... and linked
People like Tim Berners-Lee, credited with inventing the world wide web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), have been talking about linked data and the semantic web since 2000. Almost a decade later, are we closer to realising his vision?
The W3C has mapped out a model of the semantic web as an added level on the existing web that links data by creating relationships between concepts. An ontology is a tool that facilitates this process by putting the relationships into a hierarchy using tools and standards like RDF and OWL.
It can be conceptually visualised like this:
Linking Open Data cloud diagram by Chris Bizer
A problem with realising this vision is that data currently exists in silos, particularly raw data. Government bodies, organisations and individuals are creating data all the time, but most of it is boxed up and buried deep in proprietary databases. Also, most of these databases are not linked. What we need is open data, a philosophy where "certain data are freely available to everyone, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control"1.
Another problem is the difficulty of marketing the semantic web to businesses and consumers. Creating ontologies and building these relationships between concepts requires money, time and technical expertise. Readwriteweb argues that proponents of the semantic web need to break the larger vision down into concrete benefits such as:
- "Spend less time searching
- Spend less time looking at things that do not matter
- Spend less time explaining what we want to computers"2
We need to involve the international community in creating the semantic web. An interesting MIT project, 80 million tiny images, aims to create a visual dictionary by having people define images in ways that computers can understand. Organisations are breaking down the data silos with open data, open source and open access. Science Commons is an excellent example of scientists linking data by helping "researchers find, analyze and use data from disparate sources by marking and integrating the information with a common, computer-readable language"3. See more examples of semantic web case studies and use cases: http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/public/UseCases/
The momentum and need for the semantic web continues to accelerate, particularly as the world creates more data and spends more time trying to find the right information. Moxy is ready for the semantic web. We are using ontologies to facilitate knowledge management; helping businesses and organisations use their data to solve problems and make complex decisions. Our knowledge management systems make the adoption of semantic web standards and tools seamless to the end user, and we are excited by our current projects that showcase these technologies. Let us show you how your organisation can get ready for the semantic web.
Sources:
1. "Open Data". Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Data
2. Iskold, Alex. "Top-Down: A New Approach to the Semantic Web". Readwriteweb. September 20, 2007. www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_top-down_semantic_web.php
3. "About Science Commons". Science Commons. http://sciencecommons.org/about/
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