Mindswap

Maryland Information and Network Dynamics Lab Semantic Web Agents Project

Science and the Semantic Web

Called the Semantic Web , this new technology is designed to improve communications between people using differing terminologies, to extend the interoperability of databases, to provide tools for interacting with multimedia collections, and to provide new mechanisms for the support of science. With the involvement of scientists in its design, application, and dissemination, the Semantic Web will be able to provide infrastructural support for a revolution in interdisciplinary "e-science." ... However, to realize this potential, scientists and information technologists must forge new models of cooperation, and new thinking must go into the funding and dissemination of this next generation of scientific tools on the Web.
-- James Hendler, Science and The Semantic Web, Science, Jan 24, 2003.

Summary of the article .

Full text of the article .

Background

This Policy Forum, entitled Science and the Semantic Web, appeared in the January 24th issue of Science. In it I argued that as modern science grows in complexity and scope, their is an increasing need for more collaboration between scientists at different institutions, in different subareas, and across scientific disciplines. The current World Wide Web supports scientific research to a great extent, but as I argue in the article, it is insufficient for the needs of collaboration accross scientific disciplines. On this page, I provide links to an emerging generation of World Wide Web technology, known as the Semantic Web, which offers tremendous potential for collaborative and interdisciplinary science. In addition, I argue that to turn this potential into a reality, scientists and information technologists must forge new models of cooperation and work together more closely.
--- J. Hendler, University of Maryland, Jan 03. .

Links for more information on Policy Forum themes

The links on this page are an attempt to provide some good starting places for understanding this technology and other aspects of information technology's role in the future of science.

Tim Berners-Lee and the Semantic Web

The phrase Semantic Web is attributed to Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web and Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In his book, Weaving the Web, he writes "The first step is putting data on the Web in a form that machines can naturally understand, or converting it to that form. This creates what I call a Semantic Web -- a web of data that can be processed directly or indirectly by machines" (chapter 13). In fact, one of the other themes in my Policy Forum arose from Tim's writing in that same chapter -- he talks about issues having to do with software ownership and free content, which I echoed in the concluding paragraph of my article.

Here are some links to Semantic Web articles and talks by Berners-Lee:

• Ora Lassila and I joined Tim in writing a widely cited article called The Semantic Web which appeared in Scientific American in May, 2002.
• The Japan Prize Commemorative Lecture: The World Wide Web - Past Present and Future
• The Japan Prize Academic Lecture: The Semantic Web (or see a longer version , with very nice graphics, from a lecture at the Sloan School of Management)
• World Wide Web Redux Marconi Foundation Lecture.

Semantic Web Research at the University of Maryland

The University of Maryland's Maryland Information and Network Dynamics (MIND) Laboratory includes the "Semantic Web and Agents Project" (SWAP) -- which hosts the page you are currently visiting, http://www.mindswap.org . The tabs to the left of this text near the top of the page (in most browsers) will take you to pages describing our papers, people, and projects. Those wishing to play with Semantic Web tools can visit the "downloads" area, and try the open source tools described therein.

• A detailed description of web languages for markup is also available.
• More background and pointers on ontologies and web markup can be found on my web ontology introductory links page.
• Slides from my presentations on the Semantic Web can be found at my presentations page.

W3C's Semantic Web Activity

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) supports the Semantic Web Activity which is devoted to bringing the Semantic Web to fruition. The web site for the activity includes links to News and Events, publications about the Semantic Web, and presentations discussing the Semantic Web. In fact, http://www.w3.org/2001/sw is the most widely used Web citation for the phrase "Semantic Web," and is a good place to go for up-to-date information.

The Grid

A major international computing initiative is called the "Grid." A number of recent activities have started to look at bringing together the Grid and the Semntic Web. For more information about the grid see

• The Globus Project web page
• The Global Grid Forum web page
• The section entitled "Recommended articles for those wanting to learn about "Grids" on Ian Foster's home page.

For more information about efforts to explore the integration of the Grid and the Semantic Web, see The Semantic Grid page, sponsored by the UK's E-Science program and the Global Grid Forum, Semantic Grid Research Group (SG-RG) page.

The DARPA Agent Markup Language Program

The US Government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsors the DARPA Agent Markup Language program, which provides a significant amount of support to research efforts in the Semantic Web area. The DAML page includes links to many tools, applications and ontologies which show of the power of Semantic Web technologies.