Semantic Enterprise
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• Cognizant 20-20 Insights Semantic Enterprise: A Step Toward Agent-Driven Integration Knowledge-driven enterprises can become more adaptable, dynamic and collaborative by using semantic technologies to integrate openly available data into the ecosystem. Executive Summary enting the enterprise. We look at how semantic technologies can enable more agile and automat- Technology waves are rolling in faster than ever, ed approaches to integration, and we highlight and enterprises are being reshaped by emerging some of the challenges associated with semantic Web technologies. Across industries, technology technology adoption. is no longer just a support system but also an integral part of today’s fast-moving, “learn as you Agents and Semantics go” business models. To understand how business is evolving, it is For instance, beyond historical transactional data, important to track the evolution of Web tech- businesses are looking for more current and nologies, as these are currently a key business up-to-date data for informed decision-making. enabler. Even before the social Web (or Web 2.0) Retailers are integrating external blogs, social was fully realized, business leaders began leverag- sites and data from ubiquitous mobile devices ing emerging semantic technologies (Web 3.0) to into their analytics systems to better understand enable data sharing among social networks, with the market pulse. Insurance companies, agents user permission. Then, just as Web 3.0 was learn- and customers are collaborating more effectively ing to walk, Web 4.0, the self-learning and self- by integrating their systems to work online. organizing Web, began incubating. Figure 1, next page, describes these technology waves in detail. But the job of incorporating external data or onboarding external agents today often involves To understand the semantic Web, it’s important to manual processes and development cycles that first grasp two core concepts: semantic technolo- span months. With the advancement of semantic gies and agents. technologies, however, businesses can integrate openly available data into the ecosystem more • Semantic technologies: Data is meaning- effectively. ful only when it is accompanied by structure. While syntax is about grammatical structure, In this white paper, we discuss semantic technol- semantics governs the relationship between ogy adoption and how these capabilities are reori- articles, vowels, consonants, verbs and associat- cognizant 20-20 insights | december 2013 Evolution of the Web Technology Focal Approximate Characteristics Key Enablers Wave Point Timeline Information Rudimentary personal and HTML, directories, 1994-2000 Web 1.0 Web corporate Web sites data silos Personal blogging, social media Social Web CSS, P2P, AJAX 2000-2010 Web 2.0 and networking Distributed social Web, with open SPARQL, OWL, Semantic Web 2010-2020 Web 3.0 data sharing (with permission) semantic search Humans and computer systems Intelligent agents, Intelligent interacting in distributed search, 2020-2030 Web 4.0 Web information symbiosis ubiquity Figure 1 ed rules. Both the syntax and the semantics of a relationships between every object in the world domain need to be defined in machine language and creating a web of data. (For more on this so that the machine or computer systems can topic, see our white paper, “How Semantic interpret that domain. An example is the spell Technology Drives Agile Business.”) checker, a software agent that compiles work • Agents: Agents are complex software systems based on lexical syntax and semantics, artic- that are designed to perform a variety of ulated in machine language. Similarly, it is tasks by interpreting a machine-readable important to define the semantics of a business knowledge base. For example compilers are domain or enterprise so that the IT systems can software agents that work based on the operate more efficiently. syntax and semantics defined for a program- Semantic technologies aim to create a ming language. Similarly, Web crawlers are knowledge base for computer programs to complex agents that retrieve processes and work more intelligently by linking objects harvest data automatically from Web sites. A and building relationships. The knowledge smarter breed of Web crawlers is emerging for base helps computer systems understand harvesting semantic Web content. the context of the work being accomplished Figure 2 illustrates how a computer system can during runtime operations and anticipate the use data to develop wisdom by adding structure necessary actions, with the goal of building and meaning to data and processing it. How Data Leads to Wisdom Wisdom A U.S. citizen is likely to have a Social Security Number. Analytics/AI/Datas/AI/Dat Mining Residents of a country have a personal identifier; Knowledge a Social Security Number is a personal identifier. Add MeaningMea Social Security Number = Information 123-45-6789. Building plan = xyz.jpg Add StructureStruc Data Numbers, text, images, videos, etc. Figure 2 cognizant 20-20 insights 2 Semantic Web Semantic Enterprise The semantic Web is about making it easier The semantic, or knowledge-driven, enterprise for computer systems to interpret content. Its describes content using ontologies by tagging primary focus is tagging the content based on and linking information. This results in an inter- what it “means,” thus adding structure to data. linked, rich information tree of knowledge that The semantic Web is an indirect response to continues to grow over time. The semantic enter- the business need for efficiency and getting the prise provides contextual connections to both most out of its investments, from employees to the identity of the enterprise and the assets that equipment. keep it running, creating a knowledgebase for computer Semantic Web For example, in 2010, the BBC upgraded its systems to interpret the World Cup Web site with semantic Web technolo- meaning of their actions. This databases — gies, curating and interlinking the site’s content, results in more efficient pro- generally known as 1 without employing a large fleet of editors. The cessing and decision-making. knowledgebases result: a highly dynamic, interactive, information- Assets are defined by the rich and user-oriented site, with aggregation at people, process and technol- — can store more many levels (such as player, team, geography and ogy resources associated with sophisticated and group). the enterprise, and identity is referenceable defined by capturing the enter- The richness of the site’s information, which prise vision, mission, strategy metadata than included 700 topical index pages, could never and principles. relational databases. have been produced via traditional methods. Thus, they allow Semantic Web technologies, on the other hand, The Department of Defense added structure to the unstructured information, (DoD) makes use of semantic complex algorithms typically handled by media, through appropriate technology across systems to to directly reason tagging. form an executable, integrated with inferences on and consumable architecture.3 Another key aspect of the Web site’s success was Since 2011, the DoD’s Business the data structures. cross-document relationships; ontology helped Mission Area has mandated capture the complex interlinking of the documents the use of semantic Web technologies as the based on topics, authors, citations and multiple foundational architecture for new integration revisions. Managing these relationships through projects. The organization links disparate infor- traditional relational databases would have been mation systems by overlaying them with semantic cumbersome and inefficient, increasing time to models, which has decreased the time it takes to market. Semantic Web databases — generally get a new enterprise system up and running from known as knowledge bases — can store more six to nine months to less than 90 days. sophisticated and referenceable metadata than relational databases. Thus, they allow complex Current tools enable enterprise modeling to algorithms to directly reason with inferences on define the relationships among various enterprise the data structures. entities. When these models are maintained, the semantic enterprise can distinguish the present The interlinked, metadata-driven nature of the state from the past, add constraints, guide the semantic Web enables enterprises to stay abreast present and predict the future. of constantly changing usage patterns. The standardized metadata helps computer systems However, current enterprise architecture tools decipher meaning and act on it. Agents, thus, can are not flexible enough for extending the model run complex algorithms to directly reason with with respect to newer entities. For example, these inferences on the data structures. This is why tools cannot be extended to capture physical semantic Web languages are a key part of the assets along with the technology assets. Because knowledge representation of artificial intelligence these tools are not semantically aware, they (AI). provide a model that can neither be interpreted by other software nor be exchanged with the Other organizations have created production extended enterprise or the external world. As systems with semantic Web technologies, as well, such, it becomes an uphill task for the enterprise including Time, Inc., Elsevier and the Library of to adapt to the dynamics of change. Congress.2 cognizant 20-20 insights 3 Semantic Technologies and and perfumes) and services (such as search, Agent-Driven Integration