The semantic web

or how I learned to stop worrying andlove metadata…

Richard Ashby, communications team5 August 2008

The semantic web

“I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers.

A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines.

The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.”

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web 1999

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web

The semantic web

Mostly flat information

Some databases but content very functional

Little engagement or

interactivity

The semantic web

Greater interactivity

Growth of social media /

social networking

Online communities

created / social capital

The semantic web

Joining up of information

Data portability

Browsers and search

engines become more

‘intelligent’

The semantic web

Works but is clunky, not that efficient, technically limited

The semantic web

Smoother experience, looks better, still lacks cohesion

The semantic web

Greater scope for exploration, limitless potential, smart

The semantic web

The semantic web

OK, so we’ve seen how the web is evolving.

Let’s get into semantics.

Firstly, we’ll look at the traditional web model…

The semantic web

Let’s introduce Professor

Gibson.

With the traditional web

model she has the

following…

The semantic web

A faculty page

The semantic web

A faculty page

A research page

The semantic web

A faculty page

A research page

A blog

The semantic web

A faculty page

A research page

A blog

and a staff listing page

The semantic web

The content of these

sites is fine but there are

no linkages between the

data.

So visitors find it

difficult to get all the

information they need

quickly and easily.

The semantic web

That’s where the

Semantic web comes in…

The semantic web

Using code we can create

relationships between

websites, people and

events…

These can then be

understood by the browser

and interpreted in a helpful

way.

The semantic web

So we can link Professor

Gibson’s faculty page to

her research.

The semantic web

So we can link Professor

Gibson’s faculty page to

her research.

Then link data in her blog

to both of these.

The semantic web

So we can link Professor

Gibson’s faculty page to

her research.

Then link data in her blog

to both of these.

And link profile data to

her staff listing.

The semantic web

And her staff listing could

show some of the other

academics she works with.

The semantic web

And her staff listing could

show some of the other

academics she works with.

With her research page

showing her links with

worldwide research

collaborators.

The semantic web

Who also know one of

her colleagues.

The semantic web

Who also know one of

her colleagues.

Who comment on

Professor Gibson’s blog

regularly.

The semantic web

With all this data being

able to be displayed

simply it provides a much

richer user experience and

offers information that

previously might not have

been exposed.

The semantic web

Well that’s exciting stuff. But how do we go about

getting onboard with semantics?

Glad you asked. There are a few different ways we’ll

look at in more detail now…

The semantic web

Firstly we could create

Our documents using

RDF:

ResourceDescriptionFramework

The semantic web

Here special meta-data

code is added to pages

that describe the

relationships between

that data.

These are called triples.

The semantic web

RDF is very powerful but

up to now hasn’t been

widely deployed as it

can be a very complex

process to create the

relationships and

browser support has been

limited.

The semantic web

Having said this, better

tools now exist to

create RDF documents

which we will explore in

the next section.

The semantic web

An easier way of getting

involved is to use

Microformats.

These are simple pieces

of code that allow the

browser to interpret the

data intelligently.

The semantic web

Here’s a couple of real

world examples from

some of our pages…

The semantic web

On the communications

team website the address

has been coded as a

microformat.

The semantic web

On the communications

team website the address

has been coded as a

microformat.

The semantic web

On the communications

team website the address

has been coded as a

microformat.

This allows the visitor to

automatically add the

contact details to Outlook.

The semantic web

On the communications

team website the address

has been coded as a

microformat.

This allows the visitor to

automatically add the

contact details to Outlook.

The semantic web

Now let’s take a look at

the HR contacts page.

Again we’ve used the

address microformat.

The semantic web

Now let’s take a look at

the HR contacts page.

Again we’ve used the

address microformat.

This allows visitors to get

a Google map of the

location with a single click.

The semantic web

Now let’s take a look at

the HR contacts page.

Again we’ve used the

address microformat.

This allows visitors to get

a Google map of the

location with a single click.

The semantic web

Let’s now take a look at some of the options available to us if we want to take things forward…

The semantic web

The semantic web

Jadu is the CMS we are

using for the corporate

web project.

The semantic web

Jadu is the CMS we are

using for the corporate

web project.

It already provides rich

metadata functionality

when building pages.

The semantic web

They have made it clear

that semantic web tools

are part of their product

road map and are in the

pipeline.

We have discussed this

with CEO Suraj Kika

previously.

The semantic web

He also states on the

Jadu website:

"For information on the

Internet to make sense to

people and to machines –

its necessary to adopt

standards as and when

they change"

The semantic web

Benefits of using Jadu

We already have the

system running.

Training costs are greatly

reduced.

Jadu works well with our

Google search engine.

The semantic web

Benefits of using Jadu

All the code created is

accessible and fully

standards compliant.

The semantic web

Drawbacks of using

Jadu

We may need some

functionality that doesn’t

yet exist and needs to be

developed.

The semantic web

Endeca offer enterprise

solutions providing

semantic web functionality,

and features such as

guided searches.

Their client list includes

Tesco and The Guardian.

The semantic web

Benefits of using Endeca

Powerful range of features.

Robust server architecture

makes it very reliable.

Guided search may be

helpful in some instances.

The semantic web

Drawbacks of using

Endeca

Very high costs to deploy.

Additional platform to

support technically.

Potential conflict with

Google search engine.

The semantic web

Drawbacks of using

Endeca

Creates additional

complexity in page builds

so more to go wrong and

timescales affected.

The semantic web

Open Calais is a project

funded by Reuters to

help improve the quality

of web metadata.

A key element of this is

a set of powerful tools for

creating RDF documents

and semantic applications.

The semantic web

Benefits of using Open

Calais

Completely free service

with great functionality.

Active development

community.

Platform agnostic.

The semantic web

Benefits of using Open

Calais

Could probably be made

to work with Jadu and

other sites fairly easily.

The semantic web

Drawbacks of using

Open Calais

No guarantees the service

will always be free.

The semantic web

We’ve already looked at

microformats but let’s

now see the pros and

cons of using them.

The semantic web

Benefits of using

microformats

Very simple to add to

pages.

Code is easy to follow, and

more ‘human friendly’ than

RDF.

The semantic web

Benefits of using

microformats

Flexible and can be put

to many different uses.

Require very little time /

money investment.

The semantic web

Drawbacks of using

microformats

Lack some of the power

of RDF.

Browser support is still

somewhat patchy.

The semantic web

Recommendations

Continue to use

microformats.

Liaise with Jadu to see

how CMS can help deliver

semantic data.

The semantic web

Recommendations

Potentially some more

research on Endeca to

see if any benefits can be

derived.

Investigate if Open Calais

could provide any quick

wins.

The semantic web

We’ve covered quite a lot of ground to this point.

Now there will be a practical demonstration of the

semantic web in action.

Thanks for listening.