mit csail/ibm watson research © 2004 ibm corporation haystack: bringing good metadata to life...

MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research

© 2004 IBM Corporation

Haystack:Bringing Good Metadata to Life

Dennis [email protected]


© 2004 IBM Corporation2 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004

Outline

Exposing the benefits of RDF data integration

Demonstration

Prototyping in the Haystack environment

– Hooking in different RDF sources

– Designing visualizations

– Adenine scripting language

Example: Open Directory browser



Show me the metadata

Common questions regarding Semantic Web applications:

– “Is this stuff practical?”

– “Are you just overloading me with more information?”

– “What can I do with this data today?”

– “What is RDF giving me over databases and XML?”

Asked by developers, not just users and observers

Approach: easy prototyping environment for visualizing connections within and among metadata sources

– The “museum” approach versus the “brochure” approach



The Haystack Semantic Web browser

Allows users to create, explore, and organize RDF information spaces

– Web browser-style navigation of Semantic Web resources

– Metadata can be fetched from a variety of sources

– User-selectable presentation templates (“views”)

– Flexible bookmark management system (“collections”)

– Access to Semantic Web Services

Research project originating from MIT CSAIL

Open Source Java project built on top of Eclipse, IBM’s Open Source rich client platform



Fictitious example: a rock star’s manager

A day in the life of the manager of the famous-physicist-turned-rock-star, Johnny Doe

Some of the backend services and data have been mocked up, but presentation services are real

– Point of demonstration is to show what can be seen through Haystack, which is acting as a front end

Key concepts to watch for:

– Views

– Lenses

– Collections

– Semantic Web Services



View Ontology Web Language (VOWL)

RDF Schema, DAML+OIL, and/or OWL used to describe ontologies to Semantic Web agents

Similarly, VOWL is used to describe presentation knowledge about ontologies to user agents

– Views: different ways of looking at resources

– Lenses: sets of properties that make sense being shown together

– Operations: mini Semantic Web Services with type information that specify what kinds of resources can be used with them

– VOWL definitions, like OWL definitions, are encoded in RDF



Process diagram

Metadata

Presentationrecommendations

Ontologicalspecifications

Applicable servicedescriptions

+Point and

click, hyper-linked UI



Incrementality in the user interface

The more Haystack knows about an ontology, the better job it can do presenting objects to the user

– With no knowledge, Haystack shows a property listing

– With rdfs:label and dc:title attributes, Haystack shows human-readable names

– With rdfs:domain, rdfs:range, daml:UniqueProperty, daml:ObjectProperty, and daml:DatatypeProperty, specialized forms can be produced

– With lenses, Haystack shows filtered property listings in All Information and Explore Relationships views

– With custom views defined, Haystack can show a completely custom presentation

These specifications do not have to all come from the same place; different pieces of presentation knowledge can be fused together



Getting metadata into the system

Metadata can come from:

– File system

– Web servers

– LSID servers

– Jena stores

– Joseki servers

– Annotea servers

– Web Services

In a number of formats:

– RDF/XML

– Notation3

– Adenine

– RSS and other XML formats (via XSLT)



Life Science Identifiers (LSID)

Hyperlinking metaphor and URLs on billboards depends on there being a metadata retrieval mechanism

Life Sciences community coming together around LSID

– urn:lsid:[server name]:[db-specific identifier]

– Retrieval protocol based on SOAP and RDF

– Undergoing standardization by OMG and I3C

– Open Source client/server libraries provided by IBM

– Many public data sources accessible via LSID today—beginnings of a Biological Semantic Web

Not specific to Life Sciences

Support built into Haystack



Adenine

Adenine is Haystack’s RDF scripting language

– Syntactically, a cross between Notation3 and Python

– Both a data definition language (RDF) and an imperative scripting language

– Native support for RDF manipulation

– Access to Java classes and methods

Haystack system built like a Lisp machine

– Everything is accessible from the “Adenine console”

Leveraging the Eclipse platform

– Powerful Adenine text editor with outline and syntax highlighting



Example: an Open Directory browser



Current status of prototype

Open Source, Java/Eclipse-based implementation

Runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X

Easy to hook in new data sources

Stable, but still some usability issues

Provides stable platform for extensions (Eclipse plug-ins)

GuruGrandma Power user

Goal We are here



Packaging

VOWL specifications can be:

– Made available for download from a Web site

– Packaged with instance metadata coming from the server

– Put into an Eclipse plug-in

Distributing your own custom Haystack is easy

– Documentation describes process to create a stripped-down, specialized version of your own Semantic Web browser

– Can integrate custom RDF metadata, ontologies, VOWL specifications, and even Java and Eclipse components



Real life Haystack application: myGrid provenance

Courtesy of Professor Carole Goble, University of Manchester



Key ideas

Demonstrating the value of RDF is easiest when the user can experience the benefits for him or herself

Haystack is an extensible Semantic Web browser:

– Connects to a variety of RDF sources

– Exposes an intuitive, Web browser-like interface

– Incrementally improves experience as more ontological and presentation knowledge is provided

– Built on Eclipse, providing a solid basis for extensions

– Scriptable using Adenine

Haystack addresses important HCI concerns, e.g., personalization and organization, that must be supported in information applications but are often taken for granted



Thank you for your attention

Dennis Quan, [email protected]

Haystack project home page (new download coming May 24)

– http://haystack.lcs.mit.edu/ Documentation!

– http://haystack.lcs.mit.edu/developers/ IBM LSID home page

– http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/oss/lsid/

Eclipse home page

– http://www.eclipse.org/

myGrid home page

– http://www.mygrid.org.uk/

mit csail/ibm watson research © 2004 ibm corporation haystack: bringing good metadata to life...

Documents

good metadata

ibm corporation haystack

mit csailibm watson

haystack semantic web

metadata sources

rdf slide

semantic web agents

semantic web applications