Semantic Web Beyond Science Fiction
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Semantic Web Beyond Science Fiction Author Dr. Usha Thakur, ATS Technical Research HCL Technologies, Chennai Semantic Web: Beyond Science Fiction © 2009, HCL Technologies Ltd. August, 2009 Semantic Web: Beyond Science Fiction 2 Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4 Purpose ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 Do We Need Semantic Web? ........................................................................................................................ 5 Challenges and Responses ............................................................................................................................ 8 Key Initiatives ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Do We Have Any Takers? ............................................................................................................................ 13 Current Initiatives ................................................................................................................................... 14 Semantic Web in Health Sciences/Care and Life Sciences ...................................................................... 17 The Point Is…. .............................................................................................................................................. 20 Acronyms .................................................................................................................................................... 21 Semantic Web: Beyond Science Fiction 3 Introduction Initially, almost all new ideas appear esoteric and even crazy to folks who have yet to consider the possibilities of what could happen down the road, and why. Moreover, when some of those ideas happen to be in the area of technology, many would not hesitate in relegating them to the realm of science‐fiction. Although not that new, Semantic Web is creating a lot of excitement among many techies and businesses whose efforts have started to bear fruit. In fact, Semantic Web proponents are predicting that we are likely to see the world they are visualizing, belonging less to science fiction and more to the real world we live in. Yes, Semantic Web is expected to be that pervasive! It is important to note that Semantic Web is not separate from the WWW we have come to know and embrace. Semantic Web is a stage in the evolution of the World Wide Web. As Mills Davis aptly notes, The first stage, Web 1.0, was about connecting information and getting on the net. Web 2.0 is about connecting people — putting the “I” in user interface, and the “we” into a web of social participation. The next stage, [W]eb 3.0, is starting now. It is about representing meanings, connecting knowledge, and putting them to work in ways that make our experience of internet more relevant, useful, and enjoyable. Web 4.0 will come later. It is about connecting intelligences in a ubiquitous web where both people and things can reason and communicate together.1 Purpose The main objective of this paper is to understand what the Semantic Web trend is all about, how it will impact our use of the Web, and why this trend is here to stay. We will also examine some of the industry verticals as well as technology vendors who are already embracing Semantic Web technologies and using them as business differentiators. 1 Mills Davis, "Semantic Wave 2008: Industry Roadmap to Web 3.0 and Multibillion Dollar Market Opportunities," http://project10x.com/about.php [June 2009] ‐> indicates when this website was accessed. Semantic Web: Beyond Science Fiction 4 Do We Need Semantic Web? The essence of Semantic Web ‐ also referred to as Web 3.0 ‐ has been expressed in many ways. Some refer to it as “a network of data on the Web”2 or simply as “a Web of data.”3 Others view it as a “World Wide Database… [because it involves] going from a Web of connected documents to a Web of connected data.”4 Irrespective of which definition one prefers, there is a general consensus that Semantic Web structures data through various semantic tools and applications in such a way that it can be read, understood, analysed, and processed by machines within a given context. In short, the aim of Semantic Web is to allow users to phrase their queries in a way they are already used to doing (e.g., “I am wondering what time of the year will be best for wind surfing off the coast of South Africa, and at which locations?”), and have the system return only relevant information. Of course, as we will see later in this paper, there is much more to Semantic Web than just queries. In general, the key assumptions or drivers that are behind the increasing significance of Semantic Web are as follows: 1. Users can raise contextual queries such as, “what is the best fare from Boston to Vancouver next Saturday and the possibility of an ocean facing hotel room in Vancouver for this Saturday and Sunday priced between $80 and $100 per night?” 2. Search and Find functions will be super fast because only contextually relevant results will be returned. For instance, “There is only one hotel with an ocean facing rooms in Vancouver for this Saturday and Sunday priced at $95 US. Similar rooms are available for $150 US at these hotels…..” 3. Research institutions and the like organizations can protect (laboratory and other) data (contained e.g., in pharma/medical lab notebooks) for reuse and IP creation.5 2 This is how Nigel Shadbolt and Tim Berners‐Lee define Semantic Web. See, Nigel Shadbolt and Tim Berners‐Lee, “Web Science: Studying the Internet to Protect Our Future” (October 2008) P. 3, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=web‐science&page=3 [June 2009]. 3 This is the definition adopted by W3C. For further details, see “W3C Semantic Web Frequently Asked Questions,” Question number 1.1, http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/SW‐FAQ [June 2009]. 4 This is how Nova Spivack of Radar Network conceptualizes Semantic Web. See John Markoff, "Entrepreneurs See a Web Guided by Common Sense," (November 12, 2006) P.1, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/business/12web.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&sq=interview%20with%20tim %20berners%20lee%20on%203.0&st=cse&scp=2 [May 2009]. 5 Today the state of the content management system is such that researchers end up wasting a great deal of their time in inefficient activities. According to an IDC study, a typical knowledge worker uses his/her time as follows: 25% in search, 22% in information gathering, 26% in analysis, 8% in content recreation, 9% in unsuccessful search, and 10% in format reconversion. For a good analysis of how and why semantic tools can go a long way in the Semantic Web: Beyond Science Fiction 5 4. Businesses, governments, and institutions can increase employee productivity (and thereby increase profitability); employees can use their time for creating assets instead of searching for relevant information. 5. Users can obtain advisory services by raising queries such as “what is the best car to buy this year and why?” So what is it about Semantic Web that is likely to make the above a reality on a universal scale? Why is the World Wide Web of today not adequate anymore? As far back as 2001, Tim Berners‐Lee, who is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the Web, and some of his colleagues visualized a world of Semantic Web where “software agents” would automatically perform sophisticated tasks for users such as: Going to the Web page of a particular clinic. Understanding and interpreting the difference among words like ‘treatment, medicine, physical therapy’ and knowing that a particular doctor works at his clinic on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Combing through the doctor’s calendar and that of users and negotiating possible times for an appointment. Rescheduling other meetings on behalf of users, in the event of a conflict. This is a very simple scenario; the proponents of Semantic Web are promising that in the near future Semantic Web technologies will understand (and analyse) complex user requests and process them automatically with relative ease,6 and even play the role of an (intelligent) advisor e.g., financial advisor.7 One of the main reasons why the current Web is inadequate for performing the aforementioned tasks is that it is set up for searching and returning URL of pages containing the requested information rather than for returning only the relevant data in those pages. Consequently, management of unstructured information, see Fabio Rizzotto, “Quality and Value in the Management of Unstructured Information: Tools Based on Semantic Analysis,” (Sponsored by Expert System: September 2006) http://www.expertsystem.net/page.asp?id=1521 [June 2009]. 6 For one such example, see the introduction in Tim Berners‐Lee, et al., “The Semantic Web: A New Form of Web Content that is Meaningful to Computers will Unleash a Revolution of New Possibilities,” (May 17, 2001) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the‐semantic‐web [June 2009]. 7 John Markoff feels that "in the future, more powerful systems could act as personal advisers in areas as diverse as financial planning, with an intelligent system mapping out a retirement plan for a couple, for instance, or educational consulting, with the Web helping a high school student identify the right college." John Markoff, Op cit.,