Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham

1. Building Trustworthy Semantic Webs Lecture #10: Semantic Web Applications Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham September 2006

2. Objective of the Unit • This unit will provide an overview of various applications of the semantic web. Applications of trustworthy semantic web are yet to be examined.

3. Outline of the Unit • Summary of semantic web technologies discussed so far • Discussion of applications (Chapter 6) • Horizontal Information Products at Elsevier • Data integration at Audi • Skill finding at Swiss Life • Think Tank Portal at EnterSearch • E-Learning • Web Services • Multimedia Collection at Scotland Yard • Online Procurement at Daimler Chrysler • Device Interoperability at Nokia • Common threads and challenges

4. Semantic web technologies discussed so far • XML, XML Schema • RDF, RDF Schema • Ontology, OWL • Logic, Rules, Inference • Some discussion of security issues for each technology • Policy specification, Securing documents

5. Types of Application • Horizontal Information Products at Elsevier: Integration • Data integration at Audi: Integration • Skill finding at Swiss Life: Search • Think Tank Portal at EnterSearch: Knowledge man agent • E-Learning: Knowledge management • Web Services: Web services (for any of the other applications discussed) • Multimedia Collection at Scotland Yard: Searching • Online Procurement at Daimler Chrysler: E-Business • Device Interoperability at Nokia: Interoperability

6. Horizontal Information Products at Elsevier • Elsevier is publishing company based in Amsterdam • E.g., publisher of Computer Standards and Interface Journal that has papers on all kinds of computer related standards • Currently the journals and books are grouped by topics such as say operating systems, databases, etc. (or at a higher level, Biology, Chemistry, etc.) • Where do we then put the journal Computer Standards and Interfaces? • Need horizontal groupings also

7. Horizontal Information Products at Elsevier • Semantic web technologies are being used by Elsevier • RDF for document representation • RDF for ontologies • Query language based on RDF to query the documents and the ontologies • E.g. Life Science Thesaurus EMTREE • Other publishing companies are following in Elsevier’s direction

8. Data Integration at Audi • Integrate the data in multiple data sources to provide better customer relationship management and other services to improve profits • The databases are disparate and heterogeneous • Many current operations are carried out manually • Expensive and missed opportunities

9. Data Integration at Audi • Ontolotues are being specified to address semantic heterogeneous • E.g., SLR is a type of camera; one applications calls it SLR, another application calls it Olympus-OM-10 • When the latter application encounters the term SLR, it will query the ontology and determine that SLR is a camera • Details are given in Chapter 6

10. Skill Finding at Swiss Life • Swiss Life is an insurance company that developed a system to find all the skills in the company • E.g., John’s skills are on data management, ontology management • Challenging problem as people have multiple skills for different applications • Need the following capabilities • Cross listing of skills • Querying skills • - - - -

11. Skill Finding at Swiss Life • Ontologies are being developed to specify the skills and query languages to query the ontologies • E.g. <owl: Class rdf: ID = “Publishing”> <rdfs: subClassOf rdf: resource = ‘#Skills”/> </owl: Class> <owl: Class rdf: ID = “Skills”> • - - - • </owl: Class>

12. Think Tank Portal at EnterSearch • EnterSearch is a consortium of corporations in Europe that provide IT for the energy companies • Similar to MCC in Austin TX • EnterSerach Portal currently describes the various research projects, papers etc. • XML representation is used for describing the web content • Need to represent semantics so that the corporations can get answers to useful questions of the form • “where do I put my computing resources to solve a problem?”

13. Think Tank Portal at EnterSearch • Semantic web technologies are being utilized – in particular ontoogies are developed for the following • Hardware • Software • Communications • E-Commerce • Agents • Market/Auction • Resource Allocation • - - - -

14. E-Learning • With the Internet and the web, we now have on-line universities, course offerings, tutoring etc. • Students should have the choice for selecting various courses in the order they want, provide they take the prerequisites • Semantic web technologies enable flexible access as well as integration of various data sources and processes to enable learning • Ontologies are being developed for learning applications • E.g., Contents of the courses • Description of the courses etc.

15. Web Services • Web services can be utilized by any of the other applications discussed in this unit (e.g., Elsevier, Audi etc.) • We services are invoked to carry out functions on the web including find locations, search for documents etc. • Simple services and compound services • Three components to the service • Service profile: Description of the service – what it does • Serviced model: how it does it • Service groundings: protocol for invoking the service

16. Web Services • DAML and DAML-S developed by the DARPA community combined with the European community developing OIL focused on ,languages for web services • Semantic of the web services (e.g., reasoning about the services, why certain actions are taken etc.) • DAML+OIL • W3C community started with DAML+OIL for ontology specifications and developed OWL • E.g., <profile: ServiceProvider rdf ID = “Sportsnews”> • - - - - • </profile: ServiceProvider>

17. Multimedia Collection Indexing at Scotland Yard • Scotland Yard uses a database to keep track of the antiques that are stolen • While sophisticated indexing techniques have been developed, there is a problem with semantics • E.g., Red cushioned chair could also be described as Queen Anne chair • Ontologies for describing semantics • Need more details of the project

18. On-line Procurement at Daimler Chrysler • Daimler Chrysler interacts with numerous suppliers to develop a product • Standards developed by Rosetta.Net for E-Business are being used for interoperability • XML syntax, no semantics of the product descriptions are available • Ontologies for describing the various product descriptions including the semantics are the long term goal for seamless integration of the supply chain operation • Need more details of the project

19. Device Interoperability at Nokia • Nokia’s objective is to integrate multiple devices (cell phone, PDA, cars, laptop etc) to provide a pervasive computing environment • Objects is to locate the various services and understand the different devices and their functions • Need to describe the various services • Current technology provides syntactic descriptions • Semantic web technologies, through ontologies enable the understanding the devices and reasons about their functions • Need more details of the project

20. Common Threads and Challenges • Common Threads • Building Ontologies for Semantics • XML for Syntax • Challenges • Scalability, Resolvability • Security policy specification, Securing the documents and ontologies • Developing applications for secure semantic web technologies • Automated tools for ontology management • Creating, maintaining, evolving and querying ontologies