(868) Web 3.0: This Is The Semantic Web

Peer-Refereed Talk

Thursday, 2007-06-28, 11:00 - 11:40, Arena 6

Henry Story - Sun Microsystems (speaker)

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Abstract

The Semantic Web is real, and becoming more so. There have been two historic gaps in it fulfilling its promise: The "last mile" gap - where does the information come from? - and real-world applications that can take advantage of that information. RDF files are now available in large number. There are 15 million foaf files generated by the Live Journal blogging engine alone [1]. Opening up well tested relational databases to the Semantic Web is just one mapping file away with tools such as D2RQ [2]. With over 400 tools ready to make use of that information in all programming languages [3] it is just a matter of building the applications [4], which are the top of the Semantic Web Stack. Java is the perfect platform to write such tools. We will demonstrate how blogging and other activities have planted the seeds of the semantic web. And we will demo some key examples of applications that make use of this information, from desktop tools such as a Semantic AddressBook to developer centric tools such as the NetBeans IDE. What is the Semantic Web? ( moto: everything is related ) ------------------------- - URIs: the corner stone of the Semantic Web URIs can name anything. Currently we use them just to name documents, but we can also use them to name people [5], relations, things, concepts and more... If we use URLs we get the full benefit of the RESTful structure of the web. - Triple structure of basic rdf . Property value pairs are well known to programmers. RDF makes the subject of the property value pair explicit. - SPARQL: the web query engine SPARQL is the query language being developed at the W3C [6], that is very similar to SQL, easy to understand, and very powerful. Tools like D2RQ [2] make it easy to open up normal relational databases to SPARQL endpoints, so that one can cross query databases. - graphs: belief contexts - how to build trust Information comes in graphs of relationships. One can merge these relationships if one trusts the source of the statements. Graphs gives one a way to express trust in the semantic web, to delete information, and much more... - OWL ultra light: very simple inferencing Inferencing is in the upper layer of the Semantic Web stack [4]. Inferencing is not needed to bootstrap the semantic web, but some very minimal form of inferencing, that is easily programmable, can help a lot. Developer Tools: --------------- - HPs Jena, Aduna's Sesame, Northrop Grumman's Kowari, IBM's Boca (We give a high level overview of what these frameworks do) - Som(m)mer: mapping rdf to Java [6] - making life easier for developers Som(m)er is the hibernate for the Semantic Web. - D2RQ: mapping relational databases to the Semantic Web (University of Berlin) Demo Applications: ------------------ The best of the following ideas, depending on what we can get ready for Java One. - Beatnik - a Semantic Web Address Book using the F3 scripting language drag and drop a URL for a person into an address book and have the information appear there. Edit an entry, press a publish button and send an rdf file to a web site using the RESTful Atom Publishing Protocol. The file may contain some pointers to people you know (if they have their cards online). Show how the information can the be used to browse networks of people. - Opening a Database: Opening a java Bug database [8] using D2RQ and linking it to Netbeans. This demonstrates the power of SPARQL and how Metcalf's law [9] applies to information on the web: by opening up data in an easy-to-mash-up way new services can spring up very quickly. Other possible demo: - Looking Glass Spotlight: SPARQL to search the Semantic Desktop. [1] http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/15_million_foaf_files [2] http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/sparqling_roller [3] http://www.mkbergman.com/?page_id=325 [4] http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/diagrams/sweb-stack/2006a.png [5] http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/i_have_a_foaf_file [6] http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/sparql_to_ignite_web_2 [7] https://sommer.dev.java.net [8] http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/google_video_introduces_the_semantic [9] http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/rdf_and_metcalf_s_law