdfs"http//www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-s
  chema"gt
• lt!-- Dog is a Class --gt
• ltrdfDescription IDDoggt
• ltrdftype rdfresource"http//www.w3.org/200
  0/01/rdf-schemaClass"/gt
• ltrdfssubClassOf rdfresource"http//www.w3.org
  /2000/01/rdf-schemaResource"/gt
  lt/rdfDescriptiongt
• lt!-- Fido is a type of a dog --gt
• ltrdfDescription IDFidogt
• ltrdftype rdfresourceDoggt
• lt/rdfDescriptiongt
• lt!-- SmallDog is a subclass of Dog --gt
• ltrdfDescription IDSmallDoggt
• ltrdftype rdfresource"http//www.w3.org/2000/0
  1/rdf-schemaClass"/gt
• ltrdfssubClassOf rdfresourceDoggt
• lt/rdfDescriptiongt
• lt! NumberLegs is a Property --gt
• ltrdfDescription IDNumberLegs"gt
• ltrdftype resource"http//www.w3.org/1999/02/22
  -rdf-syntax-nsProperty"/gt
• ltrdfsdomain rdfresource"Dog"/gt

7
Semantic Web A Layered View
8
The Semantic Web An Operational View
Annotation/ Metadatabase
Ontology Driven Metadata Extraction/Annotation
Information Sources (Text, Relational)
Ontology Merging/Composition
Statistical Clustering/ Data Mining/ Ontology
Learning
Versioning/ Management
Taxonomy Generation
Complex Information/Service Request Specification
Domain Ontologies
Information Modeling/ Normalization
Intelligent Information Analysis/Service
Executions
Consensus Analysis/Social Networks
Thesauri, Glossaries
Expertise Selection/ Aggregation of SMEs
Hypothesis Validation
9
Related Work at NLM The Unified Medical Language
System (UMLS)
Anatomical Structure
Semantic Types in theSemantic Network
Disease or Syndrome
Population Group
Pharmacologic Substance
Body Part, Organ or Organ Component
Metathesaurus Concepts
Saccular Viscus
Medias-tinum
Angina Pectoris
Esophagus
Heart
Cardiotonic Agents
Left PhrenicNerve
Tissue Donors
Heart Valves
Fetal Heart
Thesauri/Vocabulary/ Classifications

10
Related Work at NLM Semantic Knowledge
Representation
Biomedical Text
UMLS
NLS
SPECIALIST Lexicon
Lexical and Syntactic Processing
Syntactic Analysis
Metathesaurus
Mapping to the Domain Model
Syntactic Analysis with Meta Concepts
Semantic Network
Semantic Interpretation
Semantic Representation
11
From the Digital Library ? The Semantic Web

• From Documents ? Facts
• SQL-based access to Digital Libraries
• Question answering approach (for naïve users)
• From Documents ? Facts ? People who know the
  facts
• Expertise selection and aggregation should also
  be part of the mix
• From Information ? Meta Information
• (How to? Where? Who?)
• From Information ? Information in Context/Process
• (Why? For whom (experts, naïve users)?)
• From Information ? Actions
• Please do this for me?