The Semantic Web Essays

The Semantic Web Essays The Semantic Web Essay The Semantic Web Essay BMO Internet Security Final Project Paper University of Toronto SCS 2115 Professor: Dr. Ken K. Wong By: Kevin Fernando 13/06/2010 The semantic web is a vision created and promoted by Tim-Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web Consortium. In his article the Semantic Web in Scientific American (2001) Berners-Lee explains that The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation What Berners-Lee means by this is that in its current state, internet technology is not designed in a way in which computers and machines can interact with each other most efficiently. The primary reason for this disconnect is lies in the difference between information produced primarily for human consumption and that produced mainly for machines. Currently most web technologies are created for human interpretation and merely use machines to store and transfer this information. For example in a search engine, the use of key words and database descriptions allow machines to cross reference the search syntax provided by the ender user and locate the best matching result based on this syntax. However the issue here is that while the machine can read the syntax (the raw structure) of the terms presented it does not know the semantics or the meaning of the phrase/words entered. So if the user was looking for â€Å"cheap cars in Toronto† listings with â€Å"economical vehicles In the GTA† may be by passed by the search engine. Therefore, Berners-Lee’s vision with the Semantic Web is to provide a language that expresses both data and rules for reasoning about the data and that allows rules from any existing knowledge-representation system to be exported onto the Web. One of the best applications of the benefits of the Semantic web is through the example of two users seeking medical attention for their mother. In this example the users dispatch their personal Semantic Web Agents (a software search engine) to cross reference various parameters (availability time, insurance terms, distance, service rating etc. ) and work with each other in finding a hospital solution that satisfies all of the desired stipulations. The primary technologies/techniques involved in developing the semantic web are XML, RDF, URI, and ontologies. Through their implementation in meta-data, these methods enable the Semantic web to â€Å"understand† the relationships within the queries of its users and aid them in locating information. In my opinion â€Å"The Semantic Web† as a term will become not a fad, but a marketing cliche much like the term Web 2. 0 has. However, I am certain that while not all, some, of the underlying principles behind it will definitely surface as web technologies advance. I say this because if one is too look closely enough it is easy to spot sites and technologies that already display â€Å"semantic web† concepts. For example, www. Amazon. com will aggregate user reviews and page views to display recommended other products that other individuals with interest in the same item liked when you search for a specific item. Another example I find remarkable is a feature within Google maps. If you would like to search for pizza restaurants around a particular area, you can simply type â€Å"pizza near [the address, land mark or postal code of your choosing]. Google will then display all pizza restaurants indexed within the vicinity of stated geographical location. This is interesting because in this example the user is asking a question in the way that they would normally direct it to another person rather than translating the question to search syntax the machine can search for. Ultimately, I think this is the direction the semantic web will take – better database indexing, greater understanding of synonymous terms/phrases by search engines, and personalized recommendations based on user trends. While I do not think it would be impossible, I think it would be quite a few years before the emergence of a user deployable, effective software agent that can conduct complex multi-variable search tasks is realized. I say this because in order for this to occur in a useful fashion, the meta-tag data techniques used by the semantic web would need to be universally incorporated into virtually every website ever built – no easy task by any stretch of the imagination. In short, I think that while the concept of a true Semantic Web may be too utopian for reality, some of the guiding principles will be adopted in the inevitable transition to what might be later coined â€Å"Web 3. 0† For Electricite de France, the implemented Semantic web technologies have many potential benefits for their consumer end users. For example, within the research and innovation section, interlinking tags, RDF information, ontology instances and tagged content will enable these individuals to locate articles, films, books, services etc. more efficiently than prior to its implementation. Similarly, shareholders and investors may be able to locate critical decision making financial information with greater accuracy because of the inclusion of these methods. Furthermore, if blogging, RSS and wiki contribution features are available to the general consumer public, then such contributions can easily be located, edited, searched and viewed by various users. In addition, collaboration and discussions between end users and employees such as engineers and researchers can be made more efficient. This will be a key factor if voice of the consumer research and feedback were to be integrated into engineering efforts. Lastly, as a result of the embedded ontology meta-data, the site will be able to dynamically suggest related content for viewing based on a user’s search criteria and related other user search trends. Based on the potential of semantic web technologies, I am confident that its implementation would greatly increase the efficiency at my place of employment in the online learning industry. Firstly, from inter employee relations and collaboration perspective, as with Electricite de France, Semantic technologies would aid personnel with locating, organizing and working with organizational information resources. For example, the benefits could be realized in greater screening accuracy when selecting new candidates for Human resources, better database query tools for consumer trend data in marketing, and more efficient sharing of coding scripts for course development, to name a few uses. The other benefits that would arise would be from a consumer end user perspective. Currently, in the client services department (composed of technical support and student services) there is a knowledge base whereby end users such as students and instructors can search for already documented solutions for any inquires they may have. However, this search could be made vastly more superior and effective if semantic technologies were implemented within it. In such a scenario users would be able to find not only the solution to their own issue, but related issues as well as the ontology information would create these relationships. Moreover, less tech savvy users would have more success using the knowledge base then before as the system would be able to reference their search strings with synonymous words and phrases in finding a solution. So these are a few examples of the many conceivable benefits that could be derived from the implementation of this technology by my current employer. Kevin Fernando