[Dev] Semantic Web

[Klaas Naaijkens]

Hi,

Like everybody I am very excited about the Chandler project. I see a
lot of similarity with the Semantic Web activities and I think it would
be interesting to try to integrate some work done by this group, or at
least facilitate a future integration.

WHAT IS THE SEMANTIC WEB

Definition from w3.org : The Semantic Web is the abstract representation
of data on the World Wide Web, based on the RDF standards and other
standards to be defined. It is being developed by the W3C, in
collaboration with a large number of researchers and industrial partners.

Some interesting links for starters:

For some information about the semantic web, the following links can
be useful.

Homepage of the w3c Semantic Web working  group
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

Interesting introductory article on the Semantic Web by Tim Berners-Lee,
James Hendler and Ora Lassila:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?articleID=00048144-10D2-1C70-84A9809EC588EF21&catID=2

The Semantic Web Community Portal
http://www.semanticweb.org

ELEMENTS OF THE SEMANTIC WEB

Key elements of the semantic web are :
. Resource Description Format (RDF) with which statement are formed
. Ontology web language (OWL) with which logic relations can be defined
. Inference engines which can generate new statements to complete the
   available RDF information in the system

IMPLICATIONS FOR CHANDLER

RDF+OWL can be used to define the context of the RDF statements in the
same way XML Schema does, but in a more flexible and logical way. Also
some efforts have been made to adept calender information to RDF and OWL
( http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/07/25/rdfcalendar.html ) which might be
of use for the design of Chandler.

Keeping an eye on these developments in the Chandler design process
has the following benefits:
-Tools developed for the Semantic Web activity can be reused. The RDF
dataset used by the application can be made available to the semantic web
-Integration with the Semanticweb brings us one step closer to the
effective use of agent technology and proof and inference engines.
-A substantial effort has already been made to define data structures
for email and calendar application by the w3c work group
-Synergies/crossover in common technology problems like tripple storage,
P2P sharing, access controls, ...

INTERESTING LINKS

RETSINA SEMANTIC WEB CALENDAR AGENT
http://www.daml.ri.cmu.edu/site/projects/RDFCalendar/

ANNOTEA
Annotea is a LEAD  (Live Early Adoption and Demonstration) project
enhancing the W3C  collaboration environment with shared annotations.
http://www.w3.org/2001/Annotea/

RDF Calendar Notes
http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/discovery/2001/02/calendar/


Klaas Naaijkens