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Dr Alexiei Dingli

Introduction to Web Science

Conclusion

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Where would you use it?

How would you use it?

Do you see a need of Web Science?

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• Documented information and knowledge of organizations – lies in relational databases of specific

applications, within text-based documents, web-based collaboration applications, etc.

• Programs typically do not freely interchange data within an organization, let alone between organizaitons

Business Data Integration

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• Enterprise application integration (EAI) software– require significant customization and

maintenance of common data models, and are therefore often quite expensive, troublesome, and require constant attention

• SW technologies looks to be an alternative method for extracting data from a wide array of applications in a usable form

Business Data Integration

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• Uses advanced pattern matching techniques

• Associate meaning with unstructured text

• Used by NASA to sort huge quantities of data

Case Study: Autonomy

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• Captures task information

• Stores it in a knowledge base

• A reasoning engine and agent technologies are used to interpret the knowledge

• Disputes reduced from 8 days to 8 hours

Case Study: Celcorp (1)

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Case Study: Celcorp (2)

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• Brandsoft - Resource Manager uses semantic web technology to manage enterprise web content and applications

• ClearForest - Text-based bridge between structured and unstructured data

• Cogito - knowledge management solution that accesses data from various databases then ' atomizes ' it, automatically creating documents, etc.

• Contivo - Vocabulary Management Solution uses dictionary and thesaurus in its integrator to access semantic information from legacy and flat file data

• Cyscom - semantic data integration engine that structures MS Office data for ERP and other business applications

The list can keep on going ... (1)

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• Empolis - solutions for rationalizing business processes and processing both structured and unstructured information

• Enigmatec - Execution Management System is targeted at companies who want to build agile applications that take advantage of grid computing

• HP - HP has a semantic web research group that, among other things, developed ' Jena ' - a semantic web toolkit

• IBM - IBM ' s Institute of Search and Text Analysis, among other things, developed an "Unstructured Information Management Architecture"

• Metatomix - leverages semantic web based technologies to build enterprise resource interoperability platforms that correlate data from multiple sources

The list can keep on going ... (2)

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• Pantero - engine that uses metadata to model data exchange across service oriented architectures (SOAs)

• Semagix - Freedom architecture at the core of semantic web based solutions for content & knowledge management, homeland security, and anti-money laundering

• Semaview - semantic web based calendaring (excellent semantic web intro white paper)

• TopQuadrant - offers semantic web based consulting services working off of ' capability cases, ' or best practices for specific issues

• Tucana - semantic web suite of products and services targeted at enterprise information integration

The list can keep on going ... (3)

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• UB Access - Semantic Web Accessibility Platform enables companies to make web content accessible through "non-invasive" technologies

• Unicorn - consulting-based product that creates custom information model and maps existing data to that model

The list can keep on going ... (4)

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• Gartner´s Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle

– assesses the maturity, impact and adoption speed of 36 key technologies and trends during the next ten years

– 2006’s hype cycle highlights three major themes

• Web 2.0

• Real World Web

• Applications Architecture

Where are we heading ... ?

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Understanding the graph ... (1)

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Understanding the graph ... (2)

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2006 ...

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2007...

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2008...

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2009 and beyond ...

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http://challenge.semanticweb.org/

The Semantic Web Challenge

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apply Semantic Web techniques in order to build an online application that integrates,

combines, and deduces information needed to assist users in

performing tasks

What is its objective?

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Data1. Have semantics (meaning) defined using formal methods

2. Be manipulated in such a way that new useful information is derived

3. The information processing must play a central role in the application

Information sources should1. Be derived from different sources

2. Have different ownerships

3. Contain real world data

All applications must assume an open domain

(information is not complete)

What should a good application have?

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– Learn about the WWW, Web 2.0 (patterns, etc), the Semantic Web (cake, etc)

– Learn about knowledge management and the knowledge life cycle

– Take a peak at the future

– Learnt about the various XML Technologies

– Learnt to develop applications using Ruby on Rails

– And learnt loads of examples in the process ...

What did you learn from this course?

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Questions?

Good luck!