Wikipedia3

Wikipedia³ is a an interesting project running at System One labs which purpose is to convert the English Version of Wikipedia into RDF triples. The reference ontology is a custom one, but modelled after WikiOnt.
Each month, an up-to-date archive of triples gets published under the GNU Free Documentation License. The available formats are RDF/XML, Turtle and N-Triples.

I wonder if someone is currently using these archives for some application...

Technorati tags: rdf, wikipedia.

Presentation about Embedded RDF

This presentation from Ian Davis is about Embedded RDF, a complementary way to Microformats to add metadata within XHTML documents.

Technorati tags: rdf, metadata, semanticweb, tagging, microformats.

Apologize

I did a mess with the previous post by changing its title a couple of times. So, it is seen published more than once on some feeds. Sorry...


Technorati tags: metamodel, rdf, metadata, tagging, syndication, collaboration, search engine, web2.0.

Web 2.0 Metamodel

Despite the warm debate about this, I'm not much interested on whether the Web 2.0 exists or not, if it is just a buzzword or a serious movement. What really matters to me is to catch the few aspects that make the difference as opposite to the old way of conceiving and building the Web. So, in a few words, here's what Web 2.0 means to me:

• Collaboration
• Syndication (or Web feed)
  
• Tagging (to create metadata)
  
• Searching

The Blogosphere and the Wikisphere have developed around the concept of Collaboration. RSS Feeds and the so-called Mashosphere turn around the Syndication concepts. The Semantic "layer" develops on tagging (more than RDF) to annotate data. Finally, search engines (especially the next generation, based on semantic queries) glue all together.

I'm not sure the picture is complete enough to cover all of the aspects of the Web 2.0, but I think it's a starting point to think to a metamodel of the Web 2.0.

More to come...

Technorati tags: metamodel, rdf, metadata, tagging, syndication, collaboration, search engine, web2.0.

Livesearch from AlltheWeb

AlltheWeb (from Yahoo) is featuring LiveSearch, a new search engine interactive front-end. Livesearch analyzes your search in real-time and instantly provides Web results with alternate search queries as you type. These suggested queries are based on what other people have searched for.

Technorati tags: search engine, web2.0.

IBM Acquires Unicorn

IBM is more and more involved in the Semantic Web trail. Today, it has announced the acquisition of Unicorn Solutions, Inc., a worldwide leader in the sector of metadata management. With this move, I think IBM can sharpen its SOA strategy by adding more "data intelligence" to the current capabilities of selection, invocation, management, reuse and governance of services.

Technorati tags: semanticweb, IBM, soa.

Linking physical placemarks to Wikipedia topics

The idea around Semapedia is great, but imperfect. Placing RFID tags onto physical placemark would be probably a better idea.

Technorati tags: semapedia, rfid, wikipedia.

SPARQL and the Web 2.0

SPARQL is a SQL-like language to query RDF stores. Recently, it has become a W3C candidate recommendation. A smart article from Jim Rapoza indicates how this specification can help fill the gap between Web 2.0 and Semantic Web.

Technorati tags: rdf, sparql, web2.0, semanticweb.

JSR #244 aka Java EE 5 approved

On May 1st, the JCP has approved the specification for the Java Enterprise Edition version 5.

Technorati tags: jcp, javaenterprise.

Disambiguating the Web

Disambiguating the Web is a top issue. This article shows a good vision of how this can be done. Here follows an excerpt:

So, are we doomed to turn the web into a babel of languages? and are we doomed to dilute the quality of pure data islands by simply mixing them together?
Luckily, no, not really.
What's missing is the feedback loop: a way for people to inject information back into the system that keeps the system stable. Mixing high quality metadata results in lower quality metadata, but the individual qualities are not lost, are just diluted. There needs to be additional information/energy injected in the system for the quality to return to its previous level (or higher!). This energy can be the one already condensed in the efforts made to create controlled vocabularies and mapping services, or can be distributed on a bunch of people united by common goals/interests and social practices that keep the system stable, trustful and socio-economically feasible.
Both the open source development model and the wikipedia development model are examples of such socio-economically feasible systems, althought they might not scale to the size we need/want for an entire semantic web.
The semantic web has a lot of people working on the technological guts, but very few on the social practices that might make it happen. I suspect this is going to change soon and solutions might come from unexpected places.

Technorati tags: semanticweb.

Using FreeMind to create RDF Schema

One of the many possibilities that MindMapping offers is that of creating RDF Schema. I found an article that explains how this can be done using FreeMind (in my knowledge, the best freeware MindMapping software as to date) and a XSLT.

Technorati tags: rdf, mindmapping, freemind.