Semantic Web Applications

Introduction
Vlad Posea
vladposea@yahoo.com
• http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_o
n_the_next_web.html
 On the next web
• Web 1.0 = a way to reframe the way we use
information
• Overcome the need for systems to be
interoperable in order for people to better
access each others’ documents
• => TBL was frustrated 
– => he built a system to overcome that
– Great idea – linking documents - hypertext
 Which is the problem that still
frustrates people and TBL?
• Turns out that there is still huge unlocked
potential. There is still a huge frustration that
people have because we haven't got data on
the web as data.
• Which is the difference between document
and data?
– On the web we have links between documents not
between data sets
 Web evolution
• Web today • Web tomorrow
• “So, imagine that that • “but I want to think
link could have gone to about a world where
virtually any document everybody has put data
you could imagine.” on the web and so
• Web of documents virtually everything you
can imagine is on the
web. and then calling
that linked data.”
• Web of data
 how do we get to the next web?
• those things that start with http: --we're using
them not just for documents now,we're using
them for things that the documents are
about.
• Web 1.0: • Semantic web:
• URLs – used to • URIs – used to
identify identify data
documents (resources)
 url that identifies a data
resource

relations
 how do we get to the next web?
• TBL’s rules:
– All kinds of conceptual things, they have names
now that start with HTTP.
– I get important information back about the data
I’m looking up using a standard format
– when I get back that information it's got
relationships
 How do we create the semantic web
• write a program to take the data, extract it from
Wikipedia, and put it into a blob of linked data on
the web, which he called dbpedia.
 How do we create the semantic web
• write a program to take the data, extract it from
Wikipedia, and put it into a blob of linked data on
the web, which he called dbpedia.
• American government data would be available on
the Internet in accessible formats (england’s data
already is)
 How do we create the semantic web
• write a program to take the data, extract it from
Wikipedia, and put it into a blob of linked data on
the web, which he called dbpedia.
• American government data would be available on
the Internet in accessible formats (england’s data
already is)
• data is about our lives. You just -- you log on to
your social networking site, your favorite one,
you say, "This is my friend." Bing! Relationship.
Data. You say, "This photograph, it's about -- it
depicts this person. "
How do we create the semantic data?
• Extract data from web sites and publish it in
semantic formats
• When you develop a web site make sure the
data is also available in semantic formats
• Fetch semantic data from social web sites
 What is it good for?
• Answer questions based on relations between
different data concepts:
– What proteins are involved in signal transduction and
also related to pyramidal neurons?
– All soccer players, who played as goalkeeper for a club
that has a stadium with more than 40.000 seats
and who are born in a country with more than 10
million inhabitants (dbpedia example)
• Query the web like you would query a database!
 Web 2.0 + Semantic Web
• => Social Semantic Web
• social semantic web is all about everybody
doing their bit and it creates an incredible
resource because everybody else does
theirs. And that is what linked data is all
about. It's about people doing their bit to
produce a little bit, and it all connecting.
 What I want you to do
• Create linked data and make it available on the
web
– Choose a domain that you’re interested in
– Make an ontology of the domain (linking it to existing
ontologies)
– Extract data from the web and create a semantic
repository
– Make the data available for search by other
applications
– Create a web application that uses the semantic data
that you have
 What others want you to do
• http://challenge.semanticweb.org
• Challenge at the biggest international conference
• The requirements represent practically the
guidelines for the development of the Semantic
Web
• Minimal requirements – also needed for our
project
• Additional Desirable Features – what you will
actually need for a commercial product.
 Minimal requirements
• The application has to be an end-user application
• The information sources used
– should be under diverse ownership or control
– should be heterogeneous (syntactically, structurally, and semantically)
– should contain substantial quantities of real world data
• The meaning of data has to play a central role.
• Meaning must be represented using Semantic Web
technologies.
• Data must be manipulated/processed in interesting ways to
derive useful information and
• this semantic information processing has to play a central role
in achieving things that alternative technologies cannot do as
well, or at all;
 Additional Desirable Features
• The application provides an attractive and functional Web
interface (for human users)
• The application should be scalable (in terms of the amount of
data used and in terms of distributed components working
together). Ideally, the application should use all data that is
currently published on the Semantic Web.
• Rigorous evaluations have taken place that demonstrate the
benefits of semantic technologies, or validate the results
obtained.
• Novelty, in applying semantic technology to a domain or task
that have not been considered before
Italic=interesting from the research point of view
Bold = interesting from the commercial point of view
 Additional Desirable Features
• Functionality is different from or goes beyond pure
information retrieval
• The application has clear commercial potential and/or large
existing user base
• Contextual information is used for ratings or rankings
• Multimedia documents are used in some way
• There is a use of dynamic data (e.g. workflows), perhaps in
combination with static information
• The results should be as accurate as possible (e.g. use a
ranking of results according to context)
Examples: Semantic Web Challenge
winners - 2010
• NCBO Resource Index: Ontology-Based Search
and Mining of Biomedical Resources – winner
2010
• http://www.cs.vu.nl/~pmika/swc/submissions
/swc2010_submission_4.pdf
• Uses ontologies on BioPortal to annotate
resources with concepts from the ontologies
• Semantics used in finding synonyms,
autocomplete on search, identify hierarchies
of concepts
Examples: Semantic Web Challenge
winners - 2010
• Linking Open Government Data
http://logd.tw.rpi.edu/
• http://www.cs.vu.nl/~pmika/swc/submissions
/swc2010_submission_16.pdf
• The TWC LOGD Portal is a semantic web
application dedicated to publishing Linked
Data versions of OGD and sharing tools,
services and expertise supporting an OGD
ecosystem. It serves data users ranging from
informed citizens, to domain experts, to
Examples: Semantic Web Challenge
winners - 2010
• shortipedia.org
• http://www.cs.vu.nl/~pmika/swc/submissions
/swc2010_submission_18.pdf
• Aggregating semantic data + curating by
volunteer users (just like wikipedia)
Examples: Semantic Web Challenge
winners - 2009
• http://www.cs.vu.nl/~pmika/swc/documents/
TrialX-healthx-iswc09-challenge.pdf - matching
patients with clinical trials based on patient
records
• http://www.cs.vu.nl/~pmika/swc/documents/
VisiNav-paper.pdf Exploration of web datasets
• http://www.cs.vu.nl/~pmika/swc/documents/
Sig.ma:%20Live%20views%20on%20the%20w
eb%20of%20data-sigma.pdf Visualisation of
the web of data
Examples: Semantic Web Challenge
winners - 2008
• paggr.com – creates mashups from semantic
data
• DBPediaMobile – integrates DBPedia data with
Google Maps
• HealthFinland - single national entry-point for
health information, health promotion and
health-related news
 Evolution of the domain

2008 2009 2010

Aggregate data on a
Output data in semantic
Develop tools large scale
formats
(visualisation) Complex applications
Aggregate data on a
Aggregating data on that take advantage of
small scale
larger scale from a small all the existing data and
Visualize data
number of sources tools
Develop tools

Evolution from development of tools, small applications,

output of semantic data from a single domain to
complex applications aggregating large number of data
sources providing complex services
 Example
• Domain: Romanian Tourism
• Ontology concepts: Hotel, Resort, Activity,
City, Camera,…
• Data sources: tourism web sites
• Semantic interogations
– Hotel at least 2 stars where you can practice archery
– Hostel in the Apuseni mountains with a place where the
children can play
– Hotel that the girlfriend would like:)
Nume: Rating (nr stele)

Contact: foaf:Person

Facilități
 How do you gain points
• 5 points exam
• 5 points project – described in the previous
slides
http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_the
_year_open_data_went_worldwide.html
 References
• http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cf
m?id=the-semantic-web
• http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_o
n_the_next_web.html