http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/
Kingsley Idehen's Blog Data Space
I have seen the future and it's full of Linked Data! :-)
kidehen@openlinksw.com
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2024-03-29T07:44:05Z
Virtuoso Universal Server 08.03.3327
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Simple Virtuoso Installation & Utilization Guide for SPARQL Users (Update 5)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-16#1647
2011-01-16T07:06:21Z
2011-01-19T10:43:35-05:00
<h3>What is <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1ab60ac0">SPARQL</a>?</h3> <p>A declarative query language from the W3C for querying structured propositional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> (in the form of 3-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuple" id="link-id0x1b1e0010">tuple</a> [triples] or 4-tuple [quads] records) stored in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1cf8af98">deductive database</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1caf5050">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x19d781b8">Linked Data</a> parlance).</p> <p>SPARQL is inherently platform independent. Like <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0x1b879140">SQL</a>, the query language and the backend database engine are distinct. Database clients capture SPARQL queries which are then passed on to compliant backend databases.</p> <h3>Why is it important?</h3> <p>Like SQL for relational databases, it provides a powerful mechanism for accessing and joining data across one or more data partitions (named graphs identified by IRIs). The aforementioned capability also enables the construction of sophisticated Views, Reports (HTML or those produced in native form by desktop productivity tools), and data streams for other services.</p> <p>Unlike SQL, SPARQL includes result serialization formats and an HTTP based wire protocol. Thus, the ubiquity and sophistication of HTTP is integral to SPARQL i.e., client side applications (user agents) only need to be able to perform an HTTP GET against a <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1ba287e8">URL</a> en route to exploiting the power of SPARQL.</p> <h3>How do I use it, generally?</h3> <ol> <li>Locate a SPARQL endpoint (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d7436b0">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id0x1bf20690">LOD Cloud Cache</a>, <a href="http://semantic.data.gov" id="link-id0x1a8ebc28">Data.Gov</a>, <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/sparql" id="link-id0x1be93070">URIBurner</a>, <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_endpoint" id="link-id0x1cce9b40">others</a>), or;</li> <li>Install a SPARQL compliant database server (quad or triple store) on your desktop, workgroup server, data center, or cloud (e.g., <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtuosoEC2AMI" id="link-id0x1cd697a0">Amazon EC2 AMI</a>)</li> <li>Start the database server</li> <li>Execute SPARQL Queries via the <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id0x1b99d790">SPARQL endpoint.</a> </li> </ol> <h3>How do I use SPARQL with <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1c9adc80">Virtuoso</a>?</h3> <p>What follows is a very simple guide for using SPARQL against your own instance of Virtuoso:</p> <ol> <li>Software Download and Installation</li> <li>Data Loading from Data Sources exposed at Network Addresses (e.g. HTTP URLs) using very simple methods</li> <li>Actual SPARQL query execution via SPARQL endpoint.</li> </ol> <h3>Installation Steps</h3> <ol> <li> Download <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSDownload" id="link-id0x1b795100">Virtuoso Open Source</a> or <a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/virtwiz/virtuoso.php" id="link-id0x1cce46f0">Virtuoso Commercial</a> Editions </li> <li> Run installer (if using Commercial edition of Windows Open Source Edition, otherwise follow build guide) </li> <li> Follow post-installation guide and verify installation by typing in the command: virtuoso -? (if this fails check you've followed installation and setup steps, then verify environment variables have been set) </li> <li> Start the Virtuoso server using the command: virtuoso-start.sh </li> <li> Verify you have a connection to the Virtuoso Server via the command: isql localhost (assuming you're using default DB settings) or the command: isql localhost:1112 (assuming demo database) or goto your browser and type in: http://<virtuoso-server-host-name>:[port]/conductor (e.g. http://localhost:8889/conductor for default DB or http://localhost:8890/conductor if using Demo DB) </li> <li> Go to SPARQL endpoint which is typically -- http://<virtuoso-server-host-name>:[port]/sparql </li> <li> Run a quick sample query (since the database always has system data in place): select distinct * where {?s ?p ?o} limit 50 .</li> </ol> <h3>Troubleshooting</h3> <ol> <li>Ensure environment settings are set and functional -- if using Mac OS X or Windows, so you don't have to worry about this, just start and stop your Virtuoso server using native OS services applets</li> <li>If using the Open Source Edition, follow the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSMake#Getting%20Started" id="link-id0x1bfa7548">getting started guide</a> -- it covers PATH and startup directory location re. starting and stopping Virtuoso servers.</li> <li>Sponging (HTTP GETs against external Data Sources) within SPARQL queries is disabled by default. You can enable this feature by assigning "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1d566270">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL". Note, more sophisticated security exists via <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAuthPolicyFOAFSSL" id="link-id0x1a3c9eb8">WebID based ACLs</a>. </li> </ol> <h3>Data Loading Steps</h3> <ol> <li> Identify an RDF based structured data source of interest -- a file that contains 3-tuple / triples available at an address on a public or private HTTP based network </li> <li>Determine the Address (URL) of the RDF data source</li> <li>Go to your Virtuoso SPARQL endpoint and type in the following SPARQL query: DEFINE GET:SOFT "replace" SELECT DISTINCT * FROM <RDFDataSourceURL> WHERE {?s ?p ?o} </li> <li> All the triples in the RDF resource (data source accessed via URL) will be loaded into the Virtuoso Quad Store (using RDF Data Source URL as the internal quad store Named Graph IRI) as part of the SPARQL query processing pipeline. </li> </ol> <p> Note: the data source URL doesn't even have to be RDF based -- which is where the Virtuoso <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id0x1d1a0978">Sponger</a> Middleware comes into play (download and install the <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/opldownload/uda/vad-packages/6.1/virtuoso/rdf_mappers_dav.vad" id="link-id0x1d0e1530">VAD installer package</a> first) since it delivers the following features to Virtuoso's SPARQL engine: </p> <ol> <li> Transformation of data from non RDF data sources (file content, hypermedia resources, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">web</a> services output etc..) into RDF based 3-tuples (triples)</li> <li> Cache Invalidation Scheme Construction -- thus, subsequent queries (without the define get:soft "replace" pragma will not be required bar when you forcefully want to override cache).</li> <li> If you have very large data sources like DBpedia etc. from CKAN, simply use our <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtBulkRDFLoader" id="link-id0x1d19b4b0">bulk loader</a> . </li> </ol> <h3>SPARQL Endpoint Discovery</h3> <p>Public SPARQL endpoints are emerging at an ever increasing rate. Thus, we've setup up a DNS lookup service that provides access to a large number of SPARQL endpoints. Of course, this doesn't cover all existing endpoints, so if our endpoint is missing please ping <a class="auto-href" href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0x1d634848">me</a>.</p> <p>Here are a collection of commands for using DNS-SD to discover SPARQL endpoints:</p> <ol> <li>dns-sd -B _sparql._tcp sparql.openlinksw.com -- browse for services instances</li> <li>dns-sd -Z _sparql._tcp sparql.openlinksw.com -- output results in Zone File format</li> <li></li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.ensta.fr/~diam/ruby/online/ruby-doc-stdlib/libdoc/net/http/rdoc/index.html" id="link-id0x1b156610">Using HTTP from Ruby</a> -- you can just make <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSSparqlProtocol" id="link-id0x1d024d60">SPARQL Protocol URLs</a> re. SPARQL</li> <li> <a href="http://sparql.rubyforge.org/client/" id="link-id0x1cd43a48">Using SPARQL Endpoints via Ruby</a> -- Ruby example using DBpedia endpoint</li> <li> <a href="http://wikis.openlinksw.com/dataspace/owiki/wiki/OATWikiWeb/InteractiveSparqlQueryBuilder" id="link-id0x1b9d2190">Interactive SPARQL Query By Example (QBE) tool</a> -- provides a graphical user interface (as is common in SQL realm re. query building against <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id0x1bfffb70">RDBMS</a> engines) that works with any SPARQL endpoint </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRDFInsert" id="link-id0x1ab63de0">Other methods of loading RDF data into Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSponger" id="link-id0x1ca248e0">Virtuoso Sponger</a> -- architecture and how it turns a wide variety of non RDF data sources into SPARQL accessible data </li> <li> <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/example.html" id="link-id0x1be34758">Using OpenLink Data Explorer</a> (ODE) to populate Virtuoso -- locate a resource of interest; click on a bookmarklet or use <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id0x1ca84af0">context</a> menus (if using ODE extensions for Firefox, Safari, or Chrome); and you'll have SPARQL accessible data automatically inserted into your Virtuoso instance. </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1295" id="link-id0x1c9060f0">W3C's SPARQLing Data Access Ingenuity</a> -- an older generic SPARQL introduction post </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSPARQLRef" id="link-id0x1cf1e298">Collection of SPARQL Query Examples </a>-- GoodRelations (Product Offers), <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id0x1c0445d0">FOAF</a> (Profiles), <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id0x1b785e48">SIOC</a> (Data Spaces -- <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleBlog" id="link-id0x1b6c9f78">Blogs</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleWiki" id="link-id0x1c188280">Wikis</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleBookmarks" id="link-id0x1a9a8f98">Bookmarks</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleFeeds" id="link-id0x1720c658">Feed Collections</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleGallery" id="link-id0x1cdba348">Photo Galleries</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleBriefcase" id="link-id0x1c8f1148">Briefcase/DropBox</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleAddressbook" id="link-id0x1b5eb7e0">AddressBook</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleCalendar" id="link-id0x1c575120">Calendars</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleDiscussions" id="link-id0x1c73be98">Discussion Forums</a>) </li> <li> <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/demo_queries/" id="link-id0x1b08aa00">Collection of Live SPARQL Queries against LOD Cloud Cache</a> -- simple and advanced queries. </li> </ol>
Virtuoso Linked Data Deployment In 3 Simple Steps
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-10-29#1642
2010-10-29T22:54:32Z
2010-11-02T11:55:31.000005-04:00
<p>Injecting <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x17012e18">Linked Data</a> into the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> has been a major pain point for those who seek personal, service, or organization-specific variants of <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0x196518a8">DBpedia</a>. Basically, the sequence goes something like this: </p> <ol> <li> You encounter DBpedia or the <a class="auto-href" href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id0x1b26d008">LOD</a> Cloud Pictorial.</li> <li> You look around (typically following your nose from link to link). </li> <li> You attempt to publish your own stuff. </li> <li> You get stuck. </li> </ol> <p>The problems typically take the following form:</p> <ol> <li> Functionality confusion about the complementary Name and Address functionality of a single <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0xa108a00">URI</a> abstraction </li> <li> Terminology confusion due to conflation and over-loading of terms such as Resource, <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1b3d08f8">URL</a>, Representation, Document, etc. </li> <li> Inability to find robust tools with which to generate Linked Data from existing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> sources such as relational databases, CSV files, XML, Web Services, etc. </li> </ol> <p>To start addressing these problems, here is a simple guide for generating and publishing Linked Data using <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1a7841e0">Virtuoso</a>.</p> <h3>Step 1 - RDF Data Generation</h3> <p>Existing RDF data can be added to the Virtuoso RDF Quad Store via a variety of built-in data loader utilities.</p> <p>Many options allow you to easily and quickly generate RDF data from other data sources:</p> <ul> <li> Install the Sponger Bookmarklet for the <a href="http://uriburner.com" id="link-id0x1aa50800">URIBurner service</a>. Bind this to your own <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1a4255e0">SPARQL</a>-compliant backend RDF database (in this scenario, your local Virtuoso instance), and then Sponge some HTTP-accessible resources. </li> <li> Convert relational DBMS data to RDF using the Virtuoso RDF Views Wizard. </li> <li> Starting with CSV files, you can <ul> <li>Place them at an HTTP-accessible location, and use the Virtuoso <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id0x16f7ba58">Sponger</a> to convert them to RDF or; </li> <li> Use the CVS import feature to import their content into Virtuoso's relational data engine; then use the built-in RDF Views Wizard as with other <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id0x1982ea80">RDBMS</a> data. </li> </ul> </li> <li> Starting from XML files, you can <ul> <li> Use Virtuoso's inbuilt XSLT-Processor for manual XML to RDF/XML transformation or;</li> <li>Leverage the Sponger Cartridge for <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GRDDL" id="link-id0x1b350968">GRDDL</a>, if there is a transformation service associated with your XML data source, or;</li> <li>Let the Sponger analyze the XML data source and make a best-effort transformation to RDF.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h3>Step 2 - Linked Data Deployment</h3> <p> Install the <a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/packages/6.2/virtuoso/fct_dav.vad" id="link-id0x19845ad0">Faceted Browser VAD package (<code>fct_dav.vad</code>)</a> which delivers the following:</p> <ol> <li> Faceted Browser Engine UI</li> <li> Dynamic Hypermedia Resource Generator <ul> <li>delivers descriptor resources for every <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x1b3a69f0">entity</a> (data object) in the Native or Virtual Quad Stores</li> <li>supports a broad array of output formats, including HTML+<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id0x1a92d2f8">RDFa</a>, RDF/XML, N3/Turtle, NTriples, RDF-JSON, OData+Atom, and OData+JSON. </li> </ul> </li> </ol> <h3>Step 3 - Linked Data Consumption & Exploitation</h3> <p> Three simple steps allow you, your enterprise, and your customers to consume and exploit your newly deployed Linked Data -- </p> <ol> <li> Load a page like this in your browser: <code>http://<cname>[:<port>]/describe/?uri=<entity-uri></code> <ul> <li> <code><cname>[:<port>]</code> gets replaced by the host and port of your Virtuoso instance</li> <li> <code><entity-uri></code> gets replaced by the URI you want to see described -- for instance, the URI of one of the resources you let the Sponger handle. </li> </ul> </li> <li> Follow the links presented in the descriptor page. </li> <li>If you ever see a blank page with a hyperlink subject name in the About: section at the top of the page, simply add the parameter "&sp=1" to the URL in the browser's Address box, and hit [ENTER]. This will result in an "on the fly" resource retrieval, transformation, and descriptor page generation.</li> <li> Use the navigator controls to page up and down the data associated with the "in scope" resource descriptor. </li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/describe/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flinkeddata.uriburner.com%2Fabout%2Fid%2Fentity%2Fhttp%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fo%2FASIN%2F006251587X" id="link-id0x1a8aeaf8">Sample Descriptor Page</a> (what you see post completion of the steps in this post) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1639" id="link-id0x1af66f38">What is Linked Data, really?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1613" id="link-id0x1acdbc58">Painless Linked Data Generation via URIBurner</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRDFInsert" id="link-id0x1abe3b18">How To Load RDF Data Into Virtuoso</a> (various methods)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtBulkRDFLoader" id="link-id0x1a441ff0">Virtuoso Bulk Loader Script for RDF</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtCsvFileBulkLoader" id="link-id0x190382e8">Bulk Loader Script for CSV</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRdb2RDFViewsGeneration#OneClickLinkedDataGenerationAndDemployment" id="link-id0x1ac9c9c0">Wizard based generation of RDF based Linked Data from ODBC accessible Relational Databases </a> </li> </ul>
Data 3.0 (a Manifesto for Platform Agnostic Structured Data) Update 5
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-04-16#1624
2010-04-16T21:09:05Z
2010-05-25T17:10:28.000001-04:00
<p>After a long period of trying to demystify and unravel the wonders of standards compliant structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access, combined with protocols (e.g., HTTP) that separate: </p> <ol> <li>Identity,</li> <li>Access,</li> <li>Storage,</li> <li>Representation, and</li> <li>Presentation.</li> </ol> <p>I ended up with what I can best describe as the Data 3.0 Manifesto. A manifesto for standards complaint access to structured data object (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x1a0bc238">entity</a>) descriptors.</p> <h3>Some Related Work</h3> <p> <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/alexj/" id="link-id0x1a3c5b70">Alex James</a> (Program Manager <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/efdesign/" id="link-id0x1a3c5bd8">Entity Frameworks</a> at Microsoft), put together something quite similar to this via his Base4 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0x13c374c8">blog</a> (around the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 2.0 bootstrap time), sadly -- quoting Alex -- that post has gone where discontinued blogs and their host platforms go (deep deep irony here). </p> <p>It's also important to note that this manifesto is also a variant of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id0x1a29f338">TimBL</a>'s <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id0x1a4e8580">Linked Data Design Issues</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme" id="link-id0x199efc30">meme</a> re. Linked Data, but totally decoupled from RDF (data representation formats aspect) and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x199efc58">SPARQL</a> which -- in my world view -- remain implementation details.</p> <h3>Data 3.0 manifesto</h3> <ul> <li>An "Entity" is the "Referent" of an "Identifier."</li> <li>An "Identifier" SHOULD provide a global, unambiguous, and unchanging (though it MAY be opaque!) "Name" for its "Referent".</li> <li>A "Referent" MAY have many "Identifiers" (Names), but each "Identifier" MUST have only one "Referent".</li> <li>Structured Entity Descriptions SHOULD be based on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id0x1a2a15c0">Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) Data Model</a>, and SHOULD therefore take the form of one or more 3-tuples (triples), each comprised of: <ul> <li>an "Identifier" that names an "Entity" (i.e., Entity Name),</li> <li>an "Identifier" that names an "Attribute" (i.e., Attribute Name), and</li> <li>an "Attribute Value", which may be an "Identifier" or a "Literal".</li> </ul> </li> <li>Structured Descriptions SHOULD be CARRIED by "Descriptor Documents" (i.e., purpose specific documents where Entity Identifiers, Attribute Identifiers, and Attribute Values are clearly discernible by the document's intended consumers, e.g., humans or machines).</li> <li>Structured Descriptor Documents can contain (carry) several Structured Entity Descriptions</li> <li>Stuctured Descriptor Documents SHOULD be network accessible via network addresses (e.g., HTTP URLs when dealing with HTTP-based Networks).</li> <li>An Identifier SHOULD resolve (de-reference) to a Structured Representation of the Referent's Structured Description.</li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://twitpic.com/1g02q8/full" id="link-id0x1a3d1428">Referent, Identifier, and Descriptor/Sense (The Data Perception Trinity)</a> illustration</li> <li> <a href="http://twitpic.com/1g03vo/full" id="link-id0x1a353a20">Referent, Identifier, and Descriptor/Sense Trinity</a> (as exploited in <a href="http://esw.w3.org/Foaf%2Bssl" id="link-id0x135ed828">FOAF+SSL</a> based Secure WebIDs) illustration</li> <li> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/kidehen/understanding-linked-data-via-eav-model-based-structured-descriptions" id="link-id0x1961ae30">Demystifying Linked Data via EAV Model based Structured Descriptions</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1388" id="link-id0x1a28db38">What do people have against URIs and URLs?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1a4cedc8">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1543" id="link-id0x19ac04c8">Simple Explanation of RDF and Linked Data Dynamics</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1547" id="link-id0x13c24748">Linked Data and Identity</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/Foaf%2Bssl/FAQ" id="link-id0x199ef720">FOAF+SSL FAQ</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/2010Apr/0278.html" id="link-id0x1a361640">LOD Community Thread</a> (showing evolution of this manifesto based on feedback from members such as <a href="http://richard.cyganiak.de/foaf.rdf#cygri" id="link-id0x1a361668">Richard Cyganiak</a>).</li> <li> <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/base/starting-out.html#terms" id="link-id0x18e0b578">Googlebase Data API Docs</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/docs/2.0/basics.html" id="link-id0x199c77b0">Google Data Protocol</a> (GData)</li> <li> <a href="http://odata.org" id="link-id0x19d1e578">Microsoft's OData Protocol</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pmWojisM_E" id="link-id0x1a40a998">Magic of De-referencable Names and actual Data via Binky Video</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jyri/building-sites-around-social-objects-web-20-expo-sf-2009" id="link-id0x19ad7e70">Social Objects Presentation</a> (aka. Social Linked Data Objects) - by <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jyri" id="link-id0x19e71700">Jyri Engeström</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_%28computer_science%29" id="link-id0x199c6178">What's a Reference?</a> </li> </ul>
Revisiting HTTP based Linked Data (Update 1 - Demo Video Links Added)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-03-04#1611
2010-03-04T15:16:14Z
2010-03-08T09:59:37.000010-05:00
<p>Motivation for this post arose from a series of Twitter exchanges between <a href="http://ouseful.wordpress.com/about/#this" id="link-id115699ae8">Tony Hirst</a> and I, in relation to his <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id11a0cbc08">blog</a> post titled: <a href="http://ouseful.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/so-what-is-it-about-linked-data-that-makes-it-linked-data%e2%84%a2/" id="link-id1158f8ce8">So What Is It About Linked Data that Makes it Linked Data⢠?</a> </p> <p>At the end of the marathon session, it was clear to <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id11557da58">me</a> that a blog post was required for future reference, at the very least :-)</p> <h3>What is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11a7ee3a8">Linked Data</a>?</h3> <p>"<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id11a682338">Data Access by Reference</a>" mechanism for Data Objects (or Entities) on HTTP networks. It enables you to Identify a Data Object and Access its structured Data Representation via a single Generic HTTP scheme based Identifier (HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id125037288">URI</a>). Data Object representation formats may vary; but in all cases, they are <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypermedia" id="link-id115548f78">hypermedia</a> oriented, fully structured, and negotiable within the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id11c955888">context</a> of a client-server message exchange.</p> <h3>Why is it Important?</h3> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id125154778">Information</a> makes the world tick!</p> <p>Information doesn't exist without data to contextualize.</p> <p>Information is inaccessible without a projection (presentation) medium. </p> <p>All information (without exception, when produced by humans) is subjective. Thus, to truly maximize the innate heterogeneity of collective human intelligence, loose coupling of our information and associated data sources is imperative.</p> <h3>How is Linked Data Delivered?</h3> <p>Linked Data is exposed to HTTP networks (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id125321238">World Wide Web</a>) via hypermedia resources bearing structured representations of data object descriptions. Remember, you have a single Identifier abstraction (generic HTTP URI) that embodies: Data Object Name and Data Representation Location (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id1249a7a88">URL</a>).</p> <h3>How are Linked Data Object Representations Structured?</h3> <p>A structured representation of data exists when an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1250630d8">Entity</a> (Datum), its Attributes, and its Attribute Values are clearly discernible. In the case of a Linked Data Object, structured descriptions take the form of a hypermedia based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id126ed7608">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value (EAV) graph pictorial -- where each Entity, its Attributes, and its Attribute Values (optionally) are identified using Generic HTTP URIs. </p> <p>Examples of structured data representation formats (content types) associated with Linked Data Objects include:</p> <ul> <li>text/html</li> <li>text/turtle</li> <li>text/n3</li> <li>application/json</li> <li>application/rdf+xml</li> <li>Others </li> </ul> <h3>How Do I Create Linked Data oriented Hypermedia Resources?</h3> <p>You markup resources by expressing distinct entity-attribute-value statements (basically these a 3-tuple records) using a variety of notations:</p> <ul> <li>(X)HTML+<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id1252975b8">RDFa</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://n2.talis.com/wiki/RDF_JSON_Specification" id="link-id115015458">JSON</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www.dajobe.org/2004/01/turtle/" id="link-id116458478">Turtle</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Notation3" id="link-id11a62f9f8">N3</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://swdev.nokia.com/trix/trix.html" id="link-id11a8f56b8">TriX</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/TriG/" id="link-id117156978">TriG</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/" id="link-id126f52a58">RDF/XML</a>, and</li> <li>Others (for instance you can use Atom data format extensions to model EAV graph as per OData initiative from Microsoft).</li> </ul> <p>You can achieve this task using any of the following approaches:</p> <ul> <li>Notepad</li> <li>WYSIWYG Editor </li> <li>Transformation of Database Records via Middleware</li> <li>Transformation of XML based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services output via Middleware</li> <li>Transformation of other Hypermedia Resources via Middleware</li> <li>Transformation of non Hypermedia Resources via Middleware</li> <li>Use a platform that delivers all of the above.</li> </ul> <h3>Practical Examples of Linked Data Objects Enable</h3> <ul> <li>Describe Who You Are, What You Offer, and What You Need via your structured profile, then leave your HTTP network to perform the REST (serendipitous discovery of relevant things)</li> <li>Identify (via map overlay) all items of interest based on a 2km+ radious of my current location (this could include vendor offerings or services sought by existing or future customers)</li> <li>Share the latest and greatest family photos with family members *only* without forcing them to signup for Yet Another Web 2.0 service or Social Network</li> <li>No repetitive signup and username and password based login sequences per Web 2.0 or Mobile Application combo</li> <li>Going beyond imprecise Keyword Search to the new frontier of Precision Find - Example, Find Data Objects associated with the keywords: Tiger, while enabling the seeker disambiguate across the "Who", "What", "Where", "When" dimensions (with negation capability)</li> <li>Determine how two Data Objects are Connected - person to person, person to subject matter etc. (LinkedIn outside the walled garden)</li> <li>Use any resource address (e.g <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id124fd8118">blog</a> or bookmark URL) as the conduit into a Data Object mesh that exposes all associated Entities and their social network relationships</li> <li>Apply patterns (social dimensions) above to traditional enterprise data sources in combination (optionally) with external data without compromising security etc.</li> </ul> <h3>How Do <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id124fd0d98">OpenLink Software</a> Products Enable Linked Data Exploitation?</h3> <p>Our data access middleware heritage (which spans 16+ years) has enabled us to assemble a rich portfolio of coherently integrated products that enable cost-effective evaluation and utilization of Linked Data, without writing a single line of code, or exposing you to the hidden, but extensive admin and configuration costs. Post installation, the benefits of Linked Data simply materialize (along the lines described above).</p> <p>Our main Linked Data oriented products include:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id125058d68">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> -- visualizes Linked Data or Linked Data transformed "on the fly" from hypermedia and non hypermedia data sources </li> <li> <a href="http://uriburner.com" id="link-id1251db6a8">URIBurner</a> -- a "deceptively simple" solution that enables the generation of Linked Data "on the fly" from a broad collection of data sources and resource types</li> <li> <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/wiki/ODS/" id="link-id1252caae8">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> -- a platform for enterprises and individuals that enhances distributed collaboration via Linked Data driven virtualization of data across its native and/or 3rd party content manager for: Blogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmarks, Discussion Forums, Social Networks etc</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/overview/index.htm" id="link-id124809b58">OpenLink Virtuoso</a> -- a secure and high-performance native hybrid data server (Relational, RDF-Graph, Document models) that includes in-built Linked Data transformation middleware (aka. Sponger). </li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt" id="link-id125306d78">Hypertext Transfer Protocol 1.1 RFC</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.odata.org/docs/%5BMC-APDSU%5D.htm#_Toc246716495" id="link-id11c948e98">Open Data Protocol Glossary</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1543" id="link-id126fae278">Simple Explanation of RDF and Linked Data Dynamics</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=linked%20data%0D%0A&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1252e0018">Collection of post from the past about Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1584" id="link-id124fefea8">Are We There Yet Re. Web++?</a> -- includes link to <a href="http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4233.html" id="link-id125188078">podcast conversation with Jon Udell</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_flake_is_pivot_a_turning_point_for_web_exploration.html" id="link-id11a501c28">Web of Linked Data Pivoting Demo from TED</a> -- by Microsoft's Gary Flake </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G29DBIEcIuQ" id="link-id1204fff18">Microsoft Pivot atop Virtuoso Quad Store's Faceted Browser Engine</a>-- My Demonstration of EAV model transcending data representation variations (i.e., RDF's EAV data model data served up in Microsoft CXML data representation format). </li> </ul>
Linked Data & Socially Enhanced Collaboration (Enterprise or Individual) -- Update 1
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-03-02#1610
2010-03-02T20:47:54Z
2010-03-03T19:50:37-05:00
<p>Socially enhanced enterprise and invididual collaboration is becoming a focal point for a variety of solutions that offer erswhile distinct content managment features across the realms of Blogging, Wikis, Shared Bookmarks, Discussion Forums etc.. as part of an integrated platform suite. Recently, <a href="http://www.socialtext.com/" id="link-id112be850">Socialtext</a> has caught my attention courtesy of its nice <a href="http://www.socialtext.com/products/socialnetworking.php" id="link-id145d9850">features and benefits page</a> . In addition, I've also found the <a href="http://mike2.openmethodology.org/" id="link-id14103cc8">Mike 2.0 portal</a> immensely interesting and valuable, for those with an enterprise collaboration bent.</p> <p>Anyway, Socialtext and Mike 2.0 (they aren't identical and juxtaposition isn't seeking to imply this) provide nice demonstrations of socially enhanced collaboration for individuals and/or enterprises is all about:</p> <ol> <li>Identifying Yourself</li> <li>Identifying Others (key contributors, peers, collaborators)</li> <li>Serendipitous Discovery of key contributors, peers, and collaborators</li> <li>Serendipitous Discovery by key contributors, peers, and collaborators</li> <li>Develop and sustain relationships via socially enhanced professional network hybrid</li> <li>Utilize your new "trusted network" (which you've personally indexed) when seeking help or propagating a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme" id="link-id13ad00d0">meme</a>.</li> </ol> <p>As is typically the case in this emerging realm, the critical issue of discrete "identifiers" (record keys in sense) for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> items, data containers, and data creators (individuals and groups) is overlooked albeit unintentionally. </p> <h3>How HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id112e1ba8">Linked Data</a> Addresses the Identifier Issue</h3> <p>Rather than using platform constrained identifiers such as: </p> <ul> <li>email address (a "mailto" scheme identifier), </li> <li>a dbms user account, </li> <li>application specific account, or</li> <li>OpenID.</li> </ul> <p>It enables you to leverage the platform independence of HTTP scheme Identifiers (Generic URIs) such that Identifiers for: </p> <ol> <li>You, </li> <li>Your Peers, </li> <li>Your Groups, and </li> <li>Your Activity Generated Data, </li> </ol> <p>simply become conduits into a mesh of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/images/My_Data_Spaces.png" id="link-id13fe1168">HTTP -- referencable and accessible -- Linked Data Objects</a> endowed with High SDQ (Serendipitious Discovery Quotient). For example my <a href="http://kingsley.idehen.name/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id13bdcc80">Personal WebID </a>is all anyone needs to know if they want to explore:</p> <ol> <li>My Profile (which includes references to data objects associated with my interests, social-network, calendar, bookmarks etc.)</li> <li>Data generated by my activities across various data spaces (via data objects associated with my online accounts e.g. <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/kidehen?count=15" id="link-id141cce38">Del.icio.us</a>, <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/twitter.com/kidehen" id="link-id11802ce8">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/www.last.fm/user/kidehen" id="link-id118bf470">Last.FM</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://uriburner.com/fct/rdfdesc/usage.vsp?g=http%3A%2F%2Fkingsley.idehen.name%2Fdataspace%2Fperson%2Fkidehen%23this&tp=4" id="link-id13c0f528">Linked Data Meshups via URIBurner</a> (or any other <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id11334f00">Virtuoso</a> instance) that provide an extend view of my profile</li> </ol> <h3>How <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id14324eb0">FOAF</a>+SSL adds Socially aware Security </h3> <p>Even when you reach a point of equilibrium where: your daily activities trigger orchestratestration of CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations against Linked Data Objects within your socially enhanced collaboration network, you still have to deal with the thorny issues of security, that includes the following: </p> <ol> <li>Single Sign On, </li> <li>Authentication, and </li> <li>Data Access Policies.</li> </ol> <p>FOAF+SSL, an application of HTTP based Linked Data, enables you to enhance your Personal HTTP scheme based Identifer (or WebID) via the following steps (peformed by a FOAF+SSL compliant platform):</p> <ol> <li>Imprint WebID within a self-signed x.509 based public key (certificate) associated with your private key (generated by FOAF+SSL platform or manually via OpenSSL)</li> <li>Store public key components (modulous and exponent) into your FOAF based profile document which references your Personal HTTP Identifier as its primary topic</li> <li>Leverage HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id141f8b30">URL</a> component of WebID for making public key components (modulous and exponent) available for x.509 certificate based authentication challenges posed by systems secured by FOAF+SSL (directly) or OpenID (indirectly via FOAF+SSL to OpenID proxy services).</li> </ol> <p>Contrary to conventional experiences with all things PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) related, FOAF+SSL compliant platforms typically handle the PKI issues as part of the protocol implementation; thereby protecting you from any administrative tedium without compromising security.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>Understanding how new technology innovations address long standing problems, or understanding how new solutions inadvertently fail to address old problems, provides time tested mechanisms for product selection and value proposition comprehension that ultimately save scarce resources such as time and money. </p> <p>If you want to understand real world problem solution #1 with regards to HTTP based Linked Data look no further than the issues of secure, socially aware, and platform independent identifiers for data objects, that build bridges across erstwhile data silos.</p> <p>If you want to cost-effectively experience what I've outlined in this post, take a look at <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/wiki/ODS/" id="link-id13c21220">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (<a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/wiki/ODS/" id="link-id1422cdd8">ODS</a>) which is a distributed collaboration engine (enterprise of individual) built around the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14211c98">Virtuoso</a> database engines. It simply enhances existing collaboration tools via the following capabilities:</p> <p>Addition of Social Dimensions via HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_(object-oriented_programming)" id="link-id116ecd88">Data Object Identifiers</a> for all Data Items (if missing)</p> <ol> <li>Ability to integrate across a myriad of Data Source Types rather than a select few across RDBM Engines, LDAP, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services, and various HTTP accessible Resources (Hypermedia or Non Hypermedia content types)</li> <li>Addition of FOAF+SSL based authentication</li> <li>Addition of FOAF+SSL based Access Control Lists (ACLs) for policy based data access.</li> </ol> <h3>Related:</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id117b2610">Get Yourself A WebID in 5 Minutes or Less</a> via OpenLink Data Spaces (an application layer built atop Virtuoso)</li> <li> <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSBriefcaseFOAFSSL" id="link-id140311a0">How To Share Resources Securely Using FOAF+SSL</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRbdeNMPCug" id="link-id11ad5448">FOAF+SSL & WebID Demonstration</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/kidehen/linked-data-spaces-data-portability-access" id="link-id141f43a8">OpenLink Data Spaces & Data Portability</a>.</li> </ul>
OpenLink Virtuoso - Product Value Proposition Overiew
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-02-26#1609
2010-02-26T19:12:32Z
2010-02-27T12:46:36-05:00
<h2>Situation Analysis</h2> <p>Since the beginning of the modern IT era, each period of innovation has inadvertently introduced its fair share of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Silos. The driving force behind this anomaly remains an overemphasis on the role of applications when selecting problem solutions. Unfortunately, most solution selecting decision makers remain oblivious to the fact that most applications are architecturally monolithic; i.e., they fail to separate the following five layers that are critical to all solutions: </p> <ol> <li>Data Unit (Datum or Data Object) Identity,</li> <li>Data Storage/Persistence,</li> <li>Data Access,</li> <li>Data Representation, and</li> <li>Data Presentation/Visualization. </li> </ol> <p>The rise of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id13fe21b0">Internet</a>, and its exponentially-growing user-friendly enclave known as the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id1233c608">World Wide Web</a>, is bringing the intrinsic costs of the monolithic application architecture anomaly to bear -- in manners unanticipated by many. For example, the emergence of network-oriented solutions across the realms of Enterprise 2.0-based Collaboration and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 2.0-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), combined with the overarching influence of Social Media, are producing more heterogeneously-structured and disparately-located data sources than people can effectively process.</p> <p>As is often the case, a variety of problem and product monikers have emerged for the data access and integration challenges outlined above. Contemporary examples include Enterprise <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13f7e458">Information</a> Integration, Master Data Management, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id13f57da0">Data Virtualization</a>. Labeling aside, the fundamental issues of the unresolved Data Integration challenge boil down to the following:</p> <ul> <li>Data Model Heterogeneity</li> <li>Data Quality (Cleanliness)</li> <li>Semantic Variance across Contexts (e.g., weights and measures).</li> </ul> <p>Effectively solving today's data integration challenges requires a move away from monolithic application architecture to loosely-coupled, network-centric application architectures. Basically, we need a ubiquitous network-centric application protocol that lends itself to loosely-coupled across-the-wire orchestration of data interactions. In short, this will be what revitalizes the art of application development and deployment.</p> <p>The World Wide Web is built around a network application protocol called HTTP. This protocol intrinsically separates the five layers listed earlier, thereby enabling:</p> <ul> <li>Use of Generic HTTP URIs as Data Object (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id113b7318">Entity</a>) Identifiers;</li> <li>Identifier Co-reference, such that multiple <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_(object-oriented_programming)" id="link-id117151d8">Data Object Identifiers</a> may reference the same Data Object;</li> <li>Use of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id13fa4fa0">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value Model to describe Data Objects using real world modeling friendly conceptual graphs;</li> <li>Use of HTTP URLs to Identify Locations of Resources that bear (host) Data Object Descriptions (Representations);</li> <li>Data Access mechanism for retrieving Data Object Representations from persistent or transient storage locations.</li> </ul> <h2>What is <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id116af950">Virtuoso</a>?</h2> <p>A uniquely designed to address today's escalating Data Access and Integration challenges without compromising performance, security, or platform independence. At its core lies an unrivaled commitment to industry standards combined with unique technology innovation that transcends erstwhile distinct realms such as: </p> <ul> <li>Data Management (<a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/main/rdbms-engine.html" id="link-id11943dc0">Relational</a>, <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/main/rdf-quad-store.html" id="link-id12312240">RDF Graph</a>, or Document), </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/main/middleware.htm" id="link-id115d71c0">Data Access Middleware</a>, </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/main/web-application-server.html" id="link-id142ca788">Web Application & Services Deployment</a>, </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/main/linked-data.html" id="link-id112b92c0">Linked Data Deployment</a>, and </li> <li>Messaging. </li> </ul> <p>When Virtuoso is installed and running, HTTP-based Data Objects are automatically created as a by-product of its powerful data virtualization, transcending data sources and data representation formats. The benefits of such power extend across profiles such as:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/information-and-knowledge-worker-benefits" id="link-id118df198">Information & Knowledge Workers</a>, </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/systems-integrator-benefits" id="link-id1429d178">Systems Integrators & Architects</a>, </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/distributed-collaboration-benefits" id="link-id142fa2a0">Distributed Collaboration & Social Media</a>, </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/cloud-computing-benefits" id="link-id11aee6b0">Cloud Computing</a>, and </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/application-developer-benefits" id="link-id142440b8">Application Development</a>. </li> </ul> <h2>Product Benefits Summary</h2> <ul> <li> <b>Enterprise Agility</b> â Virtuoso lets you mix-&-match best-of-class combinations of Operating Systems, Programming Environments, Database Engines and Data-Access Middleware when building or tweaking your IS infrastructure, without the typical impedance of vendor-lock-in.</li> <li> <b>Data Model Dexterity</b> â By supporting multiple protocols and data models in a single product, Virtuoso protects you against costly vulnerabilities such as: perennial acquisition and accumulation of expensive data model specific DBMS products that still operate on the fundamental principle of: proprietary technology lock-in, at a time when heterogeneity continues to intrinsically define the information technology landscape.</li> <li> <b>Cost-effectiveness</b> â By providing a single point of access (and single-sign-on, SSO) to a plethora of Web 2.0-style social networks, Web Services, and Content Management Systems, and by using Data Object Identifiers as units of Data Virtualization that become the focal points of all data access, Virtuoso lowers the cost to exploit emerging frontiers such as socially-enhanced enterprise collaboration.</li> <li> <b>Speed of Exploitation</b> â Virtuoso provides the ability to rapidly assemble 360-degree conceptual views of data, across internal line-of-business application (CRM, ERP, ECM, HR, etc.) data and/or external data sources, whether these are unstructured, semi-structured, or fully structured.</li> </ul> <p>Bottom line, Virtuoso delivers unrivaled flexibility and scalability, without compromising performance or security.</p> <h2>Related</h2> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com's BLOG [127]/1567" id="link-id13ee6840">HTTP URI Abstraction and Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2009/09/09/talking-with-kingsley-idehen-about-mastering-your-own-search-index/" id="link-id1428b698">Be The Master of Your Own Search Index</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://walkingoncoals.blogspot.com/2009/12/whos-data-is-it-part-1.html" id="link-id117db508">Who's Data Is It?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1482" id="link-id13f64d90">MDM & Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1453" id="link-id118861d8">What is Linked Data Oriented RDF-zation?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1444" id="link-id11820d70">Semantic Web: Travails to Harmony Illustrated</a> </li> </ul> <p>Â </p>
Re-introducing the Virtuoso Virtual Database Engine
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-02-17#1608
2010-02-17T21:38:01Z
2010-02-17T16:46:53-05:00
<p>In recent times a lot of the commentary and focus re. <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id16a22f48">Virtuoso</a> has centered on the RDF Quad Store and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id112d82a0">Linked Data</a>. What sometimes gets overlooked is the sophisticated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id6493cc8">Virtual Database</a> Engine that provides the foundation for all of Virtuoso's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> integration capabilities.</p> <p>In this post I provide a brief re-introduction to this essential aspect of Virtuoso.</p> <h3>What is it?</h3> <p>This component of Virtuoso is known as the Virtual Database Engine (VDBMS). It provides transparent high-performance and secure access to disparate data sources that are external to Virtuoso. It enables federated access and integration of data hosted by any <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13c26008">ODBC</a>- or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id166604c0">JDBC</a>-accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id139dfdb8">RDBMS</a>, RDF Store, XML database, or Document (Free Text)-oriented Content Management System. In addition, it facilitates integration with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services (SOAP-based SOA RPCs or REST-fully accessible Web Resources). </p> <h3>Why is it important?</h3> <p>In the most basic sense, you shouldn't need to upgrade your existing database engine version simply because your current DBMS and Data Access Driver combo isn't compatible with ODBC-compliant desktop tools such as Microsoft Access, Crystal Reports, BusinessObjects, Impromptu, or other of ODBC, JDBC, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id13c7ceb8">ADO</a>.NET, or OLE DB-compliant applications. Simply place Virtuoso in front of your so-called "legacy database," and let it deliver the compliance levels sought by these tools</p> <p>In addition, it's important to note that today's enterprise, through application evolution, company mergers, or acquisitions, is often faced with disparately-structured data residing in any number of line-of-business-oriented data silos. Compounding the problem is the exponential growth of user-generated data via new social media-oriented collaboration tools and platforms. For companies to cost-effectively harness the opportunities accorded by the increasing intersection between line-of-business applications and social media, virtualization of data silos must be achieved, and this virtualization must be delivered in a manner that doesn't prohibitively compromise performance or completely undermine security at either the enterprise or personal level. Again, this is what you get by simply installing Virtuoso.</p> <h3>How do I use it?</h3> <p>The VDBMS may be used in a variety of ways, depending on the data access and integration task at hand. Examples include: </p> <h4>Relational Database Federation</h4> <p>You can make a single ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, OLE DB, or XMLA connection to multiple ODBC- or JDBC-accessible RDBMS data sources, concurrently, with the ability to perform intelligent distributed joins against externally-hosted database tables. For instance, you can join internal human resources data against internal sales and external stock market data, even when the HR team uses <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id16706720">Oracle</a>, the Sales team uses <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-ide5a15c8">Informix</a>, and the Stock Market figures come from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id13c0e138">Ingres</a>!</p> <h4>Conceptual Level Data Access using the RDF Model</h4> <p>You can construct RDF Model-based Conceptual Views atop Relational Data Sources. This is about generating HTTP-based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id115150f8">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value (E-A-V) graphs using data culled "on the fly" from native or external data sources (Relational Tables/Views, XML-based Web Services, or User Defined Types).</p> <p>You can also derive RDF Model-based Conceptual Views from Web Resource transformations "on the fly" -- the Virtuoso <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id1675db50">Sponger</a> (RDFizing middleware component) enables you to generate RDF Model Linked Data via a RESTful Web Service or within the process pipeline of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id166b8d90">SPARQL</a> query engine (i.e., you simply use the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id167d00c8">URL</a> of a Web Resource in the FROM clause of a SPARQL query).</p> <p>It's important to note that Views take the form of HTTP links that serve as both Data Source Names and Data Source Addresses. This enables you to query and explore relationships across entities (i.e., People, Places, and other Real World Things) via HTTP clients (e.g., Web Browsers) or directly via SPARQL Query Language constructs transmitted over HTTP.</p> <h4>Conceptual Level Data Access using ADO.NET <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id13c6bb60">Entity</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework" id="link-id16ad3f68">Frameworks</a> </h4> <p>As an alternative to RDF, Virtuoso can expose ADO.NET Entity Frameworks-based Conceptual Views over Relational Data Sources. It achieves this by generating Entity Relationship graphs via its native ADO.NET Provider, exposing all externally attached ODBC- and JDBC-accessible data sources. In addition, the ADO.NET Provider supports direct access to Virtuoso's native RDF database engine, eliminating the need for resource intensive Entity Frameworks model transformations.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtLinkRemoteTables" id="link-id1183acd8">Attaching ODBC or JDBC accessible Relational Tables to Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRdb2RDFViewsGeneration#One-Click%20Linked%20Data%20Generation%20&%20Deployment" id="link-id113f2fd8">Using an HTML based Wizard to Generate RDF based Linked Views over Relational Tables</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj7AbJ0ZYCk&feature=channel" id="link-id16ad4480">Screencast Demonstrating Wizard based generation of RDF based Linked Data Views Part 1</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXNlcISS0aY&feature=channel" id="link-id114eb720">Screencast Demonstrating Wizard based generation of RDF based Linked Data Views Part 1</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSponger" id="link-id116e5810">Generating RDF based Linked Data from non RDF based Web Resources via the Sponger</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAdoNet35Provider" id="link-id16706118">Building ADO.NET based Entity Frameworks Views over Relational Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSilverlightSPARQLExample" id="link-id139c1278">Building Silverlight Rich Internat Applicaitons using ADO.NET, Entity Frameworks, and RDF based Linked Data</a>.</li> </ul>
5 Game Changing Things about the OpenLink Virtuoso + AWS Cloud Combo
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-31#1590
2010-01-31T22:29:34Z
2010-02-01T08:59:36-05:00
<p> Here are 5 powerful benefits you can immediately derive from the combination of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id17eb8988">Virtuoso</a> and Amazon's AWS services (specifically the EC2 and EBS components): <br /> </p> <ol> <li> Acquire your own personal or service specific <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1423e520">data space</a> in the Cloud. Think DBase, Paradox, FoxPRO, Access of yore, but with the power of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id136c6290">Oracle</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-id11b269b8">Informix</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Microsoft_SQL_Server" id="link-id138084b8">Microsoft SQL Server</a> etc.. using a Conceptual, as opposed to solely Logical, model based DBMS (i.e., a Hybrid DBMS Engine for: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id132a7938">SQL</a>, RDF, XML, and Full Text) </li> <li> Ability to share and control access to your resources using innovations like <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id17ee9d28">FOAF</a>+SSL, OpenID, and OAuth, all from one place </li> <li> Construction of personal or organization based FOAF profiles in a matter of minutes; by simply creating a basic DBMS (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id14784ae0">ODS</a> application layer) account; and then using this profile to create strong links (references) to all your Data silos (esp. those from the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 2.0 realm) </li> <li> Load data sets from the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id17e6ac98">LOD</a> cloud or Sponge existing Web resources (i.e., on the fly data transformation to RDF model based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17e65d38">Linked Data</a>) and then use the combination to build powerful lookup services that enrich the value of URLs (think: Web addressable reports holding query results) that you publish </li> <li> Bind all of the above to a domain that you own (e.g. a .Name domain) so that you have an attribution-friendly "authority" component for resource URLs and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id118a08d8">Entity</a> URIs published from your Personal Linked Data Space on the Web (or private HTTP network). </li> </ol> <p> In a nutshell, the AWS Cloud infrastructure simplifies the process of generating Federated presence on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id1380af38">Internet</a> and/or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id11633b10">World Wide Web</a>. Remember, centralized networking models always end up creating data silos, in some <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id142006f0">context</a>, ultimately! :-) </p>
Personal and/or Service Specific Linked Data Spaces in the Cloud: DBpedia 3.4
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-11-16#1589
2009-11-16T18:17:46Z
2009-11-16T13:30:20-05:00
<p> We have just released an Amazon EC2 based public Snapshot of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id18e899b8">DBpedia</a> 3.4. Thus, you can now instantiate a personal and/or service specific variant of the DBpedia 3.4 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id168dec90">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id18911268">Space</a>. Basically, you can replicate what we host, within minutes (as opposed to days). In addition, you no longer need to squabble --on an unpredictable basis with others-- for the infrastructure resources behind DBpedia's public instance, when using the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id18d5bd78">SPARQL</a> Endpoint, Faceted Search & Find Services, or HTML Browser Pages etc.</p> <h3>How Does It work?</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtInstallationEC2" id="link-id115932b8">Instantiate a Virtuoso EC2 AMI</a> (paid variety, which is aggressively priced at $49.99 for setup and $19.99 per month thereafter)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia34S" id="link-id182dc800"> Mount the shared DBpedia 3.4 public snapshot</a> </li> <li> Start Virtuoso Server</li> <li> Start exploiting the DBpedia Linked Data Space.</li> </ol> <h3>What Interfaces are exposed?</h3> <ol> <li> SPARQL Endpoint</li> <li> Linked Data Viewer Pages (as you see in the public DBpedia instance)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtFacetBrowserInstallConfig" id="link-id117f6e80">Faceted Search & Find UI and Web Services</a> (REST or SOAP)</li> <li> All the inference rules for <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id144b84a8">UMBEL</a>, SUMO, YAGO, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id16b69da8">OpenCYC</a>, and DBpedia-OWL <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> dictionaries</li> <li>Type Correlations Between DBpedia and Freebase</li> </ol> <p>Enjoy!</p>
Personal and/or Service Specific Linked Data Spaces in the Cloud: DBpedia 3.4
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-11-16#1599
2009-11-16T18:17:46Z
2010-02-01T08:58:14-05:00
<p> We have just released an Amazon EC2 based public Snapshot of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id18e899b8">DBpedia</a> 3.4. Thus, you can now instantiate a personal and/or service specific variant of the DBpedia 3.4 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id168dec90">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id18911268">Space</a>. Basically, you can replicate what we host, within minutes (as opposed to days). In addition, you no longer need to squabble --on an unpredictable basis with others-- for the infrastructure resources behind DBpedia's public instance, when using the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id18d5bd78">SPARQL</a> Endpoint, Faceted Search & Find Services, or HTML Browser Pages etc.</p> <h3>How Does It work?</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtInstallationEC2" id="link-id115932b8">Instantiate a Virtuoso EC2 AMI</a> (paid variety, which is aggressively priced at $49.99 for setup and $19.99 per month thereafter)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia34S" id="link-id182dc800"> Mount the shared DBpedia 3.4 public snapshot</a> </li> <li> Start Virtuoso Server</li> <li> Start exploiting the DBpedia Linked Data Space.</li> </ol> <h3>What Interfaces are exposed?</h3> <ol> <li> SPARQL Endpoint</li> <li> Linked Data Viewer Pages (as you see in the public DBpedia instance)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtFacetBrowserInstallConfig" id="link-id117f6e80">Faceted Search & Find UI and Web Services</a> (REST or SOAP)</li> <li> All the inference rules for <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id144b84a8">UMBEL</a>, SUMO, YAGO, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id16b69da8">OpenCYC</a>, and DBpedia-OWL <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> dictionaries</li> <li>Type Correlations Between DBpedia and Freebase</li> </ol> <p>Enjoy!</p>
Simple Compare & Contrast of Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 (Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-03-14#1531
2009-03-14T18:20:00Z
2009-04-29T13:21:25.000004-04:00
<p>Here is a tabulated "compare and contrast" of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> usage patterns 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.</p> <table border="1" width="715" height="286"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Â </td> <td><strong>Web 1.0</strong></td> <td><strong>Web 2.0</strong></td> <td><strong>Web 3.0</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Simple Definition</strong></td> <td>Interactive / Visual Web</td> <td>Programmable Web</td> <td><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id117a9a98">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id146bcdb0">Web</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Unit of Presence</strong></td> <td>Web Page</td> <td>Web Service Endpoint</td> <td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id11a66c60">Data Space</a> (named structured data enclave)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Unit of Value Exchange</strong></td> <td>Page <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id146083f8">URL</a></td> <td>Endpoint URL for API</td> <td>Resource / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id121b2148">Entity</a> / Object <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1467ed00">URI</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Data Granularity</strong></td> <td>Low (HTML)</td> <td>Medium (XML)</td> <td>High (RDF)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Defining Services</strong></td> <td>Search </td> <td>Community (Blogs to Social Networks) </td> <td>Find</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Participation Quotient</strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium</td> <td>High</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Serendipitous Discovery Quotient </strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium</td> <td>High</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Data Referencability Quotient </strong></td> <td>Low (Documents)</td> <td>Medium (Documents)</td> <td>High (Documents and their constituent Data)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Subjectivity Quotient</strong></td> <td>High</td> <td>Medium (from A-list bloggers to select source and partner lists)</td> <td>Low (everything is discovered via URIs)</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <strong><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Transclusion" id="link-id155308d8">Transclusence</a> </strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium (Code driven Mashups)</td> <td>HIgh (Data driven Meshups)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>What You See Is What You Prefer (WYSIWYP)</strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium </td> <td>High (negotiated representation of resource descriptions)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Open Data Access (Data Accessibility)</strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium (Silos)</td> <td>High (no Silos)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Identity Issues Handling</strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenID" id="link-id119d77f8">OpenID</a>)</td> <td><p>High (<a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/foaf+ssl" id="link-id135cc348">FOAF+SSL</a>)</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Solution Deployment Model</strong></td> <td>Centralized</td> <td>Centralized with sprinklings of Federation</td> <td>Federated with function specific Centralization (e.g. Lookup hubs like <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id1496d1d0">LOD</a> Cloud or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1571f690">DBpedia</a>)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Data Model Orientation</strong></td> <td>Logical (Tree based DOM)</td> <td>Logical (Tree based XML)</td> <td>Conceptual (Graph based RDF)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>User Interface Issues</strong></td> <td>Dynamically generated static interfaces</td> <td>Dyanically generated interafaces with semi-dynamic interfaces (courtesy of XSLT or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id118399e8">XQuery</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath" id="link-id14b00ba0">XPath</a>)</td> <td>Dynamic Interfaces (pre- and post-generation) courtesy of self-describing nature of RDF</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Data Querying</strong></td> <td><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id14fdd948">Full Text Search</a></td> <td>Full Text Search</td> <td>Full Text Search + Structured Graph Pattern Query Language (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id154a9368">SPARQL</a>)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>What Each Delivers</strong></td> <td>Democratized Publishing</td> <td>Democratized Journalism & Commentary (Citizen Journalists & Commentators)</td> <td>Democratized Analysis (Citizen Data Analysts)</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <strong><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Star_Wars" id="link-id155ce920">Star Wars Edition Analogy</a> </strong></td> <td>Star Wars (original fight for decentralization via rebellion)</td> <td>Empire Strikes Back (centralization and data silos make comeback)</td> <td>Return of the JEDI (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1474" id="link-id11706640">FORCE</a> emerges and facilitates decentralization from "Identity" all the way to "Open Data Access" and "Negotiable Descriptive Data Representation")</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Naturally, I am not expecting everyone to agree with <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id15be20c0">me</a>. I am simply making my contribution to what will remain facinating discourse for a long time to come :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2007/10/web-30----the-a.html" id="link-id14a9d738">Web 3.0 The Best Official Definition Imaginable</a> -- Nova Spivack's </li> </ul>
Response to: What is Web 3.0 and Why Should I Care?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-29#1524
2009-01-29T18:16:44Z
2009-01-29T13:45:11-05:00
<p>Another post done in response to lost comments. This time, the comments relate to Robin Bloor's article titled: <a href="http://havemacwillblog.com/2008/12/16/what-is-web-30-and-why-should-i-care/" id="link-id12e79d70">What is Web 3.0 and Why Should I Care?</a> </p> <p>Robin:</p> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_3.0" id="link-id12db8fb0">Web 3.0 </a>is fundamentally about the World Wid Web becoming a structured database equipped with a formal <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> model (RDF which is a moniker for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id11490990">Entity-Attribute-Value</a> with Classes & Relationships based Graph Model), query language, and a protocol for handling divrerse data representational requirements via negotiation</p>. <p>Web 3.0 is about a Web that facilitates serendipitous discovery of relevant things; thereby making serendipitous discovery quotient (SDQ), rather than search engine optimization (SEO), the critical success factor that drives how resources get published on the Web.</p> <p>Personally, I believe we are on the cusp of a major industry inflection re. how we interact with data hosted in computing spaces. In a nutshell, the conceptual model interaction based on real-world entities such as people, places, and other things (including abstract subject matter) will usurp traditional logical model interaction based on rows and columns of typed and/or untyped literal values exemplified by relational data access and management systems.</p> <p>Labels such as "Web 3.0", "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13664538">Linked Data</a>", and "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id157ff968">Semantic Web</a>", are simply about the aforementioned model transition playing out on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id114bd0e8">World Wide Web</a> and across private Linked Data Webs such as Intranets & Extranets, as exemplified emergence of the "Master Data Management" label/buzzword.</p> <h3>What's the critical infrastructure supporting Web 3.0?</h3> <p>As was the case with Web Services re. Web 2.0, there is a critical piece of infrastructure driving the evolution in question, and in this case it comes down to the evolution of Hyperlinking.</p> <p>We now have a new and complimentary variant of Hyperlinking commonly referred to as "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id152ed150">Hyperdata</a>" that now sits alongside "Hypertext". Hyperdata when used in conjunction with HTTP based URIs as Data Source Names (or Identifiers), delivers a potent and granular data access mechanism scoped down to the datum (object or record) level; which is much different from the document (record or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1141e830">entity</a> container) level linkage that Hypertext accords.</p> <p>In addition, the incorporation of HTTP into this new and enhanced granular Data Source Naming mechanism also addresses past challenges relating to separation of data, data representation, and data transmission protocols -- remember XDR woes familiar to all sockets level programmers -- courtesy of in-built content negotiation. Hence, via a simple HTTP GET --against a Data Source Name exposed by a Hyperdata link -- I can negotiate (from client or server sides) the exact representation of the description (entity-attribute-value graph) of an Entity / Data Object / Resource, dispatched by a data server.</p> <blockquote>For example, this is how a description of entity "<strong><a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id141ce520">Me</a></strong>" ends up being available in (X)HTML or RDF document representations (as you will observe when you click on that link to my Personal <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id15f9fed0">URI</a>).</blockquote> <p> The foundation of what I describe above comes from:</p> <ol> <li> Entity-Attribute-Value & Class Relationship Data Model (originating from LISP era with detours via the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Object_database" id="link-id12db8fb0">Object Database</a> era. into the Triples approach in RDF) </li> <li>Use of HTTP based Identifiers in the Entity <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id1193af48">ID</a> construction process</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1348f188">SPARQL</a> query language for the Data Model.</li> </ol> <p>Some live examples from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id12e62a50">DBpedia</a>:</p> <ul> <li> http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data</li> <li>http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hyperdata</li> <li>http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model</li> <li>http://dbpedia.org/resource/Benjamin_Franklin</li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1519?sid=5097848d70f69738bd366e2b6374672c&realm=wa" id="link-id13c31500">The End of RDBMS Primacy is Nigh</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData" id="link-id1356e6a0">Linking Open Data Community</a> </li> </ul>
Introducing Virtuoso Universal Server (Cloud Edition) for Amazon EC2
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-11-28#1489
2008-11-28T19:27:12Z
2008-11-28T16:06:02.000006-05:00
<h3>What is it?</h3> <p>A pre-installed edition of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14bea838">Virtuoso</a> for Amazon's EC2 Cloud platform.</p> <h3>What does it offer?</h3> From a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Entrepreneur perspective it offers: <ol> <li> Low cost entry point to a game-changing Web 3.0+ (and beyond) platform that combines <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id11309b38">SQL</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id135f7988">RDF</a>, XML, and Web Services functionality</li> <li> Flexible variable cost model (courtesy of <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/devpay/" id="link-id17941018">EC2 DevPay</a>) tightly bound to revenue generated by your services</li> <li> Delivers federated and/or centralized model flexibility for you SaaS based solutions</li> <li> Simple entry point for developing and deploying sophisticated database driven applications (SQL or RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14ea6b10">Linked Data Web</a> oriented)</li> <li> Complete framework for exploiting OpenID, OAuth (including Role enhancements) that simplifies exploitation of these vital Identity and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Access technologies</li> <li>Easily implement RDF Linked Data based Mail, Blogging, Wikis, Bookmarks, Calendaring, Discussion Forums, Tagging, Social-Networking as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id11519928">Data Space</a> (data containers) features of your application or service offering</li> <li>Instant alleviation of challenges (e.g. service costs and agility) associated with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DataPortability" id="link-id111cb610">Data Portability</a> and Open Data Access across Web 2.0 data silos</li> <li> LDAP integration for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id114a8270">Intranet</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id10fe4f08">Extranet</a> style applications.</li> </ol> <p>From the DBMS engine perspective it provides you with one or more pre-configured instances of Virtuoso that enable immediate exploitation of the following services:</p> <ol> <li> RDF Database (a Quad Store with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id11911bf8">SPARQL</a> & SPARUL Language & Protocol support)</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id110544c8">SQL</a> Database (with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id1524c7d0">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id14cfb658">JDBC</a>, OLE-DB, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id110ec6c8">ADO</a>.NET, and XMLA driver access)</li> <li>XML Database (XML Schema, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id10ebf218">XQuery</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath" id="link-id142a7898">Xpath</a>, XSLT, Full Text Indexing)</li> <li>Full Text Indexing.</li> </ol> <p>From a Middleware perspective it provides:</p> <ol> <li> RDF Views (Wrappers / Semantic Covers) over SQL, XML, and other data sources accessible via SOAP or REST style Web Services</li> <li> Sponger Service for converting non RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11931c60">information</a> resources into RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id118f7168">Linked Data</a> "on the fly" via a large collection of pre-installed RDFizer Cartridges.</li> </ol> <p>From the Web Server Platform perspective it provides an alternative to LAMP stack components such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-id10f7b780">MySQL</a> and Apace by offering</p> <ol> <li> HTTP Web Server</li> <li> WebDAV Server</li> <li> Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Application_server" id="link-id1268daa8">Application Server</a> (includes <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id1585d238">PHP</a> runtime hosting)</li> <li> SOAP or REST style Web Services Deployment</li> <li> RDF Linked Data Deployment</li> <li> SPARQL (SPARQL Query Language) and SPARUL (SPARQL Update Language) endpoints</li> <li>Virtuoso Hosted PHP packages for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id15568818">MediaWiki</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id110bd7a8">Drupal</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id10f66918">Wordpress</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id13fda4d0">phpBB3</a> (just install the relevant Virtuoso Distro. Package). </li> </ol> <p>From the general System Administrator's perspective it provides:</p> <ol> <li> Online Backups (Backup Set dispatched to S3 buckets, FTP, or HTTP/WebDAV server locations)</li> <li>Synchronized Incremental Backups to Backup Set locations</li> <li>Backup Restore from Backup Set location (without exiting to EC2 shell).</li> </ol> <p>Higher level user oriented offerings include:</p> <ol> <li>OpenLink Data Explorer front-end for exploring the burgeoning Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id11646dc8">Web</a> </li> <li> Ajax based SPARQL Query Builder (iSPARQL) that enables SPARQL Query construction by Example</li> <li>Ajax based SQL Query Builder (QBE) that enables SQL Query construction by Example.</li> </ol> <p>For Web 2.0 / 3.0 users, developers, and entrepreneurs it offers it includes Distributed Collaboration Tools & Social Media realm functionality courtesy of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id11009930">ODS</a> that includes:</p> <ol> <li> Point of presence on the Linked Data Web that meshes your Identity and your Data via URIs</li> <li> System generated Social Network Profile & Contact Data via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id1185a1c0">FOAF</a>?</li> <li> System generated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id14791890">SIOC</a> (Semantically Interconnected Online Community) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1577cad8">Data Space</a> (that includes a Social Graph) exposing all your Web data in RDF Linked Data form</li> <li> System generated OpenID and automatic integration with FOAF</li> <li> Transparent Data Integration across Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Twitter, and any other Web 2.0 data space equipped with RSS / Atom support and/or REST style Web Services</li> <li> In-built support for SyncML which enables data synchronization with Mobile Phones.</li> </ol> <h3>How Do I Get Going with It?</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/ODSInstallationEC2" id="link-id114e1600">Standard Installation Guide</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIDBpediaInstall" id="link-id110a98e8">Personal or Service Specific DBpedia Installation Guide</a> </li> </ul>
Virtuoso, PHP Runtime Hosting: phpBB, Wordpress, Drupal, MediaWiki, and Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-24#1461
2008-10-24T19:55:00Z
2010-03-25T21:19:59-04:00
<p> Runtime hosting is functionality realm of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id1189fee8">Virtuoso</a> that is sometimes easily overlooked. In this post I want to provide a simple no-hassles HOWTO guide for installing Virtuoso on Windows (32 or 64 Bit), Mac OS X (Universal or Native 64 Bit), and Linux (32 or 64 Bit). The installation guide also covers the instantiation of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id118af3a8">phpBB3</a> as verification of the Virtuoso hosted <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id12736b88">PHP</a> 3.5 runtime.</p> <h3> What are the benefits of PHP Runtime Hosting?</h3> <p> Like <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Apache" id="link-id111ca408">Apache</a>, Virtuoso is a bona-fide <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Application_server" id="link-id110d2aa8">Application Server</a> for PHP based applications. Unlike Apache, Virtuoso is also the following:</p> <ul> <li> a Hybrid Native DBMS Engine (Relational, RDF-Graph, and Document models) that is accessible via industry standard interfaces (solely)</li> <li> a Virtual DBMS or Master <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Manager (MDM) that virtualizes heterogeneous data sources (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id0x22b6f0c8">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id0x23af98c8">JDBC</a>, Web Services, Hypermedia Resources, Non Hypermedia Resources)</li> <li> an <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20middleware&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1116aad8">RDF Middleware</a> solution for RDF-zation of non RDF resources across the Web and enterprise Intranets and/or Extranets (in the form of Cartridges for data exposed via REST or SOA oriented SOAP interfaces)</li> <li> an RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10fbe088">Linked Data</a> Server (meaning it can deploy RDF Linked Data based on its native and/or virtualized data)</li> </ul> <p> As result of the above, when you deploy a PHP application using Virtuoso, you inherit the following benefits:</p> <ol> <li> Use of PHP-<a href="http://www.iodbc.org" id="link-id1159e070">iODBC</a> for in-process communication with Virtuoso</li> <li> Easy generation of RDF Linked Data Views atop the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0x24f44c98">SQL</a> schemas of PHP applications</li> <li> Easy deployment of RDF Linked Data from virtualized data sources</li> <li> Less <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/LAMP_stack" id="link-id1179dff0">LAMP</a> monoculture (*there is no such thing as virtuous monoculture*) when dealing with PHP based Web applications.</li> </ol> <p> As indicated in prior posts, producing RDF Linked Data from the existing Web, where a lot of content is deployed by PHP based content managers, should simply come down to RDF Views over the SQL Schemas and deployment / publishing of the RDF Views in RDF Linked data form. In a nutshell, this is what Virtuoso delivers via its PHP runtime hosting and pre packaged VADs (Virtuoso Application Distribution packages), for popular PHP based applications such as: <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id120cc6368">phpBB3</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id111ff1c0">Drupal</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id111e26f8">WordPress</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id10ea0258">MediaWiki</a>.</p> <p> In addition, to the RDF Linked Data deployment, we've also taken the traditional LAMP installation tedium out of the typical PHP application deployment process. For instance, you don't have to rebuild PHP 3.5 (32 or 64 Bit) on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux to get going, simply install Virtuoso, and then select a VAD package for the relevant application and you're set. If the application of choice isn't pre packaged by us, simply install as you would when using Apache, which comes dow to situating the PHP files in your Web structure under the Web Application's root directory.</p> <h3> Installation Guide</h3> <ol> <li> Download the Virtuoso installer for Windows (<a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/downwiz/login.vsp?pfam=2&pform=26&pcat=47&prod=virtuoso-uim-unisvr-ent&os=i686-generic-win-32&os2=i686-generic-win-32&xpfam=virtuoso&xpform=personal&xpcat=unisvr&xos=i686-generic-win-32&release-dbms=6.1-virt61" id="link-id11d084578">32 Bit msi file</a> or <a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/downwiz/login.vsp?pfam=2&pform=26&pcat=47&prod=virtuoso-uim-unisvr-ent&os=x86_64-generic-win-64&os2=x86_64-generic-win-64&xpfam=virtuoso&xpform=personal&xpcat=unisvr&xos=x86_64-generic-win-64&release-dbms=6.1-virt61" id="link-id11aea67a8">64 Bit msi file</a>), Mac OS X (<a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/downwiz/login.vsp?pfam=2&pform=26&pcat=47&prod=virtuoso-uim-unisvr-ent&os=universal-apple-macosx10.6-32&os2=universal-apple-macosx10.6-32&xpfam=virtuoso&xpform=personal&xpcat=unisvr&xos=universal-apple-macosx10.6-32&release-dbms=6.1-virt61" id="link-id11a93bef8">Universal Binary dmg file</a>), or instantiate the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/oat/wiki/main/Main/ODSInstallationEC2" id="link-id111fe248">Virtuoso EC2 AMI</a> (*search for pattern: "Virtuoso when using the Firefox extension for EC2 as the AMI ID is currently: ami-7c31d515 and name: virtuoso-test/virtuoso-cloud-beta-9-i386.manifest.xml, for latest cut*)</li> <li> Run the installer (or download the movies using the links in the related section below)</li> <li> Go to the Virtuoso Conductor (*which will show up at the end of the installation process* or go to http://localhost:8890/conductor)</li> <li> Go to the "Admin" tab within the (X)HTML based UI and select the "Packages" sub-menu item (a Tab)</li> <li> Pick phpBB3 (or any other pre-packaged PHP app) and then click on "Install/Upgrase"</li> <li> The watch one of my silent movies or read the initial startup guides for Virtuoso hosted phpBB3, Drupal, Wordpress, MediaWiki.</li> </ol> <h3> Related</h3> <p> At the current time, I've only provided links to ZIP files containing the Virtuoso installation "silent movies". This approach is a short-term solution to some of my current movie publishing challenges re. YouTube and Vimeo -- where the compressed output hasn't been of acceptable visual quality. Once resolved, I will publish much more "Multimedia Web" friendly movies :-)</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://my-movies.s3.amazonaws.com/Virtuoso_PHPBB3_Vista_Linked_Data_Demo.mov.zip" id="link-id11642450">Windows Vista (x64) Installation Movie</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://my-movies.s3.amazonaws.com/Virtuoso_PHPBB3_MacOSX_Linked_Data_Demo.mov.zip" id="link-id11210498">Mac OS X (x64 & Universal binary) Installation Movie</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://my-movies.s3.amazonaws.com/Virtuoso_PHPBB3_EC2_AMI_Linked_Data_Demo.zip" id="link-id111ff268">Virtuoso EC2 Cloud Edition Installation Movie</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtuosoPHP" id="link-id12038b6c8">Guide for PHP based Application Deployment using Virtuoso</a> </li> </ul>
The Virtuous Web of Linked Data -- Business Perspective (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-24#1462
2008-10-24T15:56:55Z
2008-10-24T14:49:18-04:00
<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling" id="link-id115d8420">Orri Erling</a> (Program Manager: OpenLink <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id111293d8">Virtuoso</a>) has dropped a well explained reiteration of the essence of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id115d85a0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1161b138">Web</a>" or "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Web" with an emphasis on the business value. His post is titled: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1459" id="link-id1109d340">State of the Semantic Web (Part 1) - Sociology, Business, and Messaging</a>. <p>Typically, Orri's post are targeted at the hard core RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id115e2818">SQL</a> DBMS audiences, but in this particular post, he shoots straight at the business community revealing "Opportunity Cost" containment as the invisible driver behind the business aspects of any market inflection.</p> <p>Remember, the Web isn't ubiquitous because its users mastered the mechanics and virtues of HTML and/or HTTP. Web ubiquity is a function of the opportunity cost of not being on the Web, courtesy of the network effects of hyperlinked documents -- i.e., the instant gratification of traversing documents on the Web via a single click action. In similar fashion, the Linked Data Web's ubiquity will simply come down to the opportunity cost of not being "inside the Web", courtesy of the network effects of hyperlinked entities (documents, people, music, books, and other "Things"). </p> <p>Here are some excerpts from Orri's post:</p> <blockquote> <cite>Every time there is a major shift in technology, this shift needs to be motivated by addressing a new class of problem. This means doing something that could not be done before. The last time this happened was when the relational database became the dominant IT technology. At that time, the questions involved putting the enterprise in the database and building a cluster of line of business applications around the database. The argument for the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id113779e8">RDBMS</a> was that you did not have to constrain the set of queries that might later be made, when designing the database. In other words, it was making things more ad hoc. This was opposed then on grounds of being less efficient than the hierarchical and network databases which the relational eventually replaced.</cite> <cite>Today, the point of the Data Web is that you do not have to constrain what your data can join or integrate with, when you design your database. The counter-argument is that this is slow and geeky and not scalable. See the similarity?</cite> <cite>A difference is that we are not specifically aiming at replacing the RDBMS. In fact, if you know exactly what you will query and have a well defined workload, a relational representation optimized for the workload will give you about 10x the performance of the equivalent RDF warehouse. OLTP remains a relational-only domain. </cite> <cite>However, when we are talking about doing queries and analytics against the Web, or even against more than a handful of relational systems, the things which make RDBMS good become problematic.</cite> </blockquote> <p>If we think about Web 1.0 as a period where the distinguishing noun was: "Author", and Web 2.0 the noun: "Journalist", we should be able to see that what comes next is the noun: "Analyst". This new generation analyst would be equipped with de-referencable Web Identity courtesy of their Person <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id111ab7d0">Entity</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id10f23220">URI</a>. The analyst's URI would also be the critical component of Web based low cost attribution ecosystem; one that ultimately turns the URI into the analyst's brand emblem / imprint.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <a href="http://blog.whatfettle.com/about/" id="link-id1120fb88">Paul Downey</a> - <a href="http://blog.whatfettle.com/2008/10/24/on-the-vanity-of-demanding-attribution/" id="link-id111590b8">Vanity of Demanding Attribution</a> </ul>
The Numerati & The Magic of You!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-21#1458
2008-10-21T15:42:52Z
2010-02-01T08:55:22.000017-05:00
<p>In response to <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id111d6ae8">ReadWriteWeb</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/who_will_control_your_data_web30.php" id="link-id113c27e0">Who will own your Data in Web 3.0 World?</a>. My simple answer: You!</p> <p>You will control your data in the Web 3.0 realm. If somehow this remains somewhat incomprehensible and nebulous (as is typical in this emerging realm) then simply think about this as: The Magic of You!</p> <p>Remember, "You" was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Magazine" id="link-id144c52a8">Times</a> person of the year as an acknowledgement of the Web 2.0 phenomenon, and maybe this time next year it would simply be the "Magic of Being You" that's the person of the year :-)</p> <p>Web 3.0 brings databasing to the Web (as a feature). The single most important action item at this stage is the act of creating a record for yourself, in this new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id11540b50">distributed database</a> held together by an HTTP based Network (e.g., the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id115a02f8">World Wide Web</a>).</p> <h3>Related:</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id113aead0">Get yourself a Web Database ID in 5 minutes or less</a> </li> <li> 2006 Callout from <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id118acdd8">TimBL</a>: <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/71" id="link-id11126580">Get Yourself a URI</a> </li> <li> Just watch the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBqByfoLGdU" id="link-id13d19568">Numerati Video</a> </li> </ol>
Where Are All the RDF-based Semantic Web Applications?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-01#1447
2008-10-01T23:09:00Z
2008-10-02T15:27:41-04:00
<p> In response to the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id15971040">Semantic Web</a> Technology" application classification scheme espoused by <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id16391540">ReadWriteWeb</a> (RWW), emphasized in the post titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/rdf_semantic_web_apps.php" id="link-id1157eaa0">Where are all the RDF-based Semantic Web Apps?</a>, here is my attempt to clarify and reintroduce what <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id15a43758">OpenLink Software</a> offers (today) in relation to Semantic Web technology. </p> <p> From the RWW Top-Down category, which I interpret as: technologies that produce RDF from non RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> sources. Our product portfolio is comprised of the following; <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14f05818">Virtuoso Universal Server</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id162c8630">OpenLink Data Spaces</a>, <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com" id="link-id134e1a00">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a>, and <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id160b3bf8">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> (which includes ubiquity commands).</p> <h3>Virtuoso Universal Server functionality summary:</h3> <ol> <li>Generation of RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id161d5f50">Linked Data</a> Views of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id161d5978">SQL</a>, XML, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services in general </li> <li>Deployment of RDF Linked Data </li> <li>"On the Fly" generation of RDF Linked Data from Document Web <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/" id="link-id178bbc08">information resources</a> (i.e. distillation of entities from their containers e.g. Web pages) via Cartridges / Drivers</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id162c2118">SPARQL</a> query language support </li> <li>SPARQL extensions that bring SPARQL closer to SQL e.g Aggregates, Update, Insert, Delete Named Graph support (i.e. use of logical names to partition RDF data within Virtuoso's multi-model dbms engine) </li> <li>Inference Engine (currently in use re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id14f563c0">DBpedia</a> via Yago and <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id113273b8">UMBEL</a>)</li> <li>Host and exposes data from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id123d3bd8">Drupal</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id141adf40">Wordpress</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id1604b450">MediaWiki</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id141013a8">phpBB3</a> as RDF Linked Data via in-built support for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id14661e58">PHP</a> runtime</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/ODSInstallationEC2" id="link-id146c84d0">Available as an EC2 AMI</a> </li> <li>etc..</li> </ol> <h3>OpenLink Data Spaces functionality summary:</h3> <ol> <li>Simple mechanism for Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id15473770">Web</a> enabling yourself by giving you an <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id15f6d278">HTTP based User ID</a> (a de-referencable <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id15aaeb68">URI</a>) that is linked to a <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-id15a7a840">FOAF based Profile page</a> and OpenID</li> <li>Binds all your data sources (blogs, wikis, bookmarks, photos, calendar items etc. ) to your URI so can "Find" things by only remembering your URI</li> <li>Makes your profile page and personal URI the focal point of Linked Data Web presence</li> <li>Delivers Data Portability (using data access by value or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id16212838">data access by reference</a>) across data silos (e.g. Web 2.0 style social networks)</li> <li>Allows you make annotations about anything in your own <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id14668010">Data Space</a>(s) on the Web without exposure to RDF markup</li> <li>A Briefcase feature that provides a WebDAV driven RDF Linked Data variant of functionality seen in Mac OS X Spotlight and WinFS with the addition of SPARQL compliance</li> <li>Automatically generates <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id14691440">RDFa</a> in its (X)HTML pages</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id14fae7b8">Blog</a>, Wiki, WebDAV File Server, Shared Bookmarks, Calendar, and other applications that look and feel like Web 2.0 counterparts but emitt RDF Linked Data amongst a plethora of data exchange formats</li> <li>Available as an EC2 AMI</li> <li>etc..</li> </ol> <h3>OpenLink Ajax Toolkit functionality summary:</h3> <ol> <li>Provides binding to SQL, RDF, XML, and Web Services via Ajax Database Connectivity Layer (you only need an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id11550548">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13ae5f68">JDBC</a>, OLE-DB, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id162803e8">ADO</a>.NET, XMLA Driver, or Web Service on the backend for dynamic data access from Javascript)</li> <li>All controls are Ajax Database Connectivity bound (widgets get their data from Ajax Database Connectivity data sources)</li> <li>Bundled with Virtuoso and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id161dfe90">ODS</a> installations.</li> <li>etc.</li> </ol> <h3>OpenLink Data Explorer functionality summary</h3> <ol> <li>Distills entities associated with information resource style containers (e.g. Web Pages or files) as RDF Linked Data</li> <li>Exposes the RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id12a42ed8">Linked Data graph</a> associated with information resources (see the Linked Data behind Web pages)</li> <li>Ubiquity commands for invoking the above</li> <li>Available as a <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/ode" id="link-id15a0d2b0">Hosted Service</a> or <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id138b9fa8">Firefox Extension</a> </li> <li>Bundled with Virtuoso and ODS installations</li> <li>etc.</li> </ol> <h3>Note:</h3> <p>Of course you could have simply looked up <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink" id="link-id14ef2c10">OpenLink Software's FOAF based Profile page</a> (*note the Linked Data Explorer tab*), or simply passed the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id14cbf5c8">FOAF</a> profile page <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id16453e28">URL</a> to a Linked Data aware client application such as: <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/ode" id="link-id15a80500">OpenLink Data Explorer</a>, <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/" id="link-id1586a360">Zitgist</a> <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id16249f60">Data Viewer</a>, <a href="http://beckr.org/marbles" id="link-id15993fb0">Marbles</a>, and <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id14d63048">Tabulator</a>, and obtained information. Remember, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id138ba838">OpenLink Software</a> is an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1173e120">Entity</a> of Type: <a href="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Organization" id="link-id138b87b8">foaf:Organization</a>, on the burgeoning Linked Data Web :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html" id="link-id163a0c88">Linked Data Planet Keynote</a> (RDFa based remix edition)</li> <li> <a href="http://semanticbusiness.blogspot.com/2008/09/report-on-cusp-global-review-of.html" id="link-id11471a40">On The Cusp: A Global Review of the Semantic Web Industry.</a> </li> </ul>
The Linked Data Market via a BCG Matrix (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-25#1442
2008-09-25T20:42:49Z
2008-09-26T12:36:56-04:00
<p>The sweet spot of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 3.0 (or any other Web.vNext moniker) is all about providing Web Users with a structured and interlinked <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> substrate that facilitates serendipitous discovery of relevant "Things" i.e., a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10db3b48">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id170db618">Web</a> -- a Web of Linkable Entities that goes beyond documents and other <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id110a5d30">information</a> resource (data containers) types.</p> <p>Understanding potential <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id19e21c60">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id16d008d0">Web</a> business models, relative to other Web based market segments, is best pursued via a<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/BCG_diagram" id="link-id14734148"> BCG Matrix</a> diagram, such as the one I've constructed below:</p> <br /> <img src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/ldp_presentation/images/linked_data_sdq_quadarant.png" /> <br /> <h3>Notes:</h3> <h4>Link Density</h4> <ul> <li>Web 1.0's collection of "Web Sites" have relatively low link density relative to Web 2.0's user-activity driven generation of semi-structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14c302d8">linked data</a> spaces (e.g., Blogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmarks, RSS/Atom Feeds, Photo Galleries, Discussion Forums etc..)</li> <li>Semantic Technologies (i.e. "<strong>Semantics Inside</strong> style solutions") which are primarily about "Semantic Meaning" culled from Web 1.0 Pages also have limited linked density relative to Web 2.0</li> <li>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1286ab58">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-ide81ab20">Web</a>, courtesy of the open-ended linking capacity of URIs, matches and ultimately exceeds Web 2.0 link density.</li> </ul> <h4>Relevance</h4> <ul> <li>Web 1.0 and 2.0 are low relevance realms driven by hyperlinks to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id173db890">information</a> resources ((X)HTML, RSS, Atom, OPML, XML, Images, Audio files etc.) associated with Literal Labels and Tagging schemes devoid of explicit property based resource description thereby making the pursuit of relevance mercurial at best</li> <li>Semantic Technologies offer more relevance than Web 1.0 and 2.0 based on the increased <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id124de510">context</a> that semantic analysis of Web pages accords</li> <li>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id111c4850">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id16e4e4c0">Web</a>, courtesy of URIs that expose self-describing data entities, match the relevance levels attained by Semantic Technologies.</li> </ul> <h4>Serendipity Quotient (SDQ)</h4> <ul> <li>Web 1.0 has next to no serendipity, the closest thing is <a href="http://google.com" id="link-id16dceec8">Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" button</a> </li> <li>Web 2.0 possess higher potential for serendipitous discovery than Web 1.0, but such potential is neutralized by inherent subjectivity due to its human-interaction-focused literal foundation (e.g., tags, voting schemes, wiki editors etc.)</li> <li>Semantic Technologies produce islands-of-relevance with little scope for serendipitous discovery due to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id18078e60">URI</a> invisibility, since the prime focus is delivering more <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id1253cc38">context</a> to Web search relative to traditional Web 1.0 search engines.</li> <li>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x201d0ae8">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10c7fb70">Web</a>'s use of URIs as the naming and resolution mechanism for exposing structured and interlinked resources provides the highest potential for serendipitous discovery of relevant "Things"</li> </ul> <p>To conclude, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id0x23ebbf90">Web</a>'s market opportunities are all about the evolution of the Web into a powerful substrate that offers a unique intersection of "Link Density" and "Relevance", exploitable across horizontal and vertical market segments to solutions providers. Put differently, SDQ is how you take "The Ad" out of "Advertising" when matching Web users to relevant things :-)</p>
Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 (Yet Again)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-15#1439
2008-09-15T17:33:44Z
2008-09-15T13:48:15-04:00
<p>If your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> presence doesn't extend beyond (X)HTML web pages, you are only participating in Web usage Dimension 1.0.</p> <p>If your Web presence goes beyond (X)HTML pages, via the addition of REST or SOAP based Web Services, then you re participating in Web usage dimension 2.0.</p> <p>If you Web presence includes all of the above, with the addition of structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> interlinked with structured data across other points of presence on the Web, then you are participating in Web usage dimension 3.0 i.e., "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14d48d30">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id14d47280">Web</a>" or "Web of Data" or "Data Web".</p> <p>BTW - If you've already done all of the above, and you have started building intelligent agents that exploit the aforementioned structured interlinked data substrate, then you are already in Web usage dimension 4.0.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul>Prior posts about <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%20evolution&type=text&output=html" id="link-id10e8b978">Web usage pattern evolution</a> </ul>
The Trouble with Labels
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-12#1438
2008-09-12T01:47:05Z
2008-09-16T10:07:49.000015-04:00
<p>Unfortunately our fixation with "Labels" and the artificial link that exist between "Labels" and so-called "first mover advantage" continue to impede our progress to clarity about matters such as a fully functional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> of interlinked <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>.</p> <p> A while back I watched <a href="http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html" id="link-id14c2c740">Kevin Kelly's 5,000 days presentation at TED</a>. During the presentation, I kept on scratching my head, wondering why phrases like "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xb154550">Linked Data</a>", "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0xb5927b8">Semantic Web</a>", "Web of Data", "Data Web" where so unnaturally disconnected from his session narrative.</p> <p>Yesterday I watched <a href="http://www.techcrunch50.com/2008/conference/presenter.php?presenter=63#video" id="link-id14f6e1a8">IMINDI's TechCrunch 50 presentation</a>, and once again I saw the aforementioned pattern repeat itself. This time around, the poor founders of this "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id0xae767f0">Web</a>" oriented company (which is what they are in reality) took a totally undeserved pasting from a bunch of panelist incapable of seeing beyond today (Web 2.0) and yesterday (initial Web bootstrap).</p> <p>Anyway, thanks to the Web, this post will make a small contribution towards re-connecting the missing phrases to these "Linked Data Web" presentations.</p>
Linked Data, Ubiquity Commands, and Resource Descriptions (Update 3)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-05#1430
2008-09-05T05:43:00Z
2008-09-08T09:00:51-04:00
<div><p><a href="http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/08/introducing-ubiquity/" id="link-id11258ea0">Ubiquity</a> from <a href="http://labs.mozilla.com/" id="link-id112ebe28">Mozilla Labs</a>, provides an alternative entry point for experiencing the "Controller" aspect of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0xa0d2ccd0">Web</a>'s natural compatibility with the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Model-view-controller" id="link-id10ec1a08">MVC</a> development pattern. As I've noted (in <a href="http://myopenlink.net/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=kidehen-blog-0&q=mvc&type=text&output=html" id="link-id15390f28">various posts</a>) <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services, as practiced by the REST oriented Web 2.0 community or SOAP oriented SOA community within the enterprise, is fundamentally about the ("Controller" aspect of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Model-view-controller" id="link-id13c0d758">MVC</a>. </p><p>Ubiquity provides a commandline interface for direct invocation of Web Services. For instance, in our case, we can expose the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10b04708">Virtuoso</a>'s in-built <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20middleware&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1113ae38">RDF Middleware</a> ("Sponger") and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1457b3b8">Linked Data</a> deployment services via a single command of the form: describe-resource <url> </p><p>To experience this neat addition to Firefox you need to do the following:</p><ol><li><a href="https://people.mozilla.com/%7Eavarma/ubiquity-0.1.1.xpi" id="link-id13b15e88">Download</a> and install the Ubiquity Extension for Firefox</li><li><a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ubiq" id="link-id10e85880">Subscribe</a> to the OpenLink Command for Resource Description</li><li>Click on CTRL+Space (Windows / Linux) or Option+Space (Mac OS X)</li><li>Type in: describe-resource <a-web-resource-url> </li></ol><h3>How to unsubscribe</h3> At the current time, you need to do this if you've installed commands using ubiquity 0.1.0 and seek to use newer versions of the same commands after upgrading to ubiquity 0.1.1. <ol><li>To unsubscribe use type "about:ubiquity" into browser</li><li>Click on unsubscribe links associated with you command subscription list</li></ol> <p>Enjoy!</p></div>
Is the Semantic Web necessary (and feasible)?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-29#1426
2008-08-29T15:00:50Z
2008-08-29T11:08:12.000002-04:00
<p>Here is another "Linked Discourse" effort via a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id13edcda8">blog</a> post that attempts to add perspective to a developing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> based conversation. In this case, the conversation originates from <a href="http://geekaustin.org" id="link-id15a33728">Juan Sequeda</a>'s recent interview with <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/luxzia" id="link-id182a4a80">Jana Thompson</a> titled: <a href="http://geekaustin.org/2008/08/21/juan-sequeda-jana-thompson-necessity-semantic-web/" id="link-id146e1f40">Is the Semantic Web necessary (and feasible)?</a> </p> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: What are the benefits you see to the business community in adopting semantic technology? </cite> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id1941e3b0">Me</a>: Exposure, exploitation, of untapped treasure trove of interlinked <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13593fc0">information</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id1290c318">knowledge</a> across disparate IT infrastructure via conceptual entry points (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id107bad60">Entity</a> IDs / URIs / Data Source Names) that refer to as "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id15fab9f8">Context</a> Lenses".</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite> Jana: Do you think these benefits are great enough for businesses to adopt the changes?</cite> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0x584ffe0">Me</a>: Yes, infrastructural heterogeneity is a fact of corporate life (growth, mergers, acquisitions etc). Any technology that addresses these challenges is extremely important and valuable. Put differently, the opportunity costs associated with IT infrastructural heterogeneity remains high!</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: How large do you think this impact will actually be?</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: Huge, enterprise have been aware of their data, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x1b8057b0">information</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id0x1b3e3760">knowledge</a> treasure troves etc. for eons. Tapping into these via a materialization of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information">information</a> at your fingertips" vision is something they've simply been waiting to pursue without any platform lock-in, for as long as I've been in this industry.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: Iâve heard, from contacts in the Bay Area, that they are skeptical of how large this impact of semantic technology will actually be on the web itself, but that the best uses of the technology are for fields such as medical information, or as you mentioned, geo-spatial data.</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: Unfortunately, those people aren't connecting the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id10a337d8">Semantic Web</a> and open access to heterogeneous data sources, or the intrinsic value of holistic exploration location of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0xaa58c520">entity</a> based data networks (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id188a1910">Linked Data</a>).</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite> Jana: Are semantic technologies going to be part of the web because of people championing the cause or because it is actually a necessary step?</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x9eb9aca0">Linked Data</a> technology on the Web is a vital extension of the current Web. Semantic Technology without the "Web" component, or what I refer to as "Semantics Inside only" solutions, simply offer little or no value as Web enhancements based on their incongruence with the essence of the Web i.e., "Open Linkage" and no Silos! A nice looking Silo is still a Silo.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: In the early days of the web, there was an explosion of new websites, due to the ease of learning HTML, from a business to a person to some crackpot talking about aliens. Even today, CSS and XHTML are not so difficult to learn that a determined person canât learn them from W3C or other tutorials easily. If OWL becomes the norm for websites, what do you think the effects will be on the web? Do you think it is easy enough to learn that it will be readily adopted as part of the standard toolkit for web developers for businesses?</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: Correction, learning HTML had nothing to do with the Web's success. The value proposition of the Web simply reached critical mass and you simply couldn't afford to not be part of it. The easiest route to joining the Web juggernaut was a Web Page hosted on a Web Site. The question right now is: what's the equivalent driver for the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id12e25c98">Web</a> bearing in mind the initial Web bootstrap. My answer is simply this: Open Data Access i.e., getting beyond the data silos that have inadvertently emerged from Web 2.0.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite> Jana: Following the same theme, do you think this will lead to an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id17041398">internet</a> full of corporate-controlled websites, with sites only written by developers rather than individuals?</cite> </blockquote> <p> Me: Not at all, we will have an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id0x16a4abe0">Internet</a> owned by it's participants i.e., You and the agents that work on your behalf.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: So, you are imagining technologies such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id107d1d70">Drupal</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id13f48db8">Wordpress</a>, that allow users to manage sites without a great deal of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge">knowledge</a> of the nuts and bolts of current web technologies?</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: Not at all! I envisage simple forms that provide conduits to powerful meshes of interlinked data spaces associated with Web users.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: Given all of the buzz, and my own familiarity with ontology, I am just very curious if the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1955d360">semantic web</a> is truly necessary? </cite> </blockquote> <p>Me:This question is no different than saying: I hear the Web is becoming a Database, and I wonder if a Data Dictionary is necessary, or even if access to structured data is necessary. It's also akin to saying: I accept "Search" as my only mechanism for Web interaction even though in reality, I really want to be able to "Find" and "Process" relevant things at a quicker rate than I do today, relative to the amount of information, and information processing time, at my disposal.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: Will it be worth it to most people to go away from the web in its current form, with keyword searches on sites like Google, to a richer and more interconnected internet with potentially better search technology?</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: As stated above, we need to add "Find" to the portfolio of functions we seek to perform against the Web. "Finding" and "Searching" are mutually inclusive pursuits at different ends of an activity spectrum.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: For our more technical readers, I have a few additional questions: If no standardization comes about for mapping relational databases to domain ontologies, how do you see that as influencing the decisions about adoption of semantic technology by businesses? After all, the success of technology often lives or dies on its ease of adoption.</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: Standardization of<a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/Rdb2RdfXG/StateOfTheArt" id="link-id10abbc30"> RDBMS to RDF Mapping</a> is not the critical success factor here (of course it would be nice). As stated earlier, the issue of data integration that arises from IT infrastructural heterogeneity has been with decision makers in the enterprise for ever. The problem is now seeping into the broader consumer realm via Web ubiquity. The mistakes made in the enterprise realm are now playing out in the consumer Web realm. In both realms the critical success factors are:</p> <ol> <li> Scalable productivity relative to exponential growth of data generated across Intranets, Extranets, and the Internet</li> <li>Concept based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id0x114e6888">Context</a> Lenses that transcend logical and physical data heterogeneity by putting dereferencable URIs in front of the Line of Business Application Data and/or Web Data Spaces such as Blogs, Wikis, Discussion Forums etc.).</li> </ol>
Crunchbase & Semantic Web Interview (Remix - Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-27#1424
2008-08-27T18:16:37Z
2008-08-27T20:35:15-04:00
<p>After reading <a href="http://blog.crunchbase.com/2008/08/26/building-a-semantic-web-interview-with-benjamin-nowack/" id="link-id16b8e0e0">Bengee's interview with CrunchBase</a>, I decided to knock up a quick interview remix as part of my usual attempt to add to the developing discourse.</p> <blockquote> <cite><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/" id="link-id17c8e7b8">CrunchBase</a>: When we released the <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/help/api" id="link-id16681f68">CrunchBase API</a>, you were one of the first developers to step up and quickly released a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com's%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1395" id="link-id1016d5f0">CrunchBase Sponger Cartridge</a>. Can you explain what a CrunchBase Sponger Cartridge is?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id13243300">Me</a>: A Sponger Cartridge is a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access driver for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Resources that plugs into our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id17042f08">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id1399b588">Universal Server</a> (DBMS and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id137fd188">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id100b23d8">Web</a> Server combo amongst other things). It uses the internal structure of a resource and/or a web service associated with a resource, to materialize an RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10418750">Linked Data graph</a> that essentially describes the resource via its properties (Attributes & Relationships). </blockquote> <br /> <img src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/images/ldp4.png" /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: And what inspired you to create it?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id12fa60c0">Me</a>: Bengee built a new space with your data, and we've built a space on the fly from your data which still resides in your domain. Either solution extols the virtues of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id101a8d28">Linked Data</a> i.e. the ability to explore relationships across data items with high degrees of serendipity (also colloquially known as: following-your-nose pattern in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id14a3ff30">Semantic Web</a> circles).</blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://cb.semsol.org/" id="link-id182a0170">Bengee</a> posted a notice to the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData" id="link-id131e8d10">Linking Open Data Community</a>'s public <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/2008Jul/0110.html" id="link-id11dd0720">mailing list announcing his effort</a>. Bearing in mind the fact that we've been using <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1144" id="link-id117cf6e8">middleware to mesh the realms of Web 2.0 and the Linked Data Web</a> for a while, it was a no-brainer to knock something up based on the conceptual similarities between <a href="http://wikicompany.org/wiki/Main_Page" id="link-id13b87a68">Wikicompany</a> and CrunchBase. In a sense, a quadrant of orthogonality is what immediately came to mind re. Wikicompany, CrunchBase, Bengee's RDFization efforts, and ours.</blockquote> <blockquote>Bengee created an RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id133c8fc8">Linked Data</a> warehouse based on the data exposed by your API, which is exposed via the <a href="http://cb.semsol.org/" id="link-id1826f928">Semantic CrunchBase</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id102d8890">data space</a>. In our case we've taken the "RDFization on the fly" approach which produces a transient <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16a0b8d0">Linked Data</a> View of the CrunchBase data exposed by your APIs. Our approach is in line with our world view: all resources on the Web are data sources, and the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1668e6c8">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id188e7da0">Web</a> is about incorporating HTTP into the naming scheme of these data sources so that the conventional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id13490710">URL</a> based hyperlinking mechanism can be used to access a structured description of a resource, which is then transmitted using a range negotiable representation formats. In addition, based on the fact that we house and publish a lot of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id169aa568">Linked Data</a> on the Web (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10af10e8">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://www.pingthesemanticweb.com/about/" id="link-id10a2b710">PingTheSemanticWeb</a>, and others), we've also automatically meshed Crunchbase data with related data in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1403cd40">DBpedia</a> and Wikicompany data.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: Do you know of any apps that are using CrunchBase Cartridge to enhance their functionality?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id177d24c8">Me</a>: Yes, the <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10725ca0">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> which provides CrunchBase site visitors with the option to explore the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17dedea8">Linked Data</a> in the CrunchBase <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id13f02a00">data space</a>. It also allows them to "Mesh" (rather than "Mash") CrunchBase data with other <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11fb3ba0">Linked Data</a> sources on the Web without writing a single line of code. </blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: You have been immersed in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id12e18a00">Semantic Web</a> movement for a while now. How did you first get interested in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id15132110">Semantic Web</a>?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0xddaa9c8">Me</a>: We saw the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id188b3330">Semantic Web</a> as a vehicle for standardizing conceptual views of heterogeneous data sources via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10350978">context</a> lenses (URIs). In 1998 as part of our strategy to expand our business beyond the development and deployment of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id171d6798">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id138120a0">JDBC</a>, and OLE-DB data providers, we decided to build a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id13ea6618">Virtual Database</a> Engine (see: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSHistory" id="link-id11a4fa30">Virtuoso History</a>), and in doing so we sought a standards based mechanism for the conceptual output of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id101a1248">data virtualization</a> effort. As of the time of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html" id="link-id18882cf8">seminal unveiling of the Semantic Web in 1998</a> we were clear about two things, in relation to the effects of the Web and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id12fa2c58">Internet</a> data management infrastructure inflections: 1) Existing DBMS technology had reached it limits 2) Web Servers would ultimately hit their functional limits. These fundamental realities compelled us to develop <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id102b09a0">Virtuoso</a> with an eye to leveraging the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id11984d98">Semantic Web</a> as a vehicle from completing its technical roadmap.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: Can you put into laymanâs terms exactly what RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1066dcf0">SPARQL</a> are and why they are important? Do they only matter for developers or will they extend past developers at some point and be used by website visitors as well?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>Me: RDF (Resource Description Framework) is a Graph based Data Model that facilitates resource description using the <a href="http://www.eslincanada.com/englishlesson2.html" id="link-id178b94a8">Subject, Predicate, and Object principle</a>. Associated with the core data model, as part of the overall framework, are a number of markup languages for expressing your descriptions (just as you express presentation markup semantics in HTML or document structure semantics in XML) that include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id188db0a8">RDFa</a> (simple extension of HTML markup for embedding descriptions of things in a page), N3 (a human friendly markup for describing resources), RDF/XML (a machine friendly markup for describing resources).</blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id188c2030">SPARQL</a> is the query language associated with the RDF Data Model, just as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id13f0ffe0">SQL</a> is a query language associated with the Relational Database Model. Thus, when you have RDF based structured and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id166874d0">linked data</a> on the Web, you can query against Web using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1016cc98">SPARQL</a> just as you would against an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id101c9708">Oracle</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id11cb0b18">SQL</a> Server/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_DB2" id="link-id10760ec0">DB2</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-id1066c8c0">Informix</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id18894f40">Ingres</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-iddc9ebb0">MySQL</a>/etc.. DBMS using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id1030d120">SQL</a>. That's it in a nutshell.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: On your website you wrote that âRDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id168e9ad0">SPARQL</a> as productivity boosters in everyday web developmentâ. Can you elaborate on why you believe that to be true?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>Me: I think the ability to discern a formal description of anything via its discrete properties is of immense value re. productivity, especially when the capability in question results in a graph of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x179f6328">Linked Data</a> that isn't confined to a specific host operating system, database engine, application or service, programming language, or development framework. RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> is about infrastructure for the true materialization of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13e475b8">Information</a> at Your Fingertips" vision of yore. Even though it's taken the emergence of RDF Linked Data to make the aforementioned vision tractable, the comprehension of the vision's intrinsic value have been clear for a very long time. Most organizations and/or individuals are quite familiar with the adage: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id13e38a30">Knowledge</a> is Power, well there isn't any <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id188b7348">knowledge</a> without accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id140415d0">Information</a>, and there isn't any accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11a976e8">Information</a> without accessible Data. The Web has always be grounded in accessibility to data (albeit via compound container documents called Web Pages).</blockquote> <blockquote>Bottom line, RDF based Linked Data is about Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id1206bfb8">Data access by reference</a> using URIs (HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-idfaa6ce0">Entity</a> IDs / Data Object IDs / Data Source Names), and as I said earlier, the intrinsic value is pretty obvious bearing in mind the costs associated with integrating disparate and heterogeneous data sources -- across intranets, extranets, and the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id188ecc68">Internet</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: In his definition of Web 3.0, Nova Spivack proposes that the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id12e2d968">Semantic Web</a>, or Semanti<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id105744c0">c</a> Web technologies, will be force behind much of the innovation that will occur during Web 3.0. Do you agree with Nova Spivack? What role, if any, do you feel the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id13fa4218">Semantic Web</a> will play in Web 3.0?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>Me: I agree with Nova. But I see Web 3.0 as a phase within the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id188c9000">Semantic Web</a> innovation continuum. Web 3.0 exists because Web 2.0 exists. Both of these Web versions express usage and technology focus patterns. Web 2.0 is about the use of Open Source technologies to fashion Web Services that are ultimately used to drive proprietary Software as Service (SaaS) style solutions. Web 3.0 is about the use of "Smart Data Access" to fashion a new generation of Linked Data aware Web Services and solutions that exploit the federated nature of the Web to maximum effect; proprietary branding will simply be conveyed via quality of data (cleanliness, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id188d2ef8">context</a> fidelity, and comprehension of privacy) exposed by URIs.</blockquote> <p>Here are some examples of the CrunchBase Linked Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id122756f8">Space</a>, as projected via our CruncBase Sponger Cartridge:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Famazon" id="link-id13e0fd18">Amazon.com</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fmicrosoft" id="link-id13eef9e0">Microsoft</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fgoogle" id="link-id13fe47a0">Google</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fapple" id="link-id170c73b8">Apple</a> </li> </ol>
The Future of the Desktop
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-21#1415
2008-08-21T15:26:18Z
2008-08-21T15:59:25.000001-04:00
<p> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/" id="link-id13ba6d90">Jason Kolb</a> (who <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2008/08/the-future-of-t.html" id="link-id1524e210">initially</a> nudged me to chime in), and then <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/future_of_the_desktop.php" id="link-id13a182c0">ReadWriteWeb</a>, and of course <a href="http://www.twine.com/item/11bshgkbr-1k5/the-future-of-the-desktop" id="link-id13f1e1f0">Nova's Twine about the topic</a>, have collectively started an interesting discussion about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a>.vNext (3.0 and beyond) under the heading: The Future of the Desktop.</p> <p>My contribution to the developing discourse takes the form of a Q&A session. I've taken the questions posed and provided answers that express my particular points of view: </p> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Is the desktop of the future going to just be a web-hosted version of the same old-fashioned desktop metaphors we have today?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: No, it's going to be a more <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/" id="link-id1524d4a0">Web Architecture</a> aware and compliant variant exposed by appropriate metaphors.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The desktop of the future is going to be a hosted web service</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: A vessel for exploiting the virtues of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10827ad0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id155bc698">Web</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The Browser is Going to Swallow Up the Desktop</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Literally, of course not! Metaphorically, of course! And then the Browser metaphor will decomposes into function specific bits of Web interaction amenable to orchestration by its users.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The focus of the desktop will shift from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1667e2e0">information</a> to attention</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: No! <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id104bb9c8">Knowledge</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1524dd48">Information</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> sharing courtesy of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10723640">Hyperdata</a> & Hypertext Linking.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Users are going to shift from acting as librarians to acting as daytraders</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: They were Librarians at Web 1.0, Journalist at Web 2.0, and Analysts in Web 3.0 (i.e, analyze structured and interlinked data), and CEOs in Web 4.0 (i.e. get Agents to do stuff intelligently en route to making decisions).</blockquote> <blockquote> <br /> <cite>Q: The Webtop will be more social and will leverage and integrate collective intelligence</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13a01ed0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id106343a8">Web</a> vessel will only require you to fill in your profile (once) and then serendipitous discovery and meshing of relevant data will simply happen (the serendipity quotient will grow in line with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10560050">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id100f4940">Web</a> density).</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The desktop of the future is going to have powerful semantic search and social search capabilities built-in</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: It is going to be able to "Find" rather than "Search" for stuff courtesy of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10a18a70">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10a976f0">Web</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite> Q: Interactive shared spaces will replace folders</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Data Spaces and their URIs (Data Source Names) replace everything. You simply choose the exploration metaphor that best suits you space interaction needs.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The Portable Desktop</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Ubiquitous Desktop i.e. do the same thing (all answers above) on any device connected to the Web.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The Smart Desktop</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Vessels with access to Smart Data (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1666e4e8">Linked Data</a> + Action driven <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id171d1ff0">Context</a> sprinklings).</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Federated, open policies and permissions</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: More federation for sure, XMPP will become a lot more important, and OAuth will enable resurgence of the federated aspects of the Web and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id100a66a8">Internet</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The personal cloud</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id104ba580">Personal Data Spaces</a> plugged into Clouds (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id15bbb970">Intranet</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id1026d6b0">Extranet</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id140508c8">Internet</a>).</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The WebOS</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: An operating system endowed with traditional Database and Host Operating system functionality such as: RDF Data Model, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-idd86f48">SPARQL</a> Query Language, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id13f47268">URI</a> based <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointer" id="link-id1055bc78">Pointer mechanism</a>, and HTTP based message Bus.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Who is most likely to own the future desktop?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: You! And all you need is a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id106b79e8">URI</a> (an ID or Data Source Name for "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id133c88a0">Entity</a> You") and a Profile Page (a place where "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id15fa8060">Entity</a> You" is Describe by You).</blockquote> <h3>One Last Thing</h3> <p>You can get a feel for the future desktop by <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/#Download" id="link-id165ec048">downloading</a> and then installing the <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/" id="link-id13baba38">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> plugin for Firefox, which allows you to switch viewing modes between Web Page and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13f12410">Linked Data</a> behind the page. :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id12496e48">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id1027f060">Get Yourself a URI in 5 Minutes or Less</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/DataPortability_and_DataSpaces/DataPortability_and_DataSpaces.html" id="link-id10890f70">Linked Data Spaces & Data Portability</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html" id="link-id137efdf8">Linked Data Conference Keynote</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id1239d300">RDFa</a> based remix edition that includes vital bits from <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1317a048">TimBL</a>'s <a href="http://www.linkeddataplanet.com/" id="link-id165f57c8">Linked Data Planet presentation</a>).</li> </ul>
Virtuoso's Universal Server Architecture (Conceptual & Technical)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-03#1406
2008-08-03T13:07:12Z
2008-08-05T18:07:45-04:00
As they say, a picture speaks a thousand words, so I am exposing two views of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13fe7df8">Virtuoso</a> that have been on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> for while. <br /> <br />Remember, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13f53ed0">Virtuoso</a> offers <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> management, data access, web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Application_server" id="link-id109f04b0">application server</a>, enterprise service bus, and virtualization of disparate and heterogeneous data sources, as part of a single, multi threaded, cross-platform server solution; hence it's description as a "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id104d2e48">Universal Server</a>".<br /> <br />Conceptual View:<br /> <br /> <img style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/vconc650.jpg" /> <br /> <br />Technical View (kinda missing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id10660110">PHP</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Perl" id="link-id1053d9b8">Perl</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Python_programming_language" id="link-id107bc9c0">Python</a> runtime hosting in the Virtual Application Sever realm):<br /> <br /> <img style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/virtuoso3arch.gif" /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x13cf3798">Virtuoso</a>'s architecture is not a reaction to current trends. The diagrams above are pretty old (with minor touch ups in recent times). At <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id13e194c0">OpenLink Software</a>, we've have a consistent world-view re. standards and the vital role they play when it comes to developing software that enables the construction and exploitation of "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id133c84a8">Context</a> Lenses" that tap into a substrate of Virtualized Logical Data Sources (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id104d1c30">SQL</a>, XML, RDF, Web Services, Full Text etc.).<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
DBpedia receives shot #1 of CLASSiness vaccine
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-05#1372
2008-06-05T17:11:34Z
2010-07-13T10:45:40-04:00
<p> The current live instance of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id107c7b60">DBpedia</a> has just received dose #1 of a series of planned "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10d3ec78">Context</a>" oriented booster shots. These shots seek to to protect <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id143648f0">DBpedia</a> from contextual incoherence as it grows in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> set expanse and popularity. Dose #1 (vaccine label: <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id16d497d0">Yago</a>) equips <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id13f90120">DBpedia</a> with a functional (albeit non exclusive) Data Dictionary component courtesy of the <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id10509a08">Yago</a> Class Hierarchy .</p> <p> When the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10a1b378">DBpedia</a> & <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id10934068">Yago</a> integration took place last year (around WWW2007, Banff) there was a little, but costly omission that occurred: nobody sought to load the <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id106e47f0">Yago</a> Class Hierarchy into the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13f90890">Virtuoso</a>'s Inference Engine :-(</p> <p> Anyway, the Class Hierarchy has now been loaded into the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id100004f8">Virtuoso</a>'s inference engine (as <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id139900e8">Virtuoso</a> Inference Rules) and the following queries are now feasible using the live <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id109b02c8">Virtuoso</a> based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id143624d8">DBpedia</a> instance hosted by <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id12f918c0">OpenLink Software</a>:</p> <p> -- Find all Fiction Books associated with a property "dbpedia:name" that has literal value: Â "The Lord of the Rings" .</p> <p> <span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none; ">Â </span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">DEFINE input:inference "http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#"<br /> </span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span">PREFIX rdf: &lt;http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#&gt;</span> </span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX dbpedia: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/property&gt;</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX yago: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/class/yago&gt;&nbsp;</span></span> </p> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><br /> </span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">SELECT DISTINCT Â ?s</span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">FROM < xmlns="http" dbpedia.org="dbpedia.org">//dbpedia.org></span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">WHERE {</span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s a yago:Fiction106367107 .</span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s dbpedia:name "The Lord of the Rings"@en .</span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">}</span></span> </div> <p> -- Variant of query with <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10870920">Virtuoso</a>'s Full Text Index extension via the bif:contains function/magic predicate</p> <p> <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">DEFINE input:inference "http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#"</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX rdf: &lt;http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#&gt;</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX dbpedia: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/property&gt;</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX yago: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/class/yago&gt;&nbsp;</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">SELECT DISTINCT ?s ?n</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">FROM < xmlns="http" dbpedia.org="dbpedia.org">//dbpedia.org></span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">WHERE {</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s a yago:Fiction106367107 .</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s dbpedia:name ?n .</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?n bif:contains 'Lord and Rings'</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">}</span></span> </p> <p> -- Retrieve all individuals instances of Fiction Class which should include all Books.</p> <p> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size:16px;">DEFINE input:inference "http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#"<br /> </span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span">PREFIX rdf: &lt;http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#&gt;</span> </span></span> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size:16px;">PREFIX dbpedia: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/property&gt;<br /> </span></span> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><br /> </span> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size:16px;">PREFIX yago: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/class/yago&gt;&nbsp;</span></span> </p> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><br /> </span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">SELECT DISTINCT ?s</span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">FROM < xmlns="http" dbpedia.org="dbpedia.org">//dbpedia.org></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">WHERE {</span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s a yago:Fiction106367107 .</span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">} LIMIT 50</span> </div> <p> Note: you can also move the inference pragmas to the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13dd0d20">Virtuoso</a> Sever side i.e place the inference rules in a server instance config file, thereby negating the need to place "define input:inference 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#'" pragmas directly in your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10dddd08">SPARQL</a> queries.</p> <h3> Related</h3> <ul> <li> Mike's <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=431" id="link-id13f2f318">UMBEL: Making Linked Data Classy</a>post</li> <li> Fred's announcement about the <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/12/20/second-version-of-yago-more-facts-and-entities/" id="link-id10a1b178">Yago revamp en route to UMBEL</a> </li> <li> <uo> <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2008/04/20/exploding-the-domain-umbel-web-services-by-zitgist/" id="link-id14363358">Expanding Data Object Domains via UMBEL</a> </uo> </li> <li> My <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=umbel&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1101ca98">Prior posts about UMBEL</a> </li> </ul>
Context, Tagging, Semantic Web, and Linked Data (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-22#1366
2008-05-22T17:23:02Z
2008-05-27T18:36:37-04:00
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/about.html" id="link-id101d8750">Nova Spivack</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/MindingThePlanet/~3/295624567/tagging-and-the.html" id="link-id11067248">Tagging and the Semantic Web: Tags as Objects</a>, I stumbled across a related post by <a href="http://www.designmills.com/" id="link-idffb9a38">John Clarke</a> titled: <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DesignMills/~3/294554634/" id="link-id101d6138">Tagging and the Semantic Web</a>. Both of these posts use the common practice of tagging to shed light on the increasing realization that "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id11011f98"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1356" id="link-id1003f248">The Pursuit of Context</a></a>" is the fusion point between the current <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> and its evolution into a structured Web of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id101d6788">Linked Data</a>.</p> <h3>How Semantic Tagging Works (from a 1000 feet)</h3> <p>When tagging a document, the semantic tagging service passes the content of a target document through a processing pipeline (a distillation process of sorts) that results in automagic extraction of the following:</p> <ul> -- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Named_entity_recognition" id="link-id1015fdd0">Named Entities</a> </ul> <ul>-- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Topic" id="link-id100ccff8">Subject matter Entities</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Topic" id="link-idfe9a898">Subject matter Concepts</a> reflecting topics covered by the document</ul> <p>Once the extraction phase is completed, a user is presented with a list of "suggested tags" using a variety of user interaction techniques. The literal values of elected Tags are then associated with one or more <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-idfed5eb0">Tag</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id101ae0c8">Tag</a> Meaning <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Objects, with each Object type endowed with a unique Identifier.</p> <h3>Issues to Note</h3> <p>Broad acceptance that: "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id100b9010">Context</a> is king", is gradually taking shape. That said, "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id101d2670">Context</a>" landlocked within Literal values offers little over what we have right now (e.g. at <a href="http://del.icio.us" id="link-id1004be08">Del.icio.us</a> or <a href="http://www.technorati.com" id="link-id100421c8">Technorati</a>), long term. By this I mean: if the end product of semantically enhanced tagging leaves us with: Literal <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id101e5730">Tag</a> values only, Tags associated with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id1004a890">Tag</a> Data Objects endowed with platform specific Identifiers, or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id100364f8">Tag</a> Data Objects with any other Identity scheme that excludes <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id101e6630">HTTP</a>, the ability of Web users to discern or derive multiple perspectives from the base <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10180868">Context</a> (exposed by semantically enhanced Tags) will be lost, or severely impeded at best.</p> <p>The shape, form, and quality of the lookup substrate that underlies semantic tagging services, ultimately affects "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10160f28">context</a> fidelity" matters such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id100f2618">Entity</a> Disambiguation. The importance of quality lookup infrastructure on the burgeoning <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10044b10">Linked Data Web</a> is the reason why <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id10102360">OpenLink Software</a> is intimately involved with the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id110760f8">DBpedia</a> and <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id1015fc68">UMBEL</a> projects. </p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>I am immensely happy to see that the Web 2.0 and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-idffb8ca8">Semantic Web</a> communities are beginning to coalesce around the issue of "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id101656b0">Context</a>". This was the case at the <a href="http://events.linkeddata.org/ldow2008/" id="link-id1017b878">WWW2008 Linked Data Workshop</a>, I am feeling a similar vibe emerging from the <a href="http://www.semantic-conference.com/" id="link-idffb9978">Semantic Web Technologies</a> conference currently nearing completion in San Jose. Of course, I will be talking about, and demonstrating practical utility of all of this, at the upcoming <a href="http://www.linkeddataplanet.com" id="link-id10042168">Linked Data Planet</a> conference.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/tagcloud" id="link-id147a1848">My Data Space Tag Cloud</a> (*a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x24756e98">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x24c2bd20">Space</a>*) </ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.faviki.com/" id="link-id101ac668">Faviki</a> (note: this service needs to expose <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1042cdc0">Linked Data</a> compliant <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id1038c2e0">Tag</a> URIs) </ul> <ul> <a href="http://moat-project.org/ontology" id="link-id10199770">MOAT Ontology</a> </ul>
ODBC & WODBC Comparison
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-20#1364
2008-05-20T19:37:53Z
2008-05-20T15:46:11-04:00
<p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id100eb550">ODBC</a> delivers open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-idffd2338">data</a> access (by reference) to a broad range of enterprise databases via a '<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id104fd1d8">C</a>' based API. Thanks to the <a href="http://www.iodbc.org" id="link-id104721b0">iODBC</a> and <a href="http://www.unixodbc.org" id="link-id10954990">unixODBC</a> projects, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id10494670">ODBC</a> is available across broad range of platforms beyond Windows.</p> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id0xc900928">ODBC</a> identifies <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10f82200">data</a> sources using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0xcaad080">Data</a> Source Names (DSNs). </p> <p> WODBC (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Open Database Connectivity) delivers open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access to Web Databases / Data Spaces. The Data Source Naming scheme: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1009ce40">URI</a> or IRI, is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id101fc1b0">HTTP</a> based thereby enabling data access by reference via the Web. </p> <p><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity">ODBC</a> DSNs bind ODBC client applications to Tables, Views, Stored Procedures. </p> <p>WODBC DSNs bind you to a Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id10182a88">Space</a> (e.g. my <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-id105a7858">FOAF based Profile Page</a> where you can use the "Explore Data Tab" to look around if you are a human visitor) or a specific <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id10bd8578">Entity</a> within a Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id10780dc0">Space</a> (i.e <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id10848e08">Person Entity Me</a>).</p> <p>ODBC Drivers are built using APIs (DBMS Call Level Interfaces) provided by DBMS vendors. Thus, a DBMS vendor can chose not to release an API, or do so selectivity, for competitive advantage or market disruption purposes (it's happened!).</p> <p>WODBC Drivers are also built using APIs (Web Services associated with a Web Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0xcbe6348">Space</a>). These drivers are also referred to as <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20middleware&type=text&output=html" id="link-id16564058">RDF Middleware</a> or RDFizers. The "Web" component of WODBC ensures openness, you publish Data with URIs from your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1064a768">Linked Data</a> Server and that's it; your data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces">space</a> or specific data entities are live and accessible (by reference) over the Web!</p> <p>So we have come full circle (or cycle), the Web is becoming more of a structured database everyday! What's new is old, and what's old is new! </p> <p>Data Access is everything, without "Data" there is no <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id100a9de8">information</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id10bb67e8">knowledge</a>. Without "Data" there's not notion of vitality, purpose, or value.</p> <p>URIs make or break everything in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10a71638">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10494400">Web</a> just as ODBC DSNs do within the enterprise. </p> <p>I've deliberately left <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id10a05280">JDBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id104e4a70">ADO</a>.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id10215668">NET</a>, and OLE-DB out of this piece due to their respective programming languages and frameworks specificity. None of these mechanisms match the platform availability breadth of ODBC.</p> <p>The Web as a true <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Model-view-controller" id="link-id108ee598">M</a>-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Model-view-controller" id="link-id0xcda5e90">V</a>-C pattern is now crystalizing. The "M" (Model) component of M-V-C is finally rising to the realm of broad attention courtesy of the "<a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id1024ff08">Linked Data" meme</a> and "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1831b418">Semantic Web</a>" vision.</p> <p>By the way, M-V-C lines up nicely with Web 1.0 (Web Forms / Pages), Web 2.0 (Web Services based APIs), and Web 3.0 (Data Web, Web of Data, or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xb6d0e90">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id0xb22a158">Web</a>) :-)</p>
Linked Data enters state of Evoluation
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-29#1351
2008-04-29T19:56:14Z
2008-04-29T16:25:47-04:00
<p>During a brief chat with <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/mhausenblas#this" id="link-idfeb0100">Michael Hausenblas</a> about a new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1049feb0">Linked Data</a> project he is championing called: <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData/LForum" id="link-id16a857d8">LForum</a>, I made a freudian slip, in the form of the typo: <strong>Evoluation</strong>, which at the time was supposed to have been: <strong>Evolution</strong>. Anyway, we had a chuckle and realized we were on to something, so I proceeded to formalize the definition: </p> <blockquote> <cite>Evoluation is evolution devoid of the randomness of mutation. A state of being in which it is possible to evaluate and choose evolutionary paths.</cite> </blockquote> <p> <strong>Evoluation</strong> actually describes where we are today in relation to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id105c1518">World Wide Web</a>; to the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id103f9d00">Linking Open Data community</a> (<a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id1048c210">LOD</a>), it's taking the path towards becoming a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id104c3a20">Giant Global Graph</a> of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id104968e0">Linked Data</a>; to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 2.0 community, it's simply a collection of Web Services and associated APIs; and to many others, it remains an opaque collection of interlinked documents.</p> <p>The great thing about the Web is that it allows netizens to explore a plethora of paths without adversely affecting the paths of others. That said, controlling one's path may take mutation out of evolution, but we are still left with the requirement to adapt and eventually survive in a competitive environment. Thus, although we can evaluate and choose from the many paths the Web's evolution offers us, the path that delivers the most benefits ultimately dominates. :-) </p>
Linked Data Illustrated and a Virtuoso Functionality Reminder
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-28#1342
2008-04-28T17:32:47Z
2008-04-28T14:47:06.000001-04:00
<a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/danieljohnlewis#this" id="link-id156ceb30">Daniel Lewis</a> has put together a nice <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/04/27/linked-data-the-role-of-the-data-server/" id="link-id10456040">collection of Linked Data related posts</a> that illustrate the fundamentals of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1033f6f0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id106fa168">Web</a> and the vital role that <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10141c20">Virtuoso</a> plays as a deployment platform. Remember, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10301e38">Virtuoso</a> was architected in 1998 (see <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSHistory" id="link-id10c44088">Virtuoso History</a>) in anticipation of the eventual <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id1383a1e8">Internet</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id1028e770">Intranet</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id14b07b40">Extranet</a> level requirements for a different kind of Server. At the time of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14ad24a8">Virtuoso</a>'s inception, many thought our desire to build a multi-protocol, multi-model, and multi-purpose, virtual and native <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id108dac48">data</a> server was sheer craziness, but we pressed on (courtesy of our vision and technical capabilities). Today, we have a very sophisticated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id14a65d48">Universal Server</a> Platform (in Open Source and Commercial forms) that is naturally equipped to do the following via very simple interfaces: <ul> - Produce <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id11fb1170">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10871da8">Linked Data</a> from non <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id156ec3d0">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10f0ca38">Data</a> Sources (Heterogeneous <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id15133078">SQL</a>, XML, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services)</ul> <ul> - Provide highly scalable <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10585940">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id15151e10">Data</a> Management via a Quad Store (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1530d640">DBpedia</a> is an example of a live demonstration)</ul> <ul> - Sophisticated Deployment of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10141c80">Linked Data</a> that exploits the power of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1064fa18">SPARQL</a> </ul> <ul> - Powerful WebDAV innovations that simplify read-write mode interaction with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1396ff68">Linked Data</a> </ul> <ul> - Use Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id108256e8">Data Virtualization</a> to address the pain and frustration associated with Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id147e65f8">Data</a> Silos (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-idffaf078">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> layer stop <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14ae8fe8">Virtuoso</a> that delivers <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id0xa0fb5e40">Personal Data Spaces</a> / Unified Storage in the Clouds) </ul> <ul> - Deliver a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10869700">Linked Data</a> development and deployment platform to .<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/.NET_Framework" id="link-id1514cac0">NET</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Visual_Basic" id="link-id10c107a8">VB</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id101f3c68">C</a>#) , Java, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id106e4710">PHP</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ruby_programming_language" id="link-id10277448">Ruby</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Perl" id="link-id10a75748">Perl</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Python_programming_language" id="link-id12fdb118">Python</a>, '<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id10c9d9e0">C</a>', <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C%2B%2B" id="link-id10392400">C++</a>, and other developers </ul> <ul>- More...</ul>
Linked Data enabling PHP Applications
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-10#1334
2008-04-10T18:09:49Z
2008-04-10T14:12:47-04:00
<p> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/danieljohnlewis#this" id="link-id10820610">Daniel lewis</a> has penned a variation of post about <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/04/10/simplified-adding-wordpress-blogs-into-the-linked-data-web-using-virtuoso/" id="link-id10827948">Linked Data enabling PHP applications</a> such as: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id10426278">Wordpress</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id13f431c0">phpBB3</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id10dd8760">MediaWiki</a> etc.</p> <p>Daniel simplifies my post by using diagrams to depict the different paths for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id10adcc08">PHP</a> based applications exposing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id107b4e60">Linked Data</a> - especially those that already provide a significant amount of the content that drives <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id13b0ab48">Web</a> 2.0.</p> <p>If all the content in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1d499470">Web</a> 2.0 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id12bd3b10">information</a> resources are distillable into discrete <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10962060">data</a> objects endowed with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id176a30e8">HTTP</a> based IDs (URIs), with zero "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20tax&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1098bcd8">RDF handcrafting Tax</a>", what do we end up with? A <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1372ce88">Giant Global Graph</a> of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xa29f0658">Linked Data</a>; the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> as a Database.</p> <p>So, what used to apply exclusively, within enterprise settings re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id12d91448">Oracle</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_DB2" id="link-id13dd27d8">DB2</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-id108e6b98">Informix</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id13383708">Ingres</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Sybase" id="link-idfed8aa8">Sybase</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Microsoft_SQL_Server" id="link-id10b8b190">Microsoft SQL Server</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-id13066ea8">MySQL</a>, PostrgeSQL, Progress Open Edge, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Firebird_database_server" id="link-id104f0a78">Firebird</a>, and others, now applies to the Web. The Web becomes the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id105a5340">Distributed Database</a> Bus" that connects database records across disparate databases (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0xc706c68">Data</a> Spaces). These databases manage and expose records that are remotely accessible "by reference" via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id0x1c8f7fe0">HTTP</a>.</p> <p>As I've stated at every opportunity in the past, Web 2.0 is the greatest thing that every happened to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id13d65278">Semantic Web</a> vision :-) Without the "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=Web%202.0%20%20conundrum&type=text&output=html" id="link-id100d16d0">Web 2.0 Data Silo Conundrum</a>" we wouldn't have the cry for "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Portability" that brings a lot of clarity to some fundamental Web 2.0 limitations that end-users ultimately find unacceptable.</p> <p> In the late '80s, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-idff4f0d0">SQL</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL_Access_Group" id="link-id138fbd40">Access Group</a> (now part of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/X/Open" id="link-id104ee010">X</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/X/Open" id="link-id0xac9eab8">Open</a>) addressed a similar problem with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id106d2008">RDBMS</a> silos within the enterprise that lead to the SAG <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Call_Level_Interface" id="link-id105d45d0">CLI</a> which is exists today as Open Database Connectivity.</p> <p>In a sense we now have WODBC (Web Open Database Connectivity), comprised of Web Services based CLIs and/or traditional back-end DBMS CLIs (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13f58708">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id10aa81e0">JDBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id5fddb68">ADO</a>.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id0x9f085a10">NET</a>, OLE-DB, or Native), Query Language (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10adb5c8">SPARQL</a> Query Language), and a Wire Protocol (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol">HTTP</a> based <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/" id="link-id126fa068">SPARQL Protocol</a>) delivering Web infrastructure equivalents of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0x1d0a5fc8">SQL</a> and RDA, but much better, and with much broader scope for delivering profound value due to the Web's inherent openness. Today's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id0xc88ed68">PHP</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Python_programming_language" id="link-id10a70530">Python</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ruby_programming_language" id="link-id13d9da18">Ruby</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tcl" id="link-id10a3c2a8">Tcl</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Perl" id="link-id13e1b6f0">Perl</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ASP.NET" id="link-id10810388">ASP</a>.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ASP.NET" id="link-id0xa22ce378">NET</a> developer is the enterprise <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/4GL" id="link-id1396a500">4GL</a> developer of yore, without enterprise confinement. We could even be talking about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/5GL" id="link-id1077f250">5GL</a> development once the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> interaction is meshed with dynamic languages (delivering higher levels of abstraction at the language and data interaction levels). Even the underlying schemas and basic design will evolve from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Closed_world_assumption" id="link-id10b280c8">Closed World</a> (solely) to a mesh of Closed & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_world_assumption" id="link-id104b9978">Open World</a> view schemas.</p>
Semantic Web Patterns: A Guide to Semantic Technologies (Update 2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-27#1329
2008-03-27T00:08:13Z
2008-07-16T21:43:36-04:00
<p>For all the one-way feed consumers and aggregators, and readers of the original post, here is a variant equipped hyperlinked phrases as opposed to words. As I stated in the prior post, the post (like most of my posts) was part experiment / dog-fodding of automatic tagging and hyper-linking functionality in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x194f56f0">OpenLink Data Spaces</a>. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id0x1bddde00">ReadWriteWeb</a> via <a href="http://alexiskold.wordpress.com/" id="link-id154ae848">Alex Iskold's post</a> have delivered another iteration of their "Guide to Semantic Technologies". </p> <p>If you look at the title of this post (and <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/readwriteweb/%7E3/257943334/semantic_web_patterns.php" id="link-id10a9a900">their article</a>) they seem to be accurately providing a guide to Semantic Technologies, so no qualms there. If on the other hand, this is supposed to he a guide to the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x15ccef28">Semantic Web</a>" as prescribed by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id0xb94a2d40">TimBL</a> then they are completely missing the essence of the whole subject, and demonstrably so I may add, since the entities: "<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com">ReadWriteWeb</a>" and "<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/iskold" id="link-id0x19960308">Alex Iskold</a>" are only describable today via the attributes of the documents they publish i.e their respective blogs and hosted <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0x1a719968">blog</a> posts.</p> <blockquote> <p>Preoccupation with Literal objects as describe above, implies we can only take what "ReadWriteWeb" and "<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/iskold">Alex Iskold</a>" say "Literally" (<a href="http://dbpedia/resource/Grep" id="link-id0xbc8568f8">grep</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/regular_expression" id="link-id0x1d915e70">regex</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath" id="link-id0xbc617820">XPath</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id0x150e1c50">Xquery</a> are the only tools for searching deeper in this Literal realm), we have no sense of what makes them tick or where they come from, no history (bar "About Page" blurb), no <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> connections beyond anchored text (more pointers to opaque data sources) in post and blogrolls. The only connection between this post and them is the my deliberate use of the same literal text in the Title of this post.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i">TimBL</a>'s vision as espoused via the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a>" vision is about the production, consumption, and sharing of Data Objects via HTTP based Identifiers called URIs/IRIs (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xb867ced0">Hyperdata</a> Links / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x3c8f438">Linked Data</a>). It's how we use the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> as a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id0xbcb04f20">Distributed Database</a> where (as <a href="http://www.cs.umd.edu/~hendler/2003/foaf.rdf#jhendler" id="link-id0xb8595f18">Jim Hendler</a> once stated with immense clarity): I can point to records (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0xbc9c8ab8">entity</a> instances) in your database (aka <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x3b911c0">Data Space</a>) from mine. Which is to say that if we can all point to data entities/objects (not just data entities of type "Document") using these Location, Value, and Structure independent Object Identifiers (courtesy of HTTP) we end up with a much more powerful Web, and one that is closer to the "Federated and Open" nature of the Web.</p> <p>As I stated in a prior post, if you or your platform of choice aren't producing de-referencable URIs for your data objects, you may be Semantic (this data model predates the Web), but there is no "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0xbcb968b0">World Wide Web</a>" in what you are doing.</p> <h2>What are the Benefits of the Semantic Web?</h2> <ul> <strong>Consumer</strong> - "Discovery of relevant things" and be being "Discovered by relevant things" (people, places, events, and other things)</ul> <ul> <strong>Enterprise</strong> - ditto plus the addition of enterprise domain specific things such as market opportunities, product portfolios, human resources, partners, customers, competitors, co-opetitors, acquisition targets, new regulation etc..)</ul> <h2>Simple demo:</h2> <blockquote> <p>I am a <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0x150661b0">Kingsley Idehen</a>, a Person who authors <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen" id="link-id0x3b956d0">this weblog</a>. I also share bookmarks gathered over the years across an array of subjects via <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/bookmark/KingsleyBookmarks" id="link-id0x164fecb0">my bookmark data space</a>. I also subscribe to a number of RSS/Atom/RDF feeds, which I share via my feeds subscription data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces">space</a>. Of course, all of these data sources have Tags which are collectively exposed via my <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/weblog/MyBlogDataSpace/tagcloud" id="link-id0x15188c50">weblog tag-cloud</a>, feeds subscriptions <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id0x5f38b98">tag</a>-cloud, and <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/bookmark/KingsleyBookmarks/tagcloud" id="link-id0xb93c2a50">bookmarks tag-cloud</a> data spaces.</p> <p>As I don't like repeating myself, and I hate wasting my time or the time of others, I simply share <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen" id="link-id0x3aeba98">my Data Space</a> (a collection of all of my purpose specific data spaces) via the Web so that others (friends, family, employees, partners, customers, project collaborators, competitors, co-opetitors etc.) can can intentionally or serendipitously discover relevant data en route to creating new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x14e35d78">information</a> (perspectives) that is hopefully exposed others via the Web.</p> </blockquote> <p>Bottom-line, the Semantic Web is about adding the missing "Open Data Access & Connectivity" feature to the current Document Web (we have to beyond <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/regular_expression">regex</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia/resource/Grep">grep</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath">xpath</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery">xquery</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id0x1c1bf9c8">full text search</a>, and other literal scrapping approaches). The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id0x14c9e0e8">Web</a> of de-referencable data object URIs is the critical foundation layer that makes this feasible.</p> <p> Remember, It's not about "Applications" it's about Data and actually freeing Data from the "tyranny of Applications". Unfortunately, application inadvertently always create silos (esp. on the Web) since <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity">entity</a> data modeling, open data access, and other database technology realm matters, remain of secondary interest to many application developers.</p> <p>Final comment, RDF facilitates Linked Data on the Web, but all RDF isn't endowed with de-referencable URIs (a major source of confusion and misunderstanding). Thus, you can have RDF Data Source Providers that simply project RDF data silos via Web Services APIs if RDF output emanating from a Web Service doesn't provide out-bound pathways to other data via de-referencable URIs. Of course the same also applies to Widgets that present you with all the things they've discovered without exposing de-referencable URIs for each item.</p> <p>BTW - my final comments above aren't in anyway incongruent with devising successful business models for the Web. As you may or may not know, OpenLink is not only a major platform provider for the Semantic Web (expressed in our UDA, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0xb919b098">Virtuoso</a>, OpenLink Data Spaces, and OAT products), we are also actively seeding Semantic Web (tribe: Linked Data of course) startups. For instance, <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/" id="link-id0x1481b218">Zitgist</a>, which now has <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/mkbergman#this" id="link-id0xb869bb18">Mike Bergman</a> as it's CEO alongside <a href="http://fgiasson.com/me/" id="link-id0x1d18fe50">Frederick Giasson</a> as CTO. Of course, I cannot do <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/">Zitgist</a> justice via a footnote in a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog">blog</a> post, so I will expand further in a separate post.</p> <h2>Additional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information">information</a> about this blog post: </h2> <ol> <li> I didn't spent hours looking for URIs used in my hyperlinks</li> <li> The post is best viewed via an RDF Linked Data aware user agents (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id0x19af3468">OpenLink RDF Browser</a>, Zitgist <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id0x13b17138">Data Viewer</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser" id="link-id0xbc8579e0">DISCO Hyperdata Browser</a>, <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id0x18ad0ec8">Tabulator</a>).</li> </ol>
Semantic Web Patterns: A Guide to Semantic Technologies (Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-26#1328
2008-03-26T22:44:00Z
2008-07-16T21:43:04-04:00
<p> <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id11846528">ReadWriteWeb</a> via <a href="http://alexiskold.wordpress.com/" id="link-id154ae848">Alex Iskold</a> have delivered another iteration of their "Guide to Semantic Technologies". </p> <p>If you look at the title of this post (and <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/readwriteweb/%7E3/257943334/semantic_web_patterns.php" id="link-id10a9a900">their article</a>) they seem to be accurately providing a guide to Semantic Technologies, so no qualms there. If on the other hand, this is supposed to he a guide to the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0xbcb19320">Semantic Web</a>" as prescribed by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id0xb8725878">TimBL</a> then they are completely missing the essence of the whole subject, and demonstrably so I may add, since the entities: "<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id0x16804040">ReadWriteWeb</a>" and "<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/iskold" id="link-id0x13f08538">Alex Iskold</a>" are only describable today via the attributes of the documents they publish i.e their respective blogs and hosted <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0x1850ca98">blog</a> posts. </p> <blockquote> <p>Preoccupation with Literal objects as describe above, implies we can only take what "<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com">ReadWriteWeb</a>" and "<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/iskold">Alex Iskold</a>" say "Literally" (<a href="http://dbpedia/resource/Grep" id="link-id0xb95a6a40">grep</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/regular_expression" id="link-id0x1a719968">regex</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath" id="link-id0xb89d78b8">XPath</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id0x1bddde00">Xquery</a> are the only tools for searching deeper in this Literal realm), we have no sense of what makes them tick or where they come from, no history (bar "About Page" blurb), no <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> connections beyond anchored text (more pointers to opaque data sources) in post and blogrolls. The only connection between this post and them is the my deliberate use of the same literal text in the Title of this post.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i">TimBL</a>'s vision as espoused via the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a>" vision is about the production, consumption, and sharing of Data Objects via HTTP based Identifiers called URIs/IRIs (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x150e7be0">Hyperdata</a> Links / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x18e50818">Linked Data</a>). It's how we use the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> as a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id0x194f56f0">Distributed Database</a> where (as <a href="http://www.cs.umd.edu/~hendler/2003/foaf.rdf#jhendler" id="link-id0x17043b38">Jim Hendler</a> once stated with immense clarity): I can point to records (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x1476f788">entity</a> instances) in your database (aka <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x2621140">Data Space</a>) from mine. Which is to say that if we can all point to data entities/objects (not just data entities of type "Document") using these Location, Value, and Structure independent Object Identifiers (courtesy of HTTP) we end up with a much more powerful Web, and one that is closer to the "Federated and Open" nature of the Web.</p> <p>As I stated in a prior post, if you or your platform of choice aren't producing de-referencable URIs for your data objects, you may be Semantic (this data model predates the Web), but there is no "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0xb860eec8">World Wide Web</a>" in what you are doing.</p> <h2>What are the Benefits of the Semantic Web?</h2> <ul> <strong>Consumer</strong> - "Discovery of relevant things" and be being "Discovered by relevant things" (people, places, events, and other things)</ul> <ul> <strong>Enterprise</strong> - ditto plus the addition of enterprise domain specific things such as market opportunities, product portfolios, human resources, partners, customers, competitors, co-opetitors, acquisition targets, new regulation etc..)</ul> <h2>Simple demo:</h2> <blockquote> <p>I am a <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0x15394798">Kingsley Idehen</a>, a Person who authors <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen" id="link-id0x2556670">this weblog</a>. I also share bookmarks gathered over the years across an array of subjects via <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/bookmark/KingsleyBookmarks" id="link-id0x142eaa10">my bookmark data space</a>. I also subscribe to a number of RSS/Atom/RDF feeds, which I share via my feeds subscription data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces">space</a>. Of course, all of these data sources have Tags which are collectively exposed via my <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/weblog/MyBlogDataSpace/tagcloud" id="link-id0x140b8050">weblog tag-cloud</a>, feeds subscriptions <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id0x15158d60">tag</a>-cloud, and <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/bookmark/KingsleyBookmarks/tagcloud" id="link-id0xb8652490">bookmarks tag-cloud</a> data spaces.</p> <p>As I don't like repeating myself, and I hate wasting my time or the time of others, I simply share <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen" id="link-id0x13b63208">my Data Space</a> (a collection of all of my purpose specific data spaces) via the Web so that others (friends, family, employees, partners, customers, project collaborators, competitors, co-opetitors etc.) can can intentionally or serendipitously discover relevant data en route to creating new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x14365150">information</a> (perspectives) that is hopefully exposed others via the Web.</p> </blockquote> <p>Bottom-line, the Semantic Web is about adding the missing "Open Data Access & Connectivity" feature to the current Document Web (we have to beyond <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/regular_expression">regex</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia/resource/Grep">grep</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath">xpath</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery">xquery</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id0x15ccef28">full text search</a>, and other literal scrapping approaches). The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id0x1a2810b8">Web</a> of de-referencable data object URIs is the critical foundation layer that makes this feasible.</p> <p> Remember, It's not about "Applications" it's about Data and actually freeing Data from the "tyranny of Applications". Unfortunately, application inadvertently always create silos (esp. on the Web) since <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity">entity</a> data modeling, open data access, and other database technology realm matters, remain of secondary interest to many application developers.</p> <p>Final comment, RDF facilitates Linked Data on the Web, but all RDF isn't endowed with de-referencable URIs (a major source of confusion and misunderstanding). Thus, you can have RDF Data Source Providers that simply project RDF data silos via Web Services APIs if RDF output emanating from a Web Service doesn't provide out-bound pathways to other data via de-referencable URIs. Of course the same also applies to Widgets that present you with all the things they've discovered without exposing de-referencable URIs for each item.</p> <p>BTW - my final comments above aren't in anyway incongruent with devising successful business models for the Web. As you may or may not know, OpenLink is not only a major platform provider for the Semantic Web (expressed in our UDA, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x19e44e80">Virtuoso</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id0xb8637720">OpenLink Data Spaces</a>, and OAT products), we are also actively seeding Semantic Web (tribe: Linked Data of course) startups. For instance, <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/" id="link-id0x397b940">Zitgist</a>, which now has <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/mkbergman#this" id="link-id0x5fabcf0">Mike Bergman</a> as it's CEO alongside <a href="http://fgiasson.com/me/" id="link-id0xb84720f8">Frederick Giasson</a> as CTO. Of course, I cannot do <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/">Zitgist</a> justice via a footnote in a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog">blog</a> post, so I will expand further in a separate post.</p> <h2>Additional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information">information</a> about this blog post:</h2> <ol> <li> I didn't spent hours looking for URIs used in my hyperlinks </li> <li> The post is best viewed via an RDF Linked Data aware user agents (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id0x3ac1b68">OpenLink RDF Browser</a>, Zitgist <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id0x1d8e7ec0">Data Viewer</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser" id="link-id0x19af3468">DISCO Hyperdata Browser</a>, <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id0x1532e630">Tabulator</a>).</li> </ol>
Linked Data is vital to Enterprise Integration driven Agility
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-21#1325
2008-03-22T01:56:00Z
2008-03-22T14:13:41.000002-04:00
<p> <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/207/489" id="link-id10914030">John Schmidt</a>, from Informatica, penned an interesting post titled: <a href="http://blogs.informatica.com/enterprise_data_management/2008/03/it_doesnt_matter_integration_d.html" id="link-idd6d76d8">IT Doesn't Matter - Integration Does</a>. </p> <p>Yes, integration is hard, but I do profoundly believe that what's been happening on the Web over the last 10 or so years also applies to the Enterprise, and by this I absolutely do not mean "Enterprise 2.0" since "2.0" and productive agility do not compute in my realm of discourse. </p> <blockquote>large collections of RSS feeds, Wikiwords, Shared Bookmarks, Discussion Forums etc.. when disconnected at the data level (i.e. hosted in pages with no access to the "data behind") simply offer information deluge and inertia (there are only so many hours for processing opaque information sources in a given day).</blockquote> <p>Enterprises fundamentally need to process information efficiently as part of a perpetual assessment of their relative competitive Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SWOT_analysis" id="link-id10776fe8">SWOT</a>), in existing and/or future markets. Historically, IT acquisitions have run counter intuitively to the aforementioned quest for "Ability" due to the predominance of "rip and replace" approach technology acquisition that repeatedly creates and perpetuates information silos across Application, Database, Operating System, Development Environment boundaries. The sequence of events typically occurs as follows:</p> <ol> <li> applications are acquired on a problem by problem basis</li> <li>back-end application databases are discovered once ad-hoc information views are sought by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information_worker" id="link-id10a111c8">information workers</a> </li> <li>back-end database disparity across applications is discovered once holistic views are sought by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge_worker" id="link-id107997d8">knowledge workers</a> (typically <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Domain_expert" id="link-id102ddf08">domain experts</a>).</li> </ol> <p>In the early to mid 90's (pre ubiquitous Web), operating system, programming language, operating system, and development framework independence inside the enterprise was technically achievable via ODBC (due to it's platform independence). That said, DBMS specific <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id10889d20">ODBC</a> channels alone couldn't address the holistic requirements associated with Conceptual Views of disparate data sources, hence the need for Data Access Virtualization via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id10884490">Virtual Database</a> Engine technology.</p> <p>Just as is the case on the Web today, with the emergence of the "Linked Data" meme, enterprises now have a powerful mechanism for exploiting the Data Integration benefits associated with generating Data Objects from disparate data sources, endowed with HTTP based IDs (URIs).</p> <p>Conceptualizing access to data exposed Databases APIs, SOA based Web Services (SOAP style Web Services), Web 2.0 APIs (REST style Web Services), XML Views of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id117f8a00">SQL</a> Data (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL/XML" id="link-id104bb730">SQLX</a>), pure XML etc.. is problem area addressed by RDF aware middleware (<a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/ConverterToRdf" id="link-id10a9deb8">RDFizers</a> e.g <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Sponger_1/Virtuoso_Sponger_1.html" id="link-id10256fb0">Virtuoso Sponger</a>).</p> <img src="http://myopenlink.net:8890/%7Ekidehen/Public/images/URI_Data_Source_Pyra_Enterp.png" /> <p>Here are examples of what <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3.html" id="link-id129a6a30">SQL Rows exposed as RDF Data Objects </a>(identified using HTTP based URIs) would look like outside or behind a corporate firewall:</p> <ul> Customer - <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI#this" id="link-id1183acd8">Alfreds Futterkiste</a> </ul> <ul>Customer Contact - <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/CustomerContact/ALFKI#this" id="link-id11746bb0">Maria Anders</a> </ul> <ul>Salesrep - <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Employee/NancyDavolio1#this" id="link-idff76ed8">Nancy Davolio</a> </ul> <ul>Customer Orders Numbers - <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Order/11084#this" id="link-id10ca2648">11084</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Order/11011#this" id="link-id11736160">11011</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Order/11078#this" id="link-id108156e0">11078</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Order/11088#this" id="link-id10747f30">11085</a> </ul> <p>What's Good for the Web Goose (<a href="http://kidehen.idehen.net/dataspace/person/kidehen%23this%3E" id="link-id10a33c50">Personal Data Space URIs</a>) is good for the Enterprise Gander (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id109fbbe0">Enterprise Data Space URIs</a>).</p> <h2>Related</h2> <ul> <a href="http://blogs.informatica.com/enterprise_data_management/2008/02/data_access_a_cultural_or_tech.html" id="link-idffe8168">Data Access - A Cultural or Technical Challenge?</a> </ul>
So, What Does "HREF" Stand For, Anyway
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-12#1323
2008-03-12T16:08:46Z
2008-04-10T16:13:50-04:00
<p>As per usual I am writing this post with the aim of killing a number of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme" id="link-id0x1caa10d8">meme</a>-birds with a single post in relation to the emerging <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id156867c8">Linked Data Web</a>.</p> <p>*On* the ubiquitous <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1e5a1a08">Web</a> of "Linked Documents", HREF means (by definition and usage): <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext" id="link-id16078f10">Hypertext</a> Reference to an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id0x9e840368">HTTP</a> accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x9e570ce8">Data</a> Object of Type: "Document" (an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0xccc6ee8">information</a> resource). Of course we don't make the formal connection of Object Type when dealing with the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> on a daily basis, but whenever you encounter the "resource not found" condition notice the message: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/HTTP_404" id="link-id153b4d98">HTTP/1.0 404</a> Object Not Found, from the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol">HTTP</a> Server tasked with retrieving and returning the resource. </p> <p>*In* the Web of "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x9ed9fb78">Linked Data</a>", a complimentary addition to the current Web of "Linked Documents", HREF is used to reference <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Objects that are of a variety of "Types", not just "Documents". And the way this is achieved, is by using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Surrogate_key" id="link-id153d4438">Data Object Identifiers</a> (URIs / IRIs that are generated by the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> deployment platform) in the strict sense i.e. Data Identity (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0xc9ef280">URI</a>) is separated from Data Address (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1cb62390">URL</a>). Thus, you can reference a Person Data Object (aka an instance of a Person Class) in your HREF and the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id1554e458">HTTP</a> Server returns a Description of the Data Object via a Document (again, an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information">information</a> resource). A document containing the Description of a Data Object typically contains HREFs to other Data Objects that expose the Attributes and Relationships of the initial Person Data Object, and it this collection of Data Objects that is technically called a "Graph" -- which is what <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id0xc67a780">RDF</a> models.</p> <blockquote>What I describe above is basic stuff for anyone that's familiar with Object Database or Distributed Objects technology and concepts.</blockquote> <h2><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator">URL</a> confusion</h2> <p>The Linked Document Web is a collection of physical resources that traverse the Web Information Bus in palatable format i.e documents. Thus, Document Object Identity and Document Object Data Address can be the same thing i.e. a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id1525d028">URL</a> can serve as the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id16e50b50">ID/URI</a> of a Document Data Object.</p> <p>The Linked Data Web on the other hand, is a Distributed Object Database, and each Data Object must be uniquely defined, otherwise we introduce ambiguity that ultimately taints the Database itself (making incomprehensible to reasoning challenged machines). Thus we must have unique Object IDs (URIs / IRIs) for People, Places, Events, and other things that aren't Documents. Once we follow the time tested rules of Identity, People can then be associated with the things they create (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0xc7c3ce0">blog</a> posts, web pages, bookmarks, wikiwords etc). <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a> is about expressing these graph model relationships while RDF serialization formats enables the information resources to transport these data object link ladden information resources to requesting User Agents.</p> <p>Put in more succinct terms, all documents on the Web are compound documents in reality (e.g. mast contain a least an image these days). The Linked Data Web is about a Web where Data Object IDs (URIs) enable us to distill source data from the information contained in a compound document.</p> <h2>Examples:</h2> <ol> <li><http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2#this> - the ID (URI minted from URL via addition of #this) of a Data Object of Type Person that Identifies me. The Person definition I use comes from the FOAF vocabulary/schema/ontology/data dictionary</li> <li><http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2> - the URI (also a URL) of a FOAF file that contains a description of the Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id0xca491e0">Object ID</a>: <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2#this> (me)</li> <li>As an information resource <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2> can be dispatched from an HTTP server to a User Agent in (X)HTML, RDF/XML, N3/Turtle representations via HTTP Content Negotiation (<strong>note:</strong> Look at the "Linked Data" tab to see one example of what Data Links facilitate re. Data Discovery and Exploration)</li> <li>If I choose an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29">Object ID</a> of <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2/this> instead of <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2#this> then the HTTP Server should not return an information resource (i.e provide 200 OK response) when a User Agent requests a resource via HTTP using the URI: <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2/this>, because a Data Object ID (URI) and the Data Object Address (URL) cannot be the same when my Data Object isn't of Type Document; the sever has to use response code 303 to redirect the user agent to the URL of an information resource that matches the Content-type designated in the HTTP Request or determine representation based on it's own quality of service rules for the information resource associated with the Object ID (URI).</li> </ol> <p>The degree of unobtrusiveness of new technology, concepts, or new applications of existing technology, is what ultimately determines eventual uptake and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme">meme</a> virulence (network effects). For a while, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0xc86cda0">Semantic Web</a> meme was mired in confusion and general misunderstanding due to a shortage of practical use case scenario demos. </p> <p>The emergence of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0xc614158">SPARQL</a> Query Language has provided critical infrastructure for a number of products, projects, and demos, that now make the utility of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a> vision mush clearly via the simplicity of Linked Data, as exemplified by the following:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id0xc7c19f0">Linking Open Data Community</a> - collection of People and Linked Data Spaces (across a variety of domains)</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0xcb1c398">DBpedia</a> - Ground zero for experiencing and comprehending Linked Data</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id0xc16e458">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> - a simple solution for creating Linked Data Web presence via from existing Web Data Sources (Blogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmarks, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id0xc340200">Tag</a> Spaces, Web Sites, Social Networking Services, Web Services, Discussion Forums etc..)</li> <li>OpenLink <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0xca83470">Virtuoso</a> - a Universal Server for generating, managing, and deploying RDF Linked Data from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0xcce3870">SQL</a>, XML, Web Services based data sources</li> </ol> Why Is This Post a Linked Data Demo, Again? Place the permalink of this post in a Linked Data aware user agent (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id17b79488">OpenLink RDF Browser1</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2" id="link-id15957150">OpenLink RDF Browser2</a>, <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com/" id="link-id15550cf8">Zitgist</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser" id="link-id1565a680">DISCO</a>, <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id15700350">Tabulator</a>), and the you can see the universal of interlinked data exposed by this post. The Title of this post should not be the sole mechanism for determining that it is Linked to other posts about the same topic. <h2>Related</h2> <ul> <a href="http://tomayko.com" id="link-id15c56720">Ryan Tomayko</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://tomayko.com/writings/wtf-is-an-href-anyway" id="link-id1514a328">So, What Does "HREF" Stand For, Anyway</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://torrez.us/who#elias" id="link-id14eec928">Elias Torre</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://torrez.us/archives/2008/03/10/563/" id="link-id15722c08">The Web FTW</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/" id="link-id1576c118">Cool URIs for the Semantic Web.</a> </ul>
My 5 Favorite Things about Linked Data on the Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-05#1319
2008-03-05T04:49:10Z
2008-03-09T11:48:35.000004-04:00
<ol> <li>End to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Buzzword" id="link-id17844268">Buzzword</a> Blur - how buzzwords are used to obscure comprehension of core concepts. Let <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SKOS" id="link-id17445960">SKOS</a>, <a href="http://moat-project.org/" id="link-id175e6d80">MOAT</a>, <a href="http://scot-project.org/2007/04/03/scot-ontology-model/" id="link-id17fb2440">SCOT</a> reign! </li> <li>End of Data Silos - you don't own me, my data, my data's mobility (import/export), or accessibility (by reference) just because I signed up for Yet Another Software as Service (ySaaS)</li> <li>End of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Misinformation" id="link-id17fb02d0">Misinformation</a> - Sins of omission will no longer go unpunished the era of self induced amnesia due to competitive concerns is over, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Coopetition" id="link-id18f01838">Co-opetition</a> shall reign (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/page/Raymond_Noorda" id="link-id176cdb28">Ray Noorda</a> always envisoned this reality)</li> <li>Serendipitous information and data discovery gets cheaper by the second - you're only a link away for a universe of relevant and accessible data </li> <li>Rise of Quality - Contrary to historic president (due to all of the above) well engineered solutions will no longer be sure indicators of commercial failure</li> </ol> <p>BTW - <a href="http://bnode.org/about" id="link-id18d3eb20">Benjamin Nowack</a> penned an interesting post titled: <a href="http://bnode.org/blog/2008/03/04/semantic-web-aliases" id="link-id17fafc20">Semantic Web Aliases</a>, that covers a variety of labels used to describe the Semantic Web. The great thing about this post is that it provides yet another demonstration-in-the-making for the virtues of Linked Data :-)</p> <p>Labels are harmless when their sole purpose is the creation of routes of comprehension for concepts. Unfortunately, Labels aren't always constructed with concept comprehension in mind, most of the time they are artificial inflectors and deflectors servicing marketing communications goals.</p> <p>Anyway, irrespective of actual intent, I've endowed all of the labels from Bengee's post with URIs as my contribution important disambiguation effort re. the Semantic Web: </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id18e476d8">Semantic Web</a> (timbl) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/1999/04/WebData" id="link-id17fb2ca0">Web of Data</a> (timbl) </li> <li> <a href="http://tantek.com/presentations/2004etech/realworldsemanticspres.html" id="link-id1bd0a110">lowercase semantic [wW]eb </a>(tantek) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.stefandecker.org/blog/archives/7-Semantic-Web-2.0....html" id="link-id1bd08808">Semantic Web 2.0</a> (by stefandecker, IIRC) </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_3.0" id="link-id175e7098">Web 3.0</a> (by <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/about.html" id="link-id19202cb8">nova</a> and others) </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_network" id="link-id1bd097f8">Semantic Graph</a> (by nova and others) </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hyperdata" id="link-id177a5b58">Hyperdata</a> (by <a href="http://dannyayers.com/" id="link-id178fdfc0">danja</a>) <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17442ce8">Linked Data</a> (by timbl, and implemented by the <a href="http://www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/institute/pwo/suhl/mitarbeiter/BizerChristian.html" id="link-id174431f8">Chris Bizer</a> and <a href="http://richard.cyganiak.de/foaf.rdf%23cygri" id="link-id1c37a478">Richard Cyganiak</a> inspired, <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData" id="link-id1b93c368">Linking Open Data Community</a> and it's poster project <a href="http://dbpedia.org" id="link-id18d399f0">DBpedia</a>) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=linked%20data%20web&type=text&output=html" id="link-id18e344f0">Linked Data Web</a> (by <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2#this" id="link-id1c853578">kidehen</a>) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=390" id="link-id16c0e998">Structured Web</a> (by <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com" id="link-id18f4bd28">mkbergman</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=semantic%20data%20web&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1a4284d8">Semantic Data Web</a> (by <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen%23this" id="link-id16ce8888">kidehen</a>) </li> <li>SemWeb (by the developer community) </li> <li>GGG - <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/215" id="link-id17687f18">The Giant Global Graph</a> (by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1916f8d0">timbl</a>) <a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2008/03/web_3g.php" id="link-id198c2938">Web 3G</a> (by <a href="http://iandavis.com/id/me" id="link-id17fb3d78">iand</a>) </li> </ul> <p>As per usual this post is best appreciated when processed via an Linked Data aware user agent.</p>
Additional OpenLink Data Spaces Features
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-09#1315
2008-02-09T17:54:35Z
2008-02-11T11:38:03.000006-05:00
<p> <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog" id="link-id13df7aa0">Daniel Lewis</a> has published another post about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id170b4ce8">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (ODS) functionality titled:<a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/02/09/a-few-new-features-in-openlink-data-spaces/#comments" id="link-idf6ad9e8">A few new features in OpenLink Data Spaces</a>, that exposes additional features (some hot out the oven).</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Space" id="link-id16f42c90">OpenLink Data Spaces (<acronym title="OpenLink Data Spaces">ODS</acronym>)</a> now officially supports:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://apml.pbwiki.com/" id="link-id15baf3e0">Attention Profiling Markup Language (<acronym title="Attention Profiling Markup Language">APML</acronym>)</a>.</li> <li> <a href="http://moat-project.org/" id="link-iddd45db0">Meaning of a Tag (<acronym title="Meaning of a Tag">MOAT</acronym>)</a> in conjunction with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SKOS" id="link-id14b97300">Simple Knowledge Organisation System (SKOS)</a> and <a href="http://scot-project.org/" id="link-id16e84910">Social-Semantic Cloud of Tags (<acronym title="Social-Semantic Cloud of Tags">SCOT</acronym>)</a>.</li> <li> <a href="http://oauth.net/" id="link-id13e5ae50">OAuth - an Open Authentication Protocol</a> </li> </ul> <p>Which means that OpenLink Data Spaces support all of the main standards being discussed in the DataPortability Interest Group!</p> <p> <strong><em>APML Example:</em> </strong> </p> <p>All users of ODS automatically get a dynamically created APML file, for example: <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/apml.xml" id="link-id14b59220">APML profile</a> for <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen#this" id="link-id13dbb298">Kingsley Idehen</a> </p> <p>The URI for an APML profile is: http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/<ods-username>/apml.xml</p> <p> <em><strong>Meaning of a Tag Example:</strong> </em> </p> <p>All users of ODS automatically have tag cloud information embedded inside their <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-idf7182c8"><acronym title="Semantically Interlinked Online Communities">SIOC</acronym></a> file, for example: SIOC for Kingsley Idehen on the Myopenlink.net installation of ODS.</p> <p>But even better, MOAT has been implemented in the ODS Tagging System. This has been demonstrated in a recent test blog post by my colleague Mitko Iliev, the blog post comes up on the tag search: <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/imitko/weblog/Mitko%27s%20Weblog/tag/paris" id="link-idfc14cf0">http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/imitko/weblog/Mitko%27s%20Weblog/tag/paris</a> </p> <p>Which can be put through the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/" id="link-id14954fc8">OpenLink Data Browser</a>:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%2Fimitko%2Fweblog%2FMitko%2527s%2520Weblog%2Ftag%2Fparis" id="link-id164edd88">OpenLink Data Browser with Mitko Ilievâs Paris Blog Tag</a> </li> </ul> <p> <strong><em>OAuth Example:</em> </strong> </p> <p>OAuth Tokens and Secrets can be created for any ODS application. To do this:</p> <ol> <li> you can log in to <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/ods/index.html" id="link-id167224c0">MyOpenlink.net</a> beta service, the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ods/index.html" id="link-id169733d8">Live Demo ODS installation</a>, an <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1261" id="link-id14b2d380">EC2 instance</a>, or your local installation</li> <li>then go to âSettingsâ</li> <li>and then you will see âOAuth Keysâ</li> <li>you will then be able to choose the applications that you have instantiated and generate the token and secret for that <abbr title="application">app</abbr>.</li> </ol> <p> <strong>Related Document (Human) Links</strong> </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/Ods" id="link-id16d1c2d8">OpenLink Data Spaces Official Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/" id="link-id16d8c500">OpenLink Software Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-idf6b05f0">OpenLink Data Spaces Wikipedia Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.apml.org/" id="link-id12d8bbd0">Attention Profiling Markup Language Project Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://moat-project.org/" id="link-id137e7108">Meaning of a Tag Project Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/" id="link-id110f1028">Simple Knowledge Organisation Systems Project Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://scot-project.org/" id="link-id14b8d1e0">Social-Semantic Cloud of Tags Project Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://oauth.net/" id="link-id12da2dd0">OAuth Protocol Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.dataportability.org/" id="link-id13f52e08">DataPortability.org Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.sioc-project.org/" id="link-id15ebb6a0">Semantically Interlinked Online Communities Project Website<br /> </a> </li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>Remember (as per my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1314" id="link-id16ea8bb8">most recent post about ODS</a>), ODS is about unobtrusive fusion of Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0+ usage and interaction patterns. Thanks to a lot of recent standardization in the Semantic Web realm (e.g SPARQL), we are now employ the MOAT, SKOS, and SCOT ontologies as vehicles for Structured Tagging.</p> <h2>Structured Tagging?</h2> <p>This is how we take a key <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2.0" id="link-id1884ac58">Web 2.0 </a>feature (think 2D in a sense), bend it over, to create a Linked Data Web (Web 3.0) experience unobtrusively (see <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%20dimensions&type=text&output=html" id="link-id14b3d8a0">earlier posts re. Dimensions of Web</a>). Thus, nobody has to change how they tag or where they tag, just expose ODS to the URLs of your Web 2.0 tagged content and it will produce URIs (Structured Data Object Identifiers) and a lnked data graph for your Tags Data Space (nee. Tag Cloud). ODS will construct a graph which exposes tag subject association, tag concept alignment / intended meaning, and tag frequencies, that ultimately deliver "relative disambiguation" of intended Tag Meaning (i.e. you can easily discern the taggers meaning via the Tags actual Data Space which is associated with the tagger). In a nutshell, the dynamics of relevance matching, ranking, and the like, change immensely without futile timeless debates about matters such as: </p> <ul>What's the Linked Data value proposition?</ul> <ul>What's the Linked Data business model?</ul> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML" id="link-id105abcb0">XML</a> vs <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id14b27b28">RDF</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id10572dd0">XQuery</a> vs <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1326d4c8">SPARQL</a> </ul> <ul>What's the Semantic Web Killer application?</ul> <p>We can just get on with demonstrating Linked Data value using what exists on the Web today. This is the approach we are deliberately taking with ODS.</p> <h2>Related Items</h2> <ul> <a href="http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano" id="link-id170849b0">Stefano Mazzocch</a>'s <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/linotype/news/85/" id="link-idfde2e08"> response to Clay Shirky's 2005 talk</a> titled: <a href="http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2005/view/e_sess/6117" id="link-id13f45030">Ontology is Overrated: Links, Tags and Post-hoc Metadata</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://tomgruber.org" id="link-id16c745b8"> Tom Gruber</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://tomgruber.org/writing/ontology-of-folksonomy.htm" id="link-id13cbe7b0">Ontology of Folksonomy: A Mash-up of Apples and Oranges</a> </ul>. <p> <strong>Tip:</strong> This post is best viewed via an RDF aware User Agent (e.g. a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id14b325b8">Browser</a> or <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id164bfab0">Data Viewer</a>). I say this because the permalink of this post is a URI in a Linked Data Space (My Blog) comprised of more data than meets the eye (i.e. what you see when you read this post via a Document Web Browser) :-)</p>
10 Reasons to use OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-08#1314
2008-02-08T17:33:45Z
2008-02-08T17:08:43-05:00
<p>Via post by <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog" id="link-id1480d7c0">Daniel Lewis</a>, titled:<a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/02/08/10-reasons-to-use-openlink-data-spaces/#comments" id="link-id1320a618">10 Reasons to use OpenLink Data Spaces</a> </p> <blockquote> <p>There are quite a few reasons to use <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Space" id="link-id103eb060">OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS)</a>. Here are 10 of the reasons why I use ODS:</p> <ol> <li>Its native support of DataPortability Recommendations such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RSS" id="link-id18957e88">RSS</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Atom_%28standard%29" id="link-id1410a9c0">Atom</a>, <a href="http://www.apml.org/" id="link-idfde4b90">APML</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Yadis" id="link-id1328c260">Yadis</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OPML" id="link-id10133f70">OPML</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Microformat" id="link-id16e19be0">Microformats</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id12deef98">FOAF</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id15fb99b0">SIOC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenID" id="link-id1390ae10">OpenID</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OAuth" id="link-id14dcce70">OAuth</a>.</li> <li>Its native support of Semantic Web Technologies such as: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id15fc75a0">RDF</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id14255238">SPARQL</a>/<a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com/~afs/SPARQL-Update.html" id="link-id15fe2e40">SPARUL</a> for querying.</li> <li>Everything in ODS is an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Object_%28computer_science%29" id="link-id11c204a0">Object</a> with its own <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id14812560">URI</a>, this is due to the underlying <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Object-relational_database" id="link-idf663e08">Object-Relational</a> Architecture provided by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id1484e4c8">Virtuoso</a>.</li> <li>It has all the social media components that you could need, including: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id10120b58">blogs</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Wiki" id="link-id14d9a608">wikis</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Social_network_service" id="link-idf0b3a30">social networks</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Aggregator" id="link-id188d7c78">feed readers</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Customer_relationship_management" id="link-id134a2c48">CRM</a> and a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Calendar" id="link-idf66af80">calendar</a>.</li> <li>It is expandable by installing pre-configured components (called VADs), or by re-configuring a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/LAMP_%28software_bundle%29" id="link-id102e8008">LAMP</a> application to use <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id13fe2b68">Virtuoso</a>. Some examples of current VADs include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id1011d9f0">MediaWiki</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id13624060">Wordpress</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id100c4510">Drupal</a>.</li> <li>It works with external webservices such as: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Facebook" id="link-id131fe6d0">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Del.icio.us" id="link-idfdd1580">del.icio.us</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Flickr" id="link-id1496aff0">Flickr.</a> </li> <li>Everything within OpenLink Data Spaces is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17114c00">Linked Data</a>, which provides more meaningful information than just plain structural information. This meaningful information could be used for complex inferencing systems, as ODS can be seen as a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Expert_system" id="link-id15ea4108">Knowledge Base</a>.</li> <li>ODS builds bridges between the existing static-document based web (aka â<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_1.0" id="link-idf08b338">Web 1.0</a>â), the more dynamic, services-oriented, social and/or user-orientated webs (aka â<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2.0" id="link-idfde26e0">Web 2.0</a>â) and the web which we are just going into, which is more data-orientated (aka â<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_3.0" id="link-idf9b7328">Web 3.0</a>â or âLinked Data Webâ).</li> <li>It is fully supportive of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cloud_computing" id="link-id189480d0">Cloud Computing</a>, and can be installed on <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Amazon_Elastic_Compute_Cloud" id="link-id10026778">Amazon EC2</a>.</li> <li>Its released free under the GNU <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GNU_General_Public_License" id="link-id16002fb0">General Public License (GPL)</a>. [note]However, it is technically dual licensed as it lays on top of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id132d4238">Virtuoso Universal Server</a> which has both Commercial and GPL licensing[/note]</li> </ol> </blockquote> <p>The features above collectively provide users with a Linked Data Junction Box that may reside with corporate intranets or "out in the clouds" (Internet). You can consume, share, and publish data in a myriad of formats using a plethora of protocols, without any programming. ODS is simply about exposing the data from your Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 application interactions in structured from, with Linking, Sharing, and ultimately Meshing (not Mashing) in mind.</p> <p> <strong>Note:</strong> Although ODS is equipped with a broad array of Web 2.0 style Applications, you do not need to use native ODS apps in order to exploit it's power. It binds to anything that supports the relevant protocols and data formats.</p>
Semantic Data Web Epiphanies: One Node at a Time
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-17#1300
2008-01-17T22:59:00Z
2008-01-18T02:27:27.000004-05:00
<p>In 2006, I stumbled across <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com" id="link-id17165b98">Jason Kolb</a> (online) via a 4-part series of posts titled: <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/08/reinventing_the_1.html" id="link-id14204cf8">Reinventing the Internet</a>. At the time, I realized that Jason was postulating about what is popularly known today as "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_portability" id="link-id1412b280">Data Portability</a>", so I made contact with him (blogosphere style) via a post of my own titled: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1033" id="link-id13b1cb20">Data Spaces, Internet Reinvention, and the Semantic Web</a>. Naturally, I tried to unveil to Jason the connection between his vision and the essence of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id143117f0">Semantic Web</a>. Of course, he was skeptical :-)</p> <p>Jason recently moved to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Massachusetts" id="link-id13c4a470">Massachusetts</a> which lead to me pinging him about our earlier blogosphere encounter and the emergence of a <a href="http://dataportability.org/" id="link-id17395c60">Data Portability Community</a>. I also informed him about the fact that <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tim_Berners-Lee" id="link-id105507f0">TimBL</a>, myself, and a number of other Semantic Web technology enthusiasts, frequently meet on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology" id="link-id1719f798">MIT</a> hosted <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/CambridgeSemanticWebGatherings" id="link-id1734d460">Cambridge Semantic Web Gatherings</a>, to discuss, demonstrate, debate all aspects of the Semantic Web. Luckily (for both of us), Jason attended the last event, and we got to meet each other in person.</p> <p>Following our face to face meeting in Cambridge, a number of follow-on conversations ensued covering, Linked Data and practical applications of the Semantic Web vision. Jason writes about our exchanges a recent post titled: <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2008/01/the-semantic-we.html" id="link-id13be6280">The Semantic Web</a>. His passion for Data Portability enabled me to use <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/FoafOpenid" id="link-id141516a8">OpenID and FOAF integration</a> to connect the Semantic Web and Data Portability via the Linked Data concept.</p> <p>During our conversations, Jason also eluded to the fact that he had already encountered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Software" id="link-id17038218">OpenLink Software</a> while working with our <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_category/odbc#this" id="link-id14325f08">ODBC Drivers</a> (part of or <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/uda#this" id="link-id11ab1008">UDA product family</a>) for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Informix" id="link-id125858d0">IBM Informix</a> (<a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product/odbc-informix-st#this" id="link-id13b85e30">Single-Tier</a> or <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product/odbc-informix-mt#this" id="link-id13edceb0">Multi-Tier</a> Editions) a few years ago (interesting random connection).</p> <p>As I've stated in the past, I've always felt that the Semantic Web vision will materialize by way of a global epiphany. The count down to this inevitable event started at the birth of the blogosphere, ironically. And accelerated more recently, through the emergence of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2.0" id="link-id171d4ec8">Web 2.0</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/page/Social_network" id="link-id140da830">Social Networking</a>, even more ironically :-)</p> <p>The blogosphere started the process of Data Space coalescence via RSS/Atom based semi-strucutured data enclaves, Web 2.0 RDFpropagated Web Service usage en route to creating service provider controlled, data and information silosRDF, Social NetworkingRDF brought attention to the fact that User Generated Data wasn't actually owned or controlled by the Data Creators etc.</p> <p>The emergence of "Data Portability" has created a palatable moniker for a clearly defined, and slightly easier to understand, problem: the meshing of Data and Identity in cyberspace i.e. individual points of presence in cyberspace, in the form of "Personal Data Spaces in the Clouds" (think: doing really powerful stuff with .name domains). In a sense, this is the critical inflection point between the document centric "Web of Linked Documents" and the data centric "Web or Linked Data". There is absolutely no other way solve this problem in a manner that alleviates the imminent challenges presented by information overload -- resulting from the exponential growth of user generated data across the Internet and enterprise Intranets.</p>
W3C's SPARQLing Data Access Ingenuity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-15#1295
2008-01-15T22:58:53Z
2008-01-17T15:41:04.000006-05:00
<p>The W3C officially unveiled the SPARQL Query Language today via a press release titled: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/12/sparql-pressrelease" id="link-id10074ca8">W3C Opens Data on the Web with SPARQL</a>.</p> <h2>What is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10183f60">SPARQL</a>?</h2> <p>A query language for the burgeoning Structured & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10426b18">Linked Data</a> Web (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-idffde090">Semantic Web</a> / <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id103e3688">Giant Global Graph</a>). Like <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id103365f8">SQL</a>, for the Relational Data Model, it provides a query language for the Graph based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDF" id="link-id103e33e8">RDF</a> Data Model.</p> <p>It's also a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Representational_State_Transfer" id="link-id1036a3d0">REST</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SOAP" id="link-id103b36d8">SOAP</a> based Web Service that exposes SPARQL access to RDF Data via an endpoint. </p> <p>In addition, it's also a Query Results Serialization format that includes <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML" id="link-id1023bc60">XML</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/JSON" id="link-id102c3f88">JSON</a> support.</p> <h2>Why is it Important?</h2> <p>It brings important clarity to the notion of the "Web as a Database" by transforming existing Web Sites, Portals, and Web Services into bona fide corpus of Mesh-able (rather than Mash-able) Data Sources. For instance, you can perform queries that join one or more of the aforementioned data sources in exactly the same manner (albeit different syntax) as you would one or more SQL Tables. </p> <h3>Example:</h3> <p>-- SPARQL equivalent of SQL SELECT * against my personal data space hosted FOAF file</p> <b><pre> SELECT DISTINCT ?s ?p ?o FROM <http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen> WHERE {?s ?p ?o}</pre></b> <p>-- SPARQL against my social network -- Note: My SPARQL will be beamed across all of contacts in the social networks of my contacts as long as they are all HTTP URI based within each data space</p> <b><pre>PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> SELECT DISTINCT ?Person FROM <http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen> WHERE {?s a foaf:Person; foaf:knows ?Person}</pre></b> <p>Note: you can use the basic <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id1007d9b8">SPARQL Endpoint</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql" id="link-id102c3e08">SPARQL Query By Example</a>, or <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql_demo" id="link-id10201f98">SPARQL Query Builder Demo tool</a> to experiment with the demonstration queries above.</p> <h2>How Do I use It?</h2> <p>SPARQL is implemented by RDF Data Management Systems (Triple or Quad Stores) just as SQL is implemented by Relational Database Management Systems. The aforementioned data management systems will typically expose SPARQL access via a SPARQL endpoint.</p> <h2>Where are it's implementations?</h2> <p>A SPARQL implementors Testimonial page accompanies the SPARQL press release. In addition the is a growing collection of implementations on the<a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SparqlImplementations" id="link-id10066ca8"> ESW Wiki Page for SPARQL compliant RDF Triple & Quad Stores</a>.</p> <h2>Is this really a big deal?</h2> <p>Yes! SPARQL facilitates an<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Sponger_1/Virtuoso_Sponger_1.html" id="link-id101ee5b0"> unobtrusive manifestation of a Linked Data Web</a> by way of natural extension of the existing Document Web i.e these Web enclaves co-exist in symbiotic fashion. </p> <p>As <a href="http://dbpedia.org" id="link-id1037edc0">DBpedia</a> very clearly demonstrates, Linked Data makes the Semantic Web demonstrable and much easier to comprehend. Without SPARQL there would be no mechanism for <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Deploying_Linked_Data/Virtuoso_Deploying_Linked_Data.html" id="link-id10455da8">Linked Data deployment</a>, and without Linked Data there is no mechanism for Beaming Queries (directly or indirectly) across the Giant Global Graph of data hosted by Social Networks, Shard Bookmarks Services, Weblogs, Wikis, RSS/Atom/OPML feeds, Photo Galleries and other Web accessible Data Sources (Data Spaces).</p> <h2>Related items</h2> <ul> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/" id="link-id102021d8">Cool URIs</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/pub/LinkedDataTutorial/" id="link-id1020d5c0">Publishing Linked Data Tutorial</a> </ul> <ul a="a" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef"> Detailed SPARQL Query Examples using SIOC Data Spaces</ul> <ul> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSFOAFRef" id="link-id102c4608">Detailed SPARQL Query Examples using FOAF Data Spaces</a> </ul>
Semantic Web Killer Application?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-10#1293
2008-01-10T19:49:00Z
2008-02-04T20:32:42.000003-05:00
<p>In response to the <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id0x1f562c28">ReadWriteWeb</a> piece titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_what_is_the_killer_app.php" id="link-id0x16961368">Semantic Web: What is the Killer App.</a> by <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/about_alex.php" id="link-id0x16909678">Alex Iskold</a>:</p> <p>Information overload and Data Portability are two of the most pressing and imminent challenges affecting every individual connected to the global village exposed by the Internet and World Wide Web. I wrote an earlier post titled: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1267" id="link-idfeb7718">Why We Need Linked Data</a> that shed light on frequently overlooked realities about the Document Web.</p> <p>The real Killer application of the Semantic Web (imho) is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10571ef0">Linked Data</a> (or Hyperdata), just as the killer application of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id102be888">Document Web</a> was Linked Documents (Hyperlinks). Linked Data enables human users (indirectly) and software agents (directly in response to human instruction) to traverse Web Data Spaces (Linked Data enclaves within the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10b6ba08">Giant Global Graph</a>).</p> <p>Semantic Web applications (conduits between humans and agents) that take advantage of Linked Data include:</p> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10fcc8f8">DBpedia</a> - General Knowledge sourced from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Wikipedia" id="link-id10570808">Wikipedia</a> and a host of other Linked Data Spaces.</p> <p>Various Linked Data Browsers: <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id139a2300">Zitgist Data Viewer</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id12fb46f0">OpenLink RDF Browser</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser" id="link-idff652c0">DISCO Browser</a>, and TimBL's <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/ajaw/tab.html" id="link-idff63998">Tabulator</a>.</p> <p> <a href="http://zlinks.zitgist.com/" id="link-idff62b90">zLknks </a>- Linked Data Lookup technology for Web Content Publishing systems (note: more to come on this in a future post).</p> <p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id1054a708">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> - a solution for Data Portability via a Linked Data Junction Box for Web 1.0 ((X)HTML Document Webs), 2.0 (XML Web Services based Content Publishing, Content Syndication, and Aggregation), and 3.0 (Linked Data) Data Spaces. Thus, via my URI (when viewed through a Linked Data Browser/Viewer) you can traverse my Data Space (i.e my Linked Data Graph) generated by the following activities:</p> <ul>Blog Posts publishing</ul> <ul>My RSS & Atom Content Subscriptions (what used to be called a "Blogroll")</ul> <ul>My Bookmarks (from my Desktop and Del.icio.us)</ul> <ul>and other things I choose to share with the public via the Web</ul> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-idff89b08">Virtuoso</a> - a Universal Server Platform that includes <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSRDF" id="link-id12ff8810">RDF Data Management</a>, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Sponger_1/Virtuoso_Sponger_1.html" id="link-idf7739b8">RDFization Middleware</a>, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3.html" id="link-id1025ca28">SQL-RDF Mapping</a>, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Deploying_Linked_Data/Virtuoso_Deploying_Linked_Data.html" id="link-id1324db10">RDF Linked Data Deployment</a>, alongside a hybrid/multi-model, virtual/federated data service in a single product offering.</p> <p></p>BTW - There is a <a href="http://events.linkeddata.org/ldow2008/" id="link-id117a0190">Linked Data Workshop</a> at this years <a href="http://www2008.org/" id="link-id102abe28">World Wide Web conference</a>. Also note the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/HCLS/WWW2008" id="link-id100c3a88">Healthcare & Life Science Workshop</a> which is a related Linked Data technology and Semantic Web best practices realm.
2008, Facebook Data Portability, and the Giant Global Graph of Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-05#1289
2008-01-05T17:11:55Z
2008-01-07T11:44:42.000007-05:00
<p>As 2007 came to a close I repeatedly mulled over the idea of putting together a usual "year in review" and a set of predictions for the coming year etc. Anyway, the more I pondered, the smaller the list became. While pondering (as 2008 rolled around), the <a href="http://www.techmeme.com/080103/p154#a080103p154" id="link-id113db9a0">Blogosphere was set ablaze with the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Robert_Scoble" id="link-idfe12a58">Robert Scoble</a>'s announcement of his account suspension by Facebook</a>. Of course, many chimed in expressing views either side of the ensuing debate: <a href="http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/01/03/scobleAndHisFacebookData.html" id="link-id161e7c48">Who is right -- Scoble or Facebook</a>. The more I assimilated the views expressed about this event, the more ironic I found the general discourse, for the following reasons:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2.0" id="link-id16f6f3e0">Web 2.0</a> is fundamentally about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_service" id="link-id1770f3c0">Web Services</a> as the prime vehicle for interactions across "points of Web presence"</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Facebook" id="link-id162f3f60">Facebook</a> is a Web 2.0 hosted service for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Social_Networking" id="link-id16e1dfc8">social networking</a> that provides Web Services APIs for accessing data in the Facebook data space. You have to do so "on the fly" within clearly defined constraints i.e you can interact with data across your social network via Facebook APIs, but you cannot cache the data (perform an export style dump of the data)</li> <li> Facebook is a main driver of the term: "social graph", but their underlying data model is relational and the Web Services response (data you get back) doesn't return a data graph, instead it returns an tree (i.e XML)</li> <li> <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=scoble+semantic+web&btnG=Search+Blogs" id="link-id16680d08">Scoble's had a number of close encounters with Linked Data Web | Semantic Data Web | Web 3.0 aficionados</a> in various forms throughout 2007, but still doesn't quite make the connection between Web Services APIs as part of a processing pipeline that includes structured data extraction from XML data en route to producing Data Graphs comprised of Data Objects (Entities) endowed with: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id16af1f98">Unique Identifiers</a>, Classification or Categorization schemes, Attributes, and Relationships prescribed by one or more shared Data Dictionaries/Schemas/Ontologies</li> <li> A global information bus that exposes a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16ce7c68">Linked Data</a> mesh comprised of Data Objects, Object Attributes, and Object Relationships across "points of Web presence" is what <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1aa304e0">TimBL</a> described in 1998 (<a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html" id="link-id1a822db0">Semantic Web Roadmap</a>) and more recently in 2007 (<a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/215" id="link-id181e5998">Giant Global Graph</a>)</li> <li> The Linked Data mesh (i.e Linked Data Web or GGG) is anchored by the use of HTTP to mint Location, Structure, and Value independent Object Identifiers called <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id16eae370">URI</a>s or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IRI" id="link-idffe16b8">IRI</a>s. In addition, the Linked Data Web is also equipped with a query language, protocol, and results serialization format for XML and JSON called: SPARQL. </li> </ol> <p>So, unlike Scoble, I am able to make my Facebook Data portable without violating Facebook rules (no data caching outside Facebook realm) by doing the following:</p> <ol> <li> Use an RDFizer for Facebook to convert XML response data from Facebook Web Services into RDF "on the fly" Ensure that my RDF is comprised of Object Identifiers that are HTTP based and thereby dereferencable (i.e. I can use SPARQL to unravel the Linked Data Graph in my Facebook data space)</li> <li> The act of data dereferencing enables me to expose my Facebook Data as Linked Data associated with my <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id16b3e9d0">Personal URI</a> </li> <li> This interaction only occurs via my data space and in all cases the interactions with data work via my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1172" id="link-id16c628b8">RDFizer middleware</a> (e.g the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Sponger_1/Virtuoso_Sponger_1.html" id="link-id1572fb28">Virtuoso Sponger</a>) that talks directly to Facebook Web Services. </li> </ol> <p>In a nutshell, my Linked Data Space enables you to reference data in my data space via Object Identifiers (URIs), and some cases the Object IDs and Graphs are constructed on the fly via RDFization middleware.</p> <p>Here are my URIs that provide different paths to my Facebook Data Space:</p> <ul> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id16f817a8"> Personal URI</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/proxy?url=http%3A//www.facebook.com/people/Kingsley_Idehen/605980750&force=rdf&login=kidehen" id="link-id1a8e5950">My Facebook Data Space</a> (best viewed via a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpeople%2FKingsley_Idehen%2F605980750%26force%3Drdf%26login%3Dkidehen" id="link-id15476588">Linked Data Browser/Viewer</a> session) </ul> <ul> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/proxy?url=http%3A//www.facebook.com/album.php%3Faid%3D14768%26id%3D605980750&force=rdf&login=kidehen" id="link-id16e3bcf0">My Facebook Photo Gallery -- WWW2007 Photo Collection</a> (also best viewed via a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Falbum.php%253Faid%253D14768%2526id%253D605980750%26force%3Drdf%26login%3Dkidehen" id="link-id16e10270">Linked Data Browser/Viewer</a> session) </ul> <p>To conclude, 2008 is clearly the inflection year during which we will final unshackle Data and Identity from the confines of "Web Data Silos" by leveraging the HTTP, SPARQL, and RDF induced virtues of Linked Data. </p> <p>Related Posts:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/2008_the_rise_of_linked" id="link-id156baac0">2008 and the Rise of Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/data_portability_scoble_explains" id="link-id16291310">Scoble Right, Wrong, and Beyond</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://scobleizer.com/2007/11/30/talking-with-tim-berners-lee-inventor-of-the-web/" id="link-id163c9c38">Scoble interviewing TimBL</a> (note to Scoble: re-watch your interview since he made some specific points about Linked Data and URIs that you need to grasp)</li> <li>Prior Blog posts my this Blog Data Space that include the literal patterns: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=scoble%20semantic%20web&type=text&output=html" id="link-id163e6cd0">Scoble Semantic Web</a> </li> </ol>
Reminder: Why We Need Linked Data!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-11-02#1267
2007-11-02T22:50:00Z
2007-11-02T18:52:34-04:00
<blockquote> <p>"The phrase Open Social implies portability of personal and social data. That would be exciting but there are entirely different protocols underway to deal with those ideas. As some people have told me tonight, it may have been more accurate to call this "OpenWidget" - though the press wouldn't have been as good. We've been waiting for data and identity portability - is this all we get?" <br /> [Source: <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/[Excerpted from: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/178622741/opensocial_three_big_concerns.php]" id="link-id1143a428">Read/Write Web's Commentary & Analysis of Google's OpenSocial API</a>]</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p>..Perhaps the world will read the terms of use of the API, and realize this is not an open API; this is a free API, owned and controlled by one company only: Google. Hopefully, the world will remember another time when Google offered a free API and then pulled it. Maybe the world will also take a deeper look and realize that the functionality is dependent on Google hosted technology, which has its own terms of service (including adding ads at the discretion of Google), and that building an OpenSocial application ties Google into your application, and Google into every social networking site that buys into the Dream. Hopefully the world will remember. Unlikely, though, as such memories are typically filtered in the Great Noise....</p>[Source: <a href="http://burningbird.net/technology/terms/" id="link-id116f8c98">Poignant commentary excerpt from <a href="http://burningbird.net" id="link-id11216e98">Shelly Power's Blog</a></a> (as always)]</blockquote> <p>The "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1102bc20">Semantic Data Web</a>" vision has always been about "Data & Identity" portability across the Web. Its been that and more from day one.</p> <p>In a nutshell, we continue to exhibit varying degrees of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cognitive_dissonance" id="link-id121bb728">Cognitive Dissonance</a> re the following realities:</p> <ol> <li>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Network" id="link-id114567b0">Network</a> is the Computer (Internet/Intranet/Extranet depending on your TCP/IP usage scenarios)</li> <li>The Web is the OS (ditto) and it provides a communications subsystem (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s+BLOG+%5B127%5D/1231" id="link-id1212b390">Information BUS</a>) comprised of</li> <ul>- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id11b1b760">HTTP</a> Protocol</ul> <ul>- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id11043020">URI</a>s (pointer system for identifying, accessing, and manipulating data)</ul> <li>HTTP based Interprocess (i.e Web Apps are processes when you discard the HTML UI and interact with the application logic containers called "Web Services" behind the pages) ultimately hit data</li> <li>Web Data is best Modeled as a Graph (RDF, Containers/Items/Item Types, Property & Value Pairs associated with something, and other labels)</li> <li>Network are Graphs and vice versa</li> <li>Social Networks are graphs where nodes are connected via social connectors ( [x]--knows-->[y] ) </li> <li>The Web is a Graph that exposes a People and Data Network (to the degree we allude to humans not being data containers i.e. just nodes in a network, otherwise we are talking about a Data Network)</li> <li>Data access and manipulation depends inherently on canonical Data Access mechanisms such as Data Source Identifiers / Names (time-tested practice in various DBMS realms)</li> <li>Data is forever, it is the basis of Information, and it is increasing exponentially due to proliferation of Web Services induced user activities (User Generated Content)</li> <li>Survival, Vitality, Longevity, Efficiency, Productivity etc.. are all depend on our ability to process data effectively in a shrinking time continuum where Data and/or Information overload is the alternative.</li> </ol> <p> The Data Web is about Presence over Eyeballs due to the following realities:</p> <ol> <li>Eyeballs are input devices for a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DNA" id="link-id118b29a0">DNA</a> based processing system (Humans). The aforementioned processing system can reason very well, but simply cannot effectively process masses of data or information</li> <li>Widgets offer little value long term re. the imminent data and information overload dilemma, ditto Web pages (however pretty), and any other Eyeballs-only centric Web Apps</li> <li>Computers (machines) are equipped with inorganic (non DNA) based processing power, they are equipped to process huge volumes of data and/or information, but they cannot reason</li> <li>To be effective in the emerging frontier comprised of a Network Computer and a Web OS, we need an effective mechanism that makes best use of the capabilities possessed by humans and machines, by shifting the focus to creation and interaction with points of "Data Web Presence" that openly expose "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data_structure" id="link-id10e56458">Structured Linked Data</a>". </li> </ol> <p>This is why we need to inject a mesh of Linked Data into the existing Web. This is what the often misunderstood vision of the "Semantic Data Web" or "Web of Data" or "Web or Structured Data" is all about. </p> <p>As stated earlier (point 10 above), "Data is forever" and there is only more of it to come! Sociality and associated Social Networking oriented solutions are at best a spec in the Web's ocean of data once you comprehend this reality.</p> <p>Note: I am writing this post as an early implementor of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GData" id="link-id11349808">GData</a> and an implementor of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id120f3a68">RDF Linked Data</a> technology and a "Web Purist". </p> <blockquote> <p>OpenSocial implementation and support across our relevant product families: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id1217bf20">Virtuoso</a> (i.e the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id12154258">Sponger Middleware</a> for RDF component), <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/Ods" id="link-id11369930">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (Data Space Controller / Services), and the <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com/" id="link-id113e4da0">OpenLink Ajaxt Toolkit</a> (i.e OAT Widgets and Libraries), is a triviality now that the OpenSocial APIs are public. </p> </blockquote> <p>The concern I have, and the problem that remains mangled in the vast realms of Web Architecture incomprehension, is the fact that GData and GData based APIs cannot deliver Structured Linked Data in line with the essence of the Web without introducing "lock-in" that ultimately compromises the "Open Purity" of the Web. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Facebook" id="link-id11073980">Facebook</a> and Google's <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/docs/" id="link-id1215e020">OpenSocial</a> response to the Facebook juggernaut (i.e. open variant of the Facebook Activity Dashboard and Social Network functionality realms, primarily), are at best icebergs in the ocean we know as the "World Wide Web". The nice and predictable thing about icebergs is that they ultimately melt into the larger ocean :-)</p> On a related note, I had the pleasure of attending the <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/" id="link-id1106f678">W3C's RDF and DBMS Integration Workshop</a>, last week. The event was well attended by organizations with knowledge, experience, and a vested interested in addressing the issues associated with exposing none RDF data (e.g. SQL) as RDF, and the imminence of data and/or information overload covered in different ways via the following presentations: <ul>- <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3.ppt" id="link-id11053440">RDF Views of SQL Data</a> - <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling" id="link-id1218bf70">Orri Erling </a>on behalf of OpenLink Software</ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www.michaelbrodie.com/documents/Brodie%20VLDB%202007%20V3.zip" id="link-id11eda380">Computer Science 2.0</a> (covering User Generated Content Explosion) - Michael Brodie</ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/talks/Finding_our_way.ppt" id="link-id113b9620">Experiences re. solving SPARQL Access to Distributed Data Sources</a> - Phil Ashworth </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/program" id="link-id11265180">Other presentations</a> </ul>.
Fourth Platform: Data Spaces in The Cloud (Update)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-09-22#1261
2007-09-22T23:43:00Z
2008-10-26T17:59:33-04:00
<p>I've written extensively on the subject of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=data%20spaces&type=text&output=html" id="link-id134c2280">Data Spaces</a> in relation to the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=data%20web%0D%0A&type=text&output=html" id="link-id105aef90">Data Web</a> for while. I've also written sparingly about <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex" id="link-id105bd100">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (a Data Web Platform that build using Virtuoso). On the other hand, I haven't shed much light on installation and deployment of OpenLink Data Spaces.</p> <p> <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net" id="link-id14347f20">Jon Udell</a> recently penned a post titled: <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2007/09/21/the-fourth-platform/" id="link-id1439ed48">The Fourth Platform</a>. The post arrives at a spookily coincidental time (this happens quite often between Jon and I as demonstrated last year during our <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/ju_idehen.mp3" id="link-id107d17a8">podcast</a>; the "Fourth" in his Innovators Podcast series).</p> <p>The platform that Jon describes is "Cloud Based" and comprised of Storage and Computation. I would like to add Data Access and Management (native and virtual) under the fourth platform banner with the end product called: "Cloud based Data Spaces". </p> <p>As I write, we are releasing a Virtuoso AMI (Amazon Image) labeled: virtuoso-dataspace-server. This edition of<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13543210"> Virtuoso</a> includes the OpenLink Data Spaces Layer and all of the OAT applications we've been developing for a while.</p> <h2>What Benefits Does this offer?</h2> <ol> <li>Personal Data Spaces in the Cloud - a place where you can control and consolidate data across your Blogs, Wikis, RSS/Atom Feed Subscriptions, Shared Bookmarks, Shared Calendars, Discussion Threads, Photo Galleries etc</li> <li>All the data in your Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces">Space</a> is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1149a4f8">SPARQL</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GData" id="link-id107a9f28">GData</a> accessible.</li> <li>All of the data in your Personal Data Space is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> from the get go. Each Item of data is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a> addressable</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id104f4160">SIOC</a> support - your Blogs, Wikis, Bookmarks etc.. are based on the SIOC ontology for Semantically Interlinking Online Communities (think: Open social-graph++) </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id105beb78">FOAF</a> support - your FOAF Profile page provides a URI that is an in-road to all Data in your Data Space.</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenID" id="link-id1144e138">OpenID</a> support - your Personal Data Space ID is usable wherever OpenID is supported. OpenID and FOAF are integrated as per latest FOAF specs</li> <li>Two Integration with Facebook - You can access your Data Space from Facebook or access Facebook from your Data Space</li> <li>Unified Storage - The WebDAV based filesystem provides Cloud Storage that's integrated with Amazon S3; It also exposes all of your Data Space data via a traditional filesystem UI (think virtual Spotlight); You can also mount this drive to your local filesystem via your native operating system's WebDAV support</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SyncML" id="link-id11128f48">SyncML</a> - you can sync calendar and contact details with your Data Space in the cloud from your Mobile phone.</li> <li>A practical Semantic Data Web solution - based on Web Infrastructure and doesn't require you to do anything beyond exposing URIs for data in your Data Spaces.</li> </ol> <h2> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Amazon_Elastic_Compute_Cloud" id="link-id115d1920">EC2</a>-AMI Details:</h2> <ul>AMI ID: ami-e2ca2f8b</ul> <ul>Manifest file: virtuoso-images/virtuoso-dataspace-server.manifest.xml</ul> <h2>Installation Guide:</h2> <ol> <li>Get an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account</li> <li>Signup for S3 and EC2 services</li> <li>Install the EC2 plugin for Firefox</li> <li>Start the EC2 plugin</li> <li>Locate the row containing <b>ami-7c31d515  Manifest virtuoso-test/virtuoso-cloud-beta-9-i386.manifest.xml </b>(sort using the AMI ID or Manifest Columns or search on pattern: virtuoso, due to name flux)</li> <li>Start the Virtuoso Data Space Server AMI</li> <li>Wait 4-5 minutes (*take a few minutes to create the pre-configured Linux Image*)</li> <li>Connect to http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>http://your-ec2-instance-cname:8890/ Log in with user/password dba/dba</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>Go to the Admin UI (Virtuoso Conductor) and change the PWDs for the 'dba' and 'dav' accounts (*Important!*)</li> <li>Give the "SPARQL" user "SPARQL_UPDATE" privileges (required if you want to exploit the in-built Sponger Middleware)</li> <li>Click on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces">ODS</a> (OpenLink Data Spaces) link to start an Personal Editon of OpenLink Data Spaces (or go to: http://your-ec2-instance-cname/dataspace/ods/index.html)</li> <li>Log-in using the username and password credentials for the 'dav' account (or register a new user note: OpenID is an option here also) Create an Data Space Application Instance by clicking on a Data Space App. Tab</li> <li>Import data from your existing Web 2.0 style applications into OpenLink Data Spaces e.g. subscribe to a few RSS/Atom feeds via the "Feeds Manager" application or import some Bookmarks using the "Bookmarks" application</li> <li>Then look at the imported data in Linked Data form via your ODS generated URIs based on the patterns: http://your-ec2-instance-cname/dataspace/person/your-ods-id#this (URI for You the Person), http://your-ec2-instance-cname/dataspace/person/your-ods-id (FOAF File URI), http://your-ec2-instance-cname/dataspace/your-ods-id (SIOC File URI)<br /> </li> </ol> <h2> (OAT) from your Data Space instance</h2>Install the OAT VAD package via the Admin UI and then apply the URI patterns below within your browser:<br /> <ol> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/oatdemo - Entire OAT Demo Collection</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/rdfbrowser - RDF Browser</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/isparql - SPARQL Query Builder (iSPARQL)</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/qbe - SQL Query Builder (iSQL)</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/formdesigner - Forms Builder (for building Meshups based on RDF, SQL, or Web Servives Data Souces)</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/dbdesigner - SQL DB Schema Designer (note a Visual SQL-RDF Mapper is also on it's way</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/DAV/JS/ - To view the OAT Tree (there are some experimental demos that are missing from the main demo app etc..) </public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> </ol> <p>There's more to come!</p>
Semantic Web Value Proposition
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-09-20#1254
2007-09-21T02:23:00Z
2007-09-21T08:05:07.000009-04:00
<p>The motivation behind this post is a response to the <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com">Read/WriteWeb</a> post titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_difficulties_with_classic_approach.php">Semantic Web: Difficulties with the Classic Approach</a>.</p> <p>First off, I am going to focus on the Semantic Data Web aspect of the overall Semantic Web vision (a continuum) as this is what we have now. I am also writing this post as a deliberate contribution to the discourse swirling around the real topic: Semantic Web Value Proposition.</p> <h2>Situation Analysis</h2> <p>We are in the early stages of the long anticipated<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge_economy"> Knowledge Economy</a>. That being the case, it would be safe to assume that information access, processing, and dissemination are of utmost importance to individuals and organizations alike. You don't produce knowledge in a vacum! Likewise, you can produce Information in a vacum, you need Data.</p> <h2>The Semantic Data Web's value to Individuals</h2> <b>Problem:</b> <p>Increasingly, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog">Blogs</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Wiki">Wikis</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Social_bookmarking">Shared Bookmarks</a>, Photo Galleries, Discussion Forums, Shared Calendars and the like, have become invaluable tools for individual and organizational participation in Web enabled global discourse (where a lot of knowledge is discovered). These tools, are typically associated with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2">Web 2.0</a>, implying Read-Write access via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_service">Web Services</a>, centralized application hosting, and data lock-in (silos).</p> <p>The reality expressed above is a recipe for "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information_overload">Information Overload</a>" and complete annihilation of ones effective pursuit and exploitation of knowledge due "Time Scarcity" (note: disconnecting is not an option). Information abundance is inversely related to available processing time (for humans in particular). In my case for instance, I was actively subscribed to over 500+ RSS feeds in 2003. As of today, I've simply stopped counting, and that's just my Weblog Data Space. Then add to that, all of the Discussions I track across Blogs, wikis, message boards, mailing lists, traditional usnet discussion forumns, and the like, and I think you get the picture. </p> <p>Beyond information overload, Web 2.0 data is "Semi-Structured" by way of it's dominant data containers ((X)HTML, RSS, Atom documents and data streams etc.) lacking semantics that formally expose individual data items as distinct entities, endowed with unambiguous naming / identification, descriptive attributes (a type of property/predicate), and relationships (a type of property/predicate).</p> <b>Solution:</b> <p>Devise a standard for Structured Data Semantics that is compatible with the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1231">Web Information BUS</a>.</p> <p>Produce <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=153">structured data</a> (entities, entity types, entity relationships) from Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 resources that already exists on the Web such that individual entities, their attributes, and relationships are accessible and discernible to software agents (machines).</p> <p>Once the entities are individually exposed, the next requirement is a mechanism for selective access to these entities i.e. a query language. </p> <p> Semantic Data Web Technologies that facilitate the solution described above include:</p> <b>Structured Data Standards:</b> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDF">RDF</a> - Data Model for structured data</ul> <ul>RDF/XML - A serialization format for RDF based structured data</ul> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Notation_3">N3</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Turtle_%28syntax%29">Turtle</a> - more human friendly serialization formats for RDF based structured data</ul> <b>Entity Exposure & Generation:</b> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GRDDL">GRDDL</a> - enables association between XHTML pages and XSLT stylesheets that facilitates loosely coupled "on the fly" extraction of RDF from non RDF documents</ul> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa">RDFa</a> - enables document publishers or viewers (i.e those repurposing or annotating) to embed structured data into existing XHTML documents</ul> <ul> <a href="http://research.talis.com/2005/erdf/wiki/Main/RdfInHtml">eRDF</a> - another option for embedding structured RDF data within (X)HTML documents</ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/?id=1172">RDF Middleware</a> - typically incorporating GRDDL, RDFa, eRDF, and custom extraction and mapping as part of a structured data production pipeline</ul>. <b>Entity Naming & Identification:</b> <p>Use of URIs or IRIs for uniquely identifying physical (HTML Documents, Image Files, Multimedia Files etc..) and abstract (People, Places, Music, and other abstract things). </p> <b>Entity Access & Querying:</b> <ul> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL">SPARQL</a> Query Language - the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL">SQL</a> analog of the Semantic Data Web that enables query constructs that target named entities, entity attributes, and entity relationships</p> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/">SPARQL Protocol</a> - a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Representational_State_Transfer">REST</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SOAP">SOAP</a> style Web Service for transporting SPARQL Queries to Structured Data Sources.</ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-XMLres/">SPARQL Results Serialization Formats</a> - query results serialization formats that includes XML(sparql+xml) and JSON.</ul> <h2>The Semantic Data Web's value to Organizations</h2> <b>Problem:</b> <p>Organizations are rife with a plethora of business systems that are built atop a myriad of database engines, sourced from a variety of DBMS vendors. A typical organization would have a different database engine, from a specific DBMS vendor, underlying critical business applications such as: Human Resource Management (HR), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Accounting, Supply Chain Management etc. In a nutshell, you have DBMS Engines, and DBMS Schema heterogeneity permeating the IT infrastructure of organizations on a global scale, making Data & Information Integration the biggest headache across all IT driven organizations.</p> <b>Solution:</b> <p>Alleviation of the pain (costs) associated with Data & Information Integration. </p> <b>Semantic Data Web offerings:</b> <p>A dexterous data model (RDF) that enables the construction of conceptual views of disparate data sources across an organization based on existing web architecture components such as HTTP and URIs.</p> <p>Existing middleware solutions that facilitate the exposure of SQL DBMS data as RDF based Structured Data include:</p> <ul> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSSQLRDF">Virtuoso's Meta Schema Language for RDF Views of SQL Data</a> (also see the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/pdf/Virtuoso_SQL_to_RDF_Mapping.pdf">Virtuoso SQL-RDF Technical White Paper</a>)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/D2RQ/">D2RQ</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://ccnt.zju.edu.cn/projects/dartgrid">DataGrid</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/RdfAndSql">Others</a> </ul> <p> BTW - There is an upcoming <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/">W3C Workshop covering the integration of SQL and RDF data</a>.</p> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>The Semantic Data Web is here, it's value delivery vehicle is the URI. The URI is a conduit to Interlinked Structured Data (RDF based Linked Data) derived from existing data sources on the World Wide Web alongside data continuously injected into the Web by organizations world wide. Ironically, the Semantic Data Web only platform that crystallizes the: Information at Your Fingertips vision, without development environment, operating system, application, or database lock-in. You simply click on a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data URI</a> and the serendipitous exploration and discovery of data commences.</p> <p>The unobtrusive emergence of the Semantic Data Web is a reflection of the soundness of the underlying Semantic Web vision.</p> <p>If you are excited about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Mashup_%28web_application_hybrid%29">Mash-ups</a> then your are a Semantic Web enthusiast and benefactor in the making, because you only "Mash" (brute force data extraction and interlinking) because you can't "Mesh" (natural data extraction and interlinking). Likewise, if you are a social-networking, open social-graph, or portable social-network enthusiast, then you are also a Semantic Data Web benefactor and enthusiasts, because your "values" (yes, the values associated with the properties that define you e.g your interests etc) are the fundamental basis for portable, open, social-networking, which is what the Semantic Data Web hands to you on a platter without compromise (i.e. data lock-in or loss of data ownership).</p> <b>Some practical examples of Semantic Data Web prowess:</b> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.readwriteweb.com%2Farchives%2Fsemantic_web_difficulties_with_classic_approach.php">Read/WriteWeb via the OpenLink Data Web Browser</a> (click on the different viewing tabs to see what structured data exploitation in action)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://browser.zitgist.com/?uri=http%3A//www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_difficulties_with_classic_approach.php">Read/WriteWeb via the Zitgist Data Web Browser</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http:/dbpedia.org">DBpedia</a> (*note: I deliberately use DBpedia URIs in my posts where I would otherwise have used a Wikipedia article URI*)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/zitgist-browser-linker/">Zitgist zLinks</a> - <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=400">Mike Bergman's Blog Post also demonstrating zLinks</a> </ul>
Linked Data & The Web Information BUS
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-07-20#1231
2007-07-20T07:50:00Z
2007-08-08T18:26:55-04:00
<p> <a href="http://www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/ueber_uns/team/chris_bizer.htm">Chris Bizer</a>, <a href="http://richard.cyganiak.de/">Richard Cyganiak</a>, and <a href="http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/tom/html">Tom Heath</a> have just published a <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/pub/LinkedDataTutorial/">Linked Data Publishing Tutorial</a> that provides a guide to the mechanics of Linked Data injection into the Semantic Data Web.</p> <p> On different, but related, thread, <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com">Mike Bergman</a> recently penned a post titled: <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AI3_AdaptiveInformation/~3/134989485/">What is the Structured Web?</a>. Both of these public contributions shed light on the "Information BUS" essence of the World Wide Web by describing the evolving nature of the payload shuttled by the BUS. </p> <h3>What is an Information BUS? </h3> <p>Middleware infrastructure for shuttling "Information" between endpoints using a messaging protocol.</p> <p>The Web is the dominant Information BUS within the Network Computer we know as the "Internet". It uses HTTP to shuttle information payloads between "Data Sources" and "Information Consumers" - what happens when we interact with Web via User Agents / Clients (e.g Browsers). </p> <h3>What are Web Information Payloads?</h3> <p>HTTP transported streams of contextualized data. Hence the terms: "Information Resource" and "Non Information" when reading material related to <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/httpRange-14/2007-05-31/HttpRange-14#iddiv2104118728">http-range-14 and Web Architecture</a>. For example, an (X)HTML document is a specific data context (representation) that enables us to perceive, or comprehend, a data stream originating from a Web Server as a Web Page. On the other hand, if the payload lacks contextualized data, a fundamental Web requirement, then the resource is referred to as a "Non Information" resource. Of course, there is really no such thing as a "Non Information" resource, but with regards to Web Architecture, it's the short way of saying: "the Web Transmits Information only". That said, I prefer to refer to these "Non Information" resources as "Data Sources", are term well understood in the world of Data Access Middleware (ODBC, JDBC, OLEDB, ADO.NET etc.) and Database Management Systems (Relational, Objec-Relational, Object etc).</p> <p>Examples of Information Resource and Data Source URIs:</p> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI">http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI</a> (Information Resource)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql?query=CONSTRUCT+{+%3Chttp%3A//demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI%23this%3E+%3Fp+%3Fo+}+FROM+%3Chttp%3A//demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind%3E+WHERE+{+%3Chttp%3A//demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI%23this%3E+%3Fp+%3Fo+}&format=application/rdf%2Bxml">http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI#this</a> (Data Source)</ul> <p>Explanation: The Information Resource is a conduit to the Entity identified by Data Source (an entity in my RDF Data Space that is the Subject or Object of one of more Triple based Statements. The triples in question can that can be represented as an RDF resource when transmitted over the Web via an Information Resource that takes the form of a SPARQL REST Service URL or a Physical RDF based Information Resource URL). </p> <h3>What about Structured Data?</h3> <p>Prior to the emergence of the Semantic Data Web, the payloads shuttled across the Web Information BUS comprised primarily of the following:</p> <ol> <li>HTML - Web Resource with presentation focused structure (Web 1.0 dominant payload form)</li> <li>XML - Web Resource with structure that separates presentation and data (Web 2.0's dominant payload form).</li> </ol> <p>The Semantic Data Web simply adds <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a> to the payload formats that shuttle the Web Information BUS. RDF addresses formal data structure which XML doesn't cover since it is semi-structured (distinct data entities aren't formally discernible). In a nutshell, an RDF payload is basically a conceptual model database packaged as an Information Resource. It's comprised of granular data items called "Entities", that expose fine grained properties values, individual and/or group characteristics (attributes), and relationships (associations) with other Entities.</p> <h3>Where is this all headed? </h3> <p>The Web is in the final stages of the 3rd phase of it's evolution. A phase characterized by the shuttling of structured data payloads (RDF) alongside less data oriented payloads (HTML, XHTML, XML etc.). As you can see, <a href="http://linkeddata.org">Linked Data</a> and Structured Data are both terms used to describe the addition of more data centric payloads to the Web. Thus, you could view the process of creating a Structured Web of Linked Data as follows:</p> <ol> <li>Identify or Create Structured Data Sources</li> <li>Name these Data Sources using Data Source URIs</li> <li>Expose Structured Data Sources to the Web as Linked Data using Information Resource (conduit) URIs</li> </ol> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>The Semantic Data Web is an evolution of the current Web (an Information Space) that adds structured data payloads (RDF) to current, less data oriented, structured payloads (HTML, XHTML, XML, and others).</p> <p>The Semantic Data Web is increasingly seen as an inevitability because it's rapidly reaching the point of critical mass (i.e. network effect kick-in). As a result, Data Web emphasis is moving away from: "What is the Semantic Data Web?" To: "How will Semantic Data Web make our globally interconnected village an even better place?", relative to the contributions accrued from the Web thus far. Remember, the initial "Document Web" (Web 1.0) bootstrapped because of the benefits it delivered to blurb-style content publishing (remember the term electronic brochure-ware?). Likewise, in the case of the "Services Web" (Web 2.0), the bootstrap occurred because it delivered platform independence to Web Application Developers - enabling them to expose application logic behind Web Services. It is my expectation that the Data Integration prowess of the Data Web will create a value exchange realm for data architects and other practitioners from the database and data access realms.</p> <h3>Related Items</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=153">Mike Bergman's post about Semi-Structured Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=structured%20data&type=text&output=html">My Posts covering Structured and Un-Structured Containers</a> </li> </ol>
Semantic Web Data Spaces
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-04-13#1185
2007-04-13T21:15:54Z
2007-04-13T18:19:29.000001-04:00
<b>Web Data Spaces</b> <p>Now that broader understanding of the Semantic Data Web is emerging, I would like to revisit the issue of "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q='data%20spaces'&type=text&output=html">Data Spaces</a>".</p> <p>A Data Space is a place where Data Resides. It isn't inherently bound to a specific Data Model (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_model">Concept Oriented</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_model">Relational</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchical_database">Hierarchical</a> etc..). Neither is it implicitly an access point to Data, Information, or Knowledge (the perception is purely determined through the experiences of the user agents interacting with the Data Space.</p> <p>A Web Data Space is a Web accessible Data Space.</p> <p>Real world example:</p> <p>Today we increasing perform one of more of the following tasks as part of our professional and personal interactions on the Web:</p> <ol> <li>Blog via many service providers or personally managed weblog platforms</li> <li>Create Event Calendars via <a href="http://upcoming.com">Upcoming.com</a> and <a href="http://eventful.com">Eventful</a> </li> <li>Maintain and participate in Social Networks (e.g. <a href="http://facebook.com">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://orkut.com">Orkut</a>, <a href="http://myspace.com">MySpace</a>)</li> <li>Create and Participate in Discussions (note: when you comment on blogs or wikis for instance, you are participating in, or creating, a conversation)</li> <li>Track news by subscribing to <a href="http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/">RSS 1.0</a>, <a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html">RSS 2.0</a>, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_(standard)">Atom</a> Feeds</li> <li>Share Bookmarks & Tags via <a href="http://del.icio.us">Del.icio.us</a> and other Services</li> <li>Share Photos via <a href="http://flickr.com">Flickr</a> </li> <li>Buy, Review, or Search for books via <a href="http://amazon.com">Amazon</a> </li> <li>Participates in auctions via <a href="http://ebay.com">eBay</a> </li> <li>Search for data via <a href="http://google.com">Google</a> (of course!)</li> </ol> <p> <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/">John Breslin</a> has nice a <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/20051015a.gif">animation depicting the creation of Web Data Spaces</a> that drives home the point.</p> <b>Web Data Space Silos</b> <p> Unfortunately, what isn't as obvious to many netizens, is the fact that each of the activities above results in the creation of data that is put into some context by you the user. Even worse, you eventually realize that the service providers aren't particularly willing, or capable of, giving you unfettered access to your own data. Of course, this isn't always by design as the infrastructure behind the service can make this a nightmare from security and/or load balancing perspectives. Irrespective of cause, we end up creating our own "Data Spaces" all over the Web without a coherent mechanism for accessing and meshing these "Data Spaces".</p> <b>What are Semantic Web Data Spaces?</b> <p>Data Spaces on the Web that provide granular access to RDF Data.</p> <b>What's OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS) About?</b> <blockquote> <p>Short History</p> <p>In anticipation of this the "Web Data Silo" challenge (an issue that we tackled within internal enterprise networks for years) we commenced the development (circa. 2001) of a distributed collaborative application suite called OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS). The project was never released to the public since the problems associated with the deliberate or inadvertent creation of Web Data silos hadn't really materialized (silos only emerged in concreted form after the emergence of the Blogosphere and Web 2.0). In addition, there wasn't a clear standard Query Language for the RDF based Web Data Model (i.e. the SPARQL Query Language didn't exist).</p> </blockquote> <p> Today, ODS is delivered as a packaged solution (in Open Source and Commercial flavors) that alleviates the pain associated with Data Space Silos that exist on the Web and/or behind corporate firewalls. In either scenario, ODS simply allows you to create Open and Secure Data Spaces (via it's suite of applications) that expose data via SQL, RDF, XML oriented data access and data management technologies. Of course it also enables you to integrates transparently with existing 3rd party data space generators (Blogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmrks, Discussion etc. services) by supporting industry standards that cover:</p> <ol> <li> Content Publishing - Atom, <a href="http://www.sixapart.com/developers/product_documentation/movable_type/">Moveable Type</a>, <a href="http://www.xmlrpc.com/metaWeblogApi">MetaWeblog</a>, Blogger protocols </li> <li> Content Syndication Formats - RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom, OPML etc. </li> <li> Data Management - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL">SQL</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a>, XML, Free Text </li> <li> Data Access - SQL, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>, GData, Web Services (SOAP or REST styles), WebDAV/HTTP </li> <li> Semantic Data Web Middleware - <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/01/rdxh/spec">GRDDL</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt">XSLT</a>, SPARQL, XPath/XQuery, HTTP (Content Negotiation) for producing RDF from non RDF Data ((X)HTML, Microformats, XML, Web Services Response Data etc). </li> </ol> <p>Thus, by installing ODS on your Desktop, Workgroup, Enterprise, or public Web Server, you end up with a very powerful solution for creating Open Data access oriented presence on the "Semantic Data Web" without incurring any of the typically assumed "RDF Tax".</p> <p>Naturally, ODS is built atop <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso</a> and of course it exploits Virtuoso's feature-set to the max. It's also beginning to exploit functionality offered by the OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">OAT</a>).</p>
Open Source and Open Data Movements
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-04-01#1175
2007-04-01T22:02:15Z
2007-04-01T17:55:55.000001-04:00
<p> <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=69141977-7514-443d-800b-1f95c1ff8dbe">Dare Obasanjo's post about the issue of Open Data</a> (or Open Data Access), indicates that the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Data">Open Data</a>" issue is gradually beginning to resonate across a broader audience.</p> <p>From my perspective on things I prefer to align my articulation of the changes that are occurring across our industry (courtesy of the Internet Inflection) to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller">MVC pattern</a>.</p> <p>Re. the Web Versions (or Dimensions of Interaction):</p> <ul> Web 1.0 - (V)iewer (Interactive Web experienced via Browser) </ul> <ul> Web 2.0 - (C)ontroller Web (via Web Services API) </ul> <ul> Web 3.0 - (M)odel (via the RDF Data Model as the basis for an Open and Standards based Concrete Conceptual Data Model)</ul> <p>The same applies to evolution of Openness:</p> <ul> Early work by Sun and other early UNIX Vendors - (V)iewer (Interaction with the same OS across different hardware platforms)</ul> <ul>Open Source Movement - (C)ontroller (Open Access to Application Source Code )</ul> <ul>Open Data - (M)odel (*where we are now* Freeing the Date from the Applications and Services while moving the application development focus to a Concrete Conceptual Data Model focus. The Data Web is a classic example.)</ul> <p>In the (C)ontroller realm where the focal point is Application Logic, data access issues aren't obvious (*I recall <a href="http://207.22.26.166/bytecols/1999-11-03.html">my battles with Richard Stallman re. the appropriate Open Source License variant for iODBC</a> during the embryonic years of database and data access technology on Linux*). Data is an enigma in this realm, unfortunately. This implies that "Data Lock-in" occurs deliberately, but in most cases, inadvertently when we make Application Logic the focal point of everything. Another example is Web 2.0 in which the norm (unfortunately) is to suck in your data, and then refuse to give you complete ownership over how it is used (including the fact that you may want to share it elsewhere).</p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Data">Open Data</a> is a really big deal which is why the <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/">SWEO</a> supported <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData">Linking Open Data Project</a> is a very big deal. The good news is that this movement is gathering moment at an exponential rate :-)
RDF Browsers & RDF Data Middleware
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-28#1172
2007-03-28T23:17:00Z
2007-04-29T14:59:05-04:00
<p> <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog">Frederick Giasson</a> penned an interesting post earlier today that highlighted the RDF Middleware services offered by <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/03/28/making-the-bridge-between-the-web-and-the-semantic-web/#comments">Triplr and the Virtuoso Sponger</a> </p> <p>Some Definitions (as per usual):</p> <p>RDF Middleware (as defined in this context) is about producing RDF from non RDF Data Sources. This implies that you can use non RDF Data Sources (e.g. (X)HTML Web Pages, (X)HTML Web Pages hosting Microformats, and even Web Services such as those from Google, Del.icio.us, Flickr etc..) as Semantic Web Data Source URIs (pointers to RDF Data).</p> <p>In this post I would like to provide a similar perspective on this ability to treat non RDF as RDF from RDF Browser perspective.</p> <p>First off, what's an RDF Browser?</p> <p>An RDF Browser is a piece of technology that enables you to Browse <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData">RDF Data Sources</a> by way of Data Link Traversal. The key difference between this approach and traditional browsing is that Data Links are typed (they possess inherent meaning and context) whereas traditional links are untyped (although universally we have been trained to type them as links to Blurb in the form of (X)HTML pages or what is popularly called "Web Content".).</p> <p>There are a number of RDF Browsers that I am aware off (note: pop me a message directly of by way of a comment to this post if you have a browser that I am unaware of), and they include (in order of creation and availability):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/ajar/tab">Tabulator</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/disco/">DISCO - Hyperdata Browser</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit's RDF Browser</a> (a component of the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">OAT Javascript Toolkit</a>)</li> </ol> <p>Each of the browsers above can consume the services of Triplr or the Virtuoso Sponger en route to unveiling a RDF Data that is traversable via <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-webarch-20041215/#dereference-uri">URI dereferencing</a> (HTTP GETing the data exposed by the Data Pointer). Thus you can cut&paste the following into each of the aforementioned RDF Browsers:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://triplr.org/rdf/http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/">Triplr's RDF Data (Triples) extractions from Dan Connolly's Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy?url=http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/&force=rdf">The Virtuoso Sponger's RDF Data (Triples) extractions from Dan Connolly's Home Page</a> </li> </ol> <p>Since we are all time challenged (naturally!) you can also just click on these permalinks for the OAT RDF Browser demos:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri[]=http%3A%2F%2Ftriplr.org%2Frdf%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FPeople%2FConnolly%2F&"">Permalink for Triplr's RDF Data (Triples) extractions from Dan Connolly's Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FPeople%2FConnolly%2F%23me">Permalink for the Virtuoso Sponger's RDF Data (Triples) extractions from Dan Connolly's Home Page</a> </li> </ol>
Data Web, Googlebase, and Yahoo!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-22#1165
2007-03-22T23:04:21Z
2007-03-22T19:14:55-04:00
<p>A defining characteristic of the Data Web (Context Oriented Web 3.0) is that it facilitates Meshups rather than Mashups.</p> <p>Quick Definitions:</p> <ul> Mashups - Brute force joining of disparate Web Data</ul> <ul> Meshups - Natural joining of disparate Web Data </ul> <p> Reasons for the distinction:</p> <ul>Mashups are Data Model oblivious.</ul> <ul>Meshups are Data Model driven.</ul> <p>Examples:</p> <ul> Mashups are based on RSS 2.0 most of the time (RSS 2.0 is at best a Tree Structure that contains untyped or meaning challenged links.</ul> <ul> Meshups are RDF based and the data is self describing since the links are typed (posses inherent meaning thereby providing context).</ul> <p>So what? You may be thinking.</p> <p>For starters, I can quite easily Mesh data from Googlebase (which emits RSS 2.0 or Atom) and other data sources with the Mapping Services from Yahoo!</p> <p>I can achieve this in minutes without writing a single line of code. I can do it because of the Data Model prowess of RDF (self-describing instance-data), the data interchange and transformation power of XML and XSLT respectively, the inherent power of XML based Web Services (REST or SOAP), and of course, having a Hybrid Server product like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Virtuoso</a> at my disposal that delivers a cross platform solution for exploiting all of these standards coherently.</p> <p>I can share the self-describing describing data source that serves my Meshup. Try reusing the data presented by a Mashup via the same URL that you used to locate Mashup to get my drift.</p> <p>Demo Links:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html#http%3A%2F%2Fdemo.openlinksw.com%2FDAV%2Fhome%2Fdemo%2FPublic%2FQueries%2FDataWeb%2Fgoogle_base_jobs_dataspace.isparql">Googlebase Query URL as an RDF Data Source</a> </li> <li>Perform a simple Data Mesh by adding (via link copy and paste) this <a href="http://upcoming.org/search/?q=ajax&scope=allmetros&type=Events">Upcoming.org Query Services URL for Ajax Events</a> to the RDF Browsers list of Data Sources (paste into the Data Source URI input field).</li> </ol> <p>What does this all mean?</p> <p>"Context" is the catalyst of the burgeoning Data Web (Semantic Web Layer - 1). It's the <a href="http://sramanamitra.com/blog/729">emerging appreciation of "Context"</a> that is driving the growing desire to increment Web versions from 2.0 to 3.0. It also the the very same "Context" that has been a preoccupation of <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Activity">Semantic Web vision</a> since its inception.</p> <p>The journey towards a more Semantic Web is all inclusive (all "ANDs" and no "ORs" re. participation).</p> <p>The Semantic Web is <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=887">self-annotating</a>. Web 2.0 has provided a huge contribution to the self annotation effort: on the Web we now have Data Spaces for Bookmarks (e.g del.icio.us), Image Galleries ( e.g Flickr), Discussion Forums (remember those comments associated with blog posts? ditto the pingbacks and trackbacks?), People Profiles (FOAF, XFN, del.icio.us, and those crumbling walled-gardens around many Social Networks), and more..</p> <p>A Web without granular access to Data is simply not a Web worth having (think about the menace of click-fraud and spam).</p>
Web 3.0: When Web Sites Become Web Services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-19#1161
2007-03-20T01:44:00Z
2007-03-20T08:27:37-04:00
<blockquote> <cite><p>(Via <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/">Read/Write Web</a>.)</p> <p> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/102869973/web_30_when_web_sites_become_web_services.php">Web 3.0: When Web Sites Become Web Services</a>: "</p> ..... <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>As more and more of the Web is becoming remixable, the entire system is turning into both a platform and the database. Yet, such transformations are never smooth. For one, scalability is a big issue. And of course legal aspects are never simple.'</p> <p>But it is not a question of <i>if</i> web sites become web services, but <i>when</i> and <i>how</i>. APIs are a more controlled, cleaner and altogether preferred way of becoming a web service. However, when APIs are not avaliable or sufficient, scraping is bound to continue and expand. As always, time will be best judge; but in the meanwhile we turn to you for feedback and stories about how <i>your</i> businesses are preparing for 'web 3.0'.</p> </cite> </blockquote> <p> We are hitting a little problem re. Web 3.0 and Web 2.0, naturally :-) Web 2.0 is one of several (present and future) <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1037">Dimensions of Web Interaction</a> that turns Web Sites into Web Services Endpoints; <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web+dimensions">a point I've made repeatedly</a> [<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/points_of_prese.php">1</a>] [<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?date=2005-10-04">2</a>] [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Web_2.0&oldid=11544998">3</a>] [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Web_2.0&oldid=11679210">4</a>] across the blogosphere, in addition to my early futile attempts to make the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2">Wikipedia's Web 2.0 article</a> meaningful (circa 2005), as per the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Web_2.0/Archive_1">Wikipedia Web 2.0 Talk Page </a>excerpt below:</p> <blockquote> <cite><p>Web 2.0 is a web of executable endpoints and well formed content. The executable endpoints and well formed content are accessible via URIs. Put differently, Web 2.0 is a web defined by URIs for invoking Web Services and/or consuming or syndicating well formed content.</p> <p>Hopefully, someone with more time on their hands will expand on this ( I am kinda busy)</p>. <p>BTW - Web 2.0 being a platform doesn't distinguish it in anyway from Web 1.0. They are both platforms, the difference comes down to platform focus and mode of experience.</p> </cite> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_3.0">Web 3.0</a> is about <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1030">Data Spaces</a>: Points of Semantic Web Presence that provide granular access to Data, Information, and Knowledge via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_schema">Conceptual Data Model</a> oriented Query Languages and/or APIs.</p> <p>The common denominator across all the current and future Web Interaction Dimensions is HTTP. While their differences are as follows:</p> <ul> Web 1.0 - Browser (HTTP + (X)HTML) </ul> <ul> Web 2.0 - Presence (Web Service Endpoints for REST or SOAP over HTTP) </ul> <ul>Web 3.0 - Presence (Query Languages, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_model">Data Models</a>, and HTTP based Query Oriented Web Service Endpoints) </ul> <p>Examples of Web 3.0 Infrastructure:</p> <ol> <li>Query Languages: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>, <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/base/query-lang-spec.html">Googlebase Query Language</a>, <a href="http://developers.facebook.com/documentation.php?v=1.0&doc=fql">Facebook Query Language</a> (FQL), and many others to come</li> <li>Query Language aligned Web Services (Query Services): <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/">SPARQL Protocol</a>, <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/overview.html#About">GData</a>, or REST style Web services such as<a href="http://developers.facebook.com/documentation.php?v=1.0&method=fql.query"> Facebook's service for FQ</a>L.</li> <li>Data Models: Concrete Conceptual Data Model (which RDF happens to deliver for Web Data)</li> </ol> <p>Web 3.0 is not purely about Web Sites becoming Web Services endpoints. It is about the "M" (Data Model) taking it's place in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller">MVC pattern</a> as applied to the Web Platform.</p> <p>I will repeat myself yet again: </p> <blockquote> <cite>The Devil is in the Details of the Data Model. Data Models make or break everything. You ignore data at your own peril. No amount of money in the bank will protect you from Data Ignorance! A bad Data Model will bring down any venture or enterprise, the only variable is time (where time is directly related to your increasing need to obtain, analyze, and then act on data, over repetitive operational cycles, that have ever decreasing intervals). </cite> </blockquote> <p>This applies to the Real-time enterprise of Information and/or knowledge workers and Real-time Web Users alike.</p> <p>BTW -<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/xHWTLA8WecI"> Data Makes Shifts Happen</a> (spotter: <a href="http://www.vecosys.com">Sam Sethi</a>). </p>
Web Databases on the rise
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-09#1152
2007-03-09T18:07:43Z
2007-03-09T12:56:01-05:00
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/">Henry Story</a>'s post: <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/metaweb_a_semantic_wiki">O'Reilly groks the Semantic Web</a>.</p> <p> Web 2.0 commentators such as <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/09/this-is-cool-unless-it-achieves-consciousness-and-kills-us-all">Mike Arrington</a>, and as mentioned above,<a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/03/freebase_will_p_1.html">Tim O'Reilly</a>, both blogged about the imminent release of <a href="http://www.freebase.com">Freebase</a> earlier today. Although I haven't looked at this database yet, it is crystal clear to me that it is one of many Web Databases to come. Others that I am personally familiar with, and involved in, include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org">DBpedia</a> (Wikipedia as a true Database) and Zitgist (soon to be unveiled).</p> <p>All of these databases mark the crystallization of the "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q='data%20web'&type=text&output=html">Data Web</a>" and the imminence of what is increasingly referred to as Web 3.0.</p> <p>I certainly hope that all web 3.0 Database Providers keep the data Open, adhere to <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData">Web Best Practice recipes for sharing and publishing data</a>, and generally make the process of data, information, and knowledge discovery via the Web much easier.</p>
Personal URIs & Data Spaces
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-01#1148
2007-03-01T19:42:41Z
2007-03-02T09:14:02.000004-05:00
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2007/03/01/linking-personal-posted-content-across-communities/#comments">Linking personal posted content across communities</a>: "</p> <p>With the help of Kingsley, Uldis and I have been looking at how <a href="http://sioc-project.org/">SIOC</a> can be used to link the content that a single person posts to a number of community sites. The picture below shows an example of stuff that Iâve created on Flickr, YouTube, etc. through my various user identities on those sites (these match some <a href="http://wiki.sioc-project.org/index.php/TypesModule">SIOC types</a> that we want to add to a separate module). We can also say that each Web 2.0 content item is a user-contributed post, with some attached or embedded content (e.g. a file or maybe just some metadata). This is part of a new discussion on the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/sioc-dev">sioc-dev</a> mailing list, and weâd value your contributions.</p> <p> <img id="image1178" src="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/20070228a.png" alt="20070228a.png" /> </p> <p>Edit: The inner layer is a person (semantically described in FOAF), the next layer is their user accounts (described in FOAF, SIOC) and the outer layer is the posted content - text, files, associated metadata - on community sites (again described using SIOC). </p> No Tags" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog">John Breslin - Cloudlands</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>The point that John is making about the Data Web and Interlinked <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q='data%20spaces'&type=text&output=html">Data Spaces</a> exposed via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a>s (e.g Personal URIs), crystallizes a number of very important issues about the Data Web that may remain unclear. I am hoping that by digesting the post excerpt above, in conjunction with the items below, aids the pursuit of clarity and comprehension about the all important Data Web (Semantic Web - Layer 1):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://kidehen.idehen.net/dataspace/kidehen">Your OpenID can be Your Personal URI</a> (as noted by <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/">Henry Story</a>'s post about: <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/openid_for_blogs_sun_com">The Many Uses of OpenID</a>). That that's what I have courtesy of OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS)</li> <li>The above only works unobtrusively (i.e. OpenID and Personal sharing a URI) if Content Negotiation is exploited on the Client and Server sides.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card.rdf">TimBL</a>'s call out to <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html">Share Your Data and Link to Other Data</a> via URIs via post titled: <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/71">Give Yourself a URI</a>.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-vocab-pub/">W3C's Best Practice Recipes for Publishing RDF Vocabularies</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-webarch-20041215/#dereference-uri">W3C's Architecture of the World Wide Web - Vol 1</a> which covers URI Dereferencing (HTTP GET-ing the data that a URI points to)</li> <li> <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/is-group/page/persons/Person6">Richard Cyganiak</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://dowhatimean.net/2007/02/debugging-semantic-web-sites-with-curl">Debugging Semantic Web Sites with Curl</a>.</li> </ol> <p>Examples of some of these principles in practice:</p> <ol> <li>Chris Bizer, Tobias Gaub, and Richard's Javascript based<a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/semwebclient/"> Semantic Web Client Library</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/disco/">DISCO RDF Browser</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a>'s (OAT) <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/tests/rdfbrowser/index.html">RDF Browser</a> </li> <li>OpenLink <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql">Interactive SPARQL Query by Example</a> (iSPARQL QBE)</li> <li>Dynamic Data Web Pages from my prior posts [<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1144">1</a>][<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1145">2</a>][<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1146">3</a>]</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/docs/">dbpedia</a> (Wikipedia as a Data Web oriented Data Source)</li> <li>And of course this blog post's permalink is a bona fide dereferencable URI.</li> </ol> <p>And of course there is more to come such as Grandma's Semantic Web Browser which is coming from <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/02/18/zitgist_a_semantic_web_search_engine">Zitgist LLC</a> (pronounced: Zeitgeist) a joint venture of OpenLink Software and <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/">Frederick Giasson</a>.</p>
Hello Data Web (Take 3 - Feel The "RDF" Force)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-24#1144
2007-02-24T21:43:39Z
2007-02-24T17:01:28-05:00
<p>As I have stated, and implied, in various posts about the Data Web and burgeoning Semantic Web in general; the value of RDF is felt rather than seen (driven by presence as opposed to web sites). That said, it is always possible to use the visual Interactive-Web dimension (Web 1.0) as a conduit to the Data-Web dimension.</p> <p>In this third take on my introduction to the Data Web I would like to share a link with you (a Dynamic Start Page in Web 2.0 parlance) with a Data Web twist: You do not have to preset the Start Page Data Sources (this is a small-big thing, if you get my drift, hopefully!).</p> <p>Here are some Data Web based Dynamic Start Pages that I have built for some key play ers from the Semantic Web realm (in random order):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/danbri_dataspace.isparql.xml">Dan Brickley</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/timbl_dataspace.isparql.xml">Tim Berners-Lee</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/danc_dataspace.isparql.xml">Dan Connolly</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/danja_dataspace.isparql.xml">Danny Ayers</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/planet_rdf_dataspace.isparql.xml">Planet RDF</a> </li> </ol> <p>"These are RDF prepped Data Sources....", you might be thinking, right? Well here is the reminder: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1122">The Data Web is a Global Data Generation and Integration Effort</a>. Participation may be active (Semantic Web & Microformats Community), or passive (web sites, weblogs, wikis, shared bookmarks, feed subscription, discussion forums, mailing lists etc..). Irrespective of participation mode, RDF instance can be generated from close to anything (I say this because I plan to add binary files holding metadata to this mix shortly). Here are examples of Dynamic Start Pages for non RDF Data Sources:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/delicious_web20_events_dataspace.isparql.xml">del.icio.us Web 2.0 Events Bookmarks</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/vecosys_dataspace.isparql.xml">Vecosys</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/techcrunch_dataspace.isparql.xml">Techcrunch</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/jonudell_dataspace.isparql.xml">Jon Udell's Blog</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/davewiner_dataspace.isparql.xml">Dave Winer's Scripting News</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/scobelizer_dataspace.isparql.xml">Robert Scoble's Blog</a> </li> </ol> <p>what about Microformats you may be wondering? Here goes:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/microformats_dataspace.isparql.xml">Microformats Wiki</a> (click on the Brian Suda link for instance) </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/planet_microformats_dataspace.isparql.xml">Microformats Planet</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/delicious_microformats_dataspace.isparql.xml">Del.icio.us Microformats Bookmarks</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/ben_adida_dataspace.isparql.xml">Ben Adida's home page</a> (RDFa)</li> </ol> <p>Let's carry on.</p> <p>How about some traditional Web Sites? Here goes:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/openlink_dataspace.isparql.xml">OpenLink Software's Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/oracle_dataspace.isparql.xml">Oracle's Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/apple_dataspace.isparql.xml">Apple's Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/microsoft_dataspace.isparql.xml">Microsoft's Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/ibm_dataspace.isparql.xml">IBM's Home Page</a> </li> </ol> <p>And before I forget, here is <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/kidehen_dataspace.isparql.xml">My Data Web Start Page </a>.</p> <p>Due to the use of Ajax in the Data Web Start Pages, IE6 and Safari will not work. For Mac OS X users, Webkit works fine. Ditto re. IE7 on Windows.</p>
Our Basic Human Instincts
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-24#1143
2007-02-24T01:03:38Z
2007-02-23T19:55:49-05:00
<p>I just overheard the following dialog between my six year old son and his play date:</p> <blockquote> <pre> Play Date: What is that thing on the Wall? My Son: Security Alarm Play Date: How does it work My Son: If you click on that top button and then open the door, I will have to enter a code when we come back in or the alarm will go off Play Date: What is the code? My Son: I can't tell you that! Play Date: Why not? My Son: You might come and steal something from our house! Play Date: No I won't! My Son: Well, you might tell someone that might come and steal something from our house! or that person could tell someone who could tell someone that would steal from our house</pre></blockquote> <p>LOL!! of course! At the same time wondering, how come a majority of adults don't quite see the need for granular access to Web Data in a manner that enables computers and humans to collectively arrive at similar decisions? </p> <p>Putting Data in context en route to producing actionable knowledge is a transient endeavor that engages a myriad of human senses. We demonstrate comprehension of this fact in our daily existence as social creatures (at a very early age as depicted above). That said, we seem to forget this fact when engaging the Web: If we can't see it then it can't be valuable.</p> <blockquote> <p>BTW - I just received a ping about the "<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/route79/399029535/">Sensory Web</a>" (which is just another way of describing a Data Driven Web experience from my vantage point.)</p> </blockquote> <p>In the popular M-V-C pattern you don't see the "M", but the "M" will kill you if you get it wrong (it is the FORCE)! Coming to think about it, the pattern could have been coined: V-C-M or C-M-V, but isn't for obvious reasons :-)</p> <p>RDF is the vehicle that enables us tap into the Data aspect of the Web. We started off with pages of blurb linked via hypertext (Web 1.0) and then looked to "Keywords" for some kind of data access; we then isolated some "Verbs" and discovered another dimension of Web Interaction (Web 2.0) but looked to these "Verbs" for data access which left us with Mashups; and now we are starting to extract "Nouns" and "Adjectives" from sentences (Subject, Predicate, Object - Triples) associated with resources on the Web (Data Web / Web 3.0 / Semantic Web Layer 1) which provides a natural data access substrate for <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=meshups&type=text&output=html">Meshups</a> (natural joining of disparate data from a plethora of data sources) while providing the foundation layer for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a>.</p> <p>For those who need use-cases that demonstrate tangible value re. the Semantic Web, here are some projects to note courtesy of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/">Semantic Web Education and Outreach</a> (SWEO) interest group: </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/FOAFWhitelisting">FOAF based White-lists</a> - Attacking SPAM </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData">Open Data Access and Linking for the Data Web</a> - Data Integration and Generation effort that creates a cluster of RDF instance data from a myriad of data sources relating to every day things such as: People, Places, Events, Projects, Discussions, Music, Books, and other things </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/PowderExtension">Content Labeling</a> - Protecting our kids on the Web amongst other matters relating to knowledge about data sources </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects">Others..</a> </li> </ol> Related posts: <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20data%20integration&type=text&output=html">Data Web and Global Data Integration & Generation Effort</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q='data%20web'&type=text&output=html">Previous Data Web posts</a>.</li> </ol>
OAT: OpenAjax Alliance Compliant Toolkit (Live Links Version)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-01-29#1129
2007-01-29T16:16:14Z
2007-02-02T10:29:55-05:00
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://ajaxian.com/archives/oat-openajax-alliance-compliant-toolkit">OAT: OpenAjax Alliance Compliant Toolkit</a>: "</p> <p>Ondrej Zara and his team at Openlink Software have created a Openlink Software JS Toolkit, known as OAT. It is a full-blown JS framework, suitable for developing<br /> rich applications with special focus to data access.</p> <p>OAT works standalone, offers vast number of widgets and has some rarely seen features, such as on-demand library loading (which reduces the total amount of downloaded JS code).</p> <p>OAT is one of the first JS toolkits which show full OpenAjax Alliance conformance: see the appropriate <a href="http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/InteropFest_2007_March)">wiki page</a> and <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/openajax/HubTest-OATConformance.html">conformance test page</a>.</p> <p>There is a lot to see with this toolkit:</p> <p>You can see some of the widgets in a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">Kitchen sink application</a> </p> <p>Sample data access applications:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/qbe/index.html">SQL Query By Example</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/formdesigner/index.html">Forms designer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/designer/index.html">DB Designer</a> </li> </ul> <p>OAT is Open Source and GPLâed over at <a href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=168143">sourceforge</a> and the team has recently managed to incorporate our OAT data access layer as a<br /> module to <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/dojo-oatstore-demo/test_OATStore_in_FilteringTable.html">dojo datastore</a>.</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://ajaxian.com">Ajaxian Blog</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>This is a corrected version of the initial post. Unfortunately, the initial post was inadvertently littered with invalid links :-( Also, since the original post we have released <a href="http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=31568932&forum_id=49207">OAT 1.2</a> that includes integration of our iSPARQL QBE into the OAT Form Designer application.</p> <p>Re. Data Access, It is important to note that OAT's Ajax Database Connectivity layers supports data binding to the following data source types:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/">RDF</a> - via <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?dav">SPARQL</a> (Query Language, Protocol, and Resultset Serialization formats: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JDBC">RDF/XML</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Notation3">RDF/N3</a>, <a href="http://www.dajobe.org/2004/01/turtle/">RDF/Turtle</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML">XML</a>, and <a href="http://www.json.org/">JSON</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL">SQL</a> - via <a href="http://www.xmla.org/faq.asp">XMLA</a> (somewhat forgotten <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOAP">SOAP</a> protocol for SQL Data Access that can sit atop <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Database_Connectivity">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET">ADO.NET</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLE_DB">OLE-DB</a>, and even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JDBC">JDBC</a>)</li> <li>XML - via SOAP or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer">REST</a> style Web Services</li> </ol> In all cases, OAT also provides Data Aware controls for the above that include: <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlnksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?grid">Tabular Grids</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?pivot">Pivot Tables</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlnksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?timeline">TimeLines</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?anchor">Extended Anchor Tags</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlnksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?mashups">Map Service Controls</a> (Google, Yahoo!, OpenLayers, Microsoft Visual Earth)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?rdf">SVG based RDF Graph Control</a> (Opera 9.x provides best viewing experience at the current time)</li> </ol> <p>OAT also includes a number of prototype applications that are completely developed using OAT Controls and Libraries:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlnksw.com/isparql/">Visual SPARQL Query Builder</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/qbe/index.html">Visual SQL Query Builder</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/formdesigner/index.html">Web Forms Designer</a> (includes Drag-Drop usage of Data Aware Controls etc.)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/designer/index.html">Visual DB Designer</a> </li> </ol> <p>Note: Pick "Local DSN" from page initialization dialog's drop-down list control when prompted</p>
Microsoft & Wikipedia Imbroglio
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-01-25#1124
2007-01-26T00:10:00Z
2007-01-25T18:47:47.000001-05:00
<p>I tried to post a comment to <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog">Dare Obasanjo</a>'s blog post: <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=0c22a95a-2d81-4f40-bbce-c763d8447468">How Do We Get Rid of Lies on Wikipedia</a>, without success (due to my attempts to add links to the post etc..). Hence a Blog style response instead.</p> <p>Dare:</p> <p>I have been through the Wikipedia fires a few times. If you recall that I actually triggered the early<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0"> Web 2.0 Wikipedia article</a>. along the following lines: </p> <ol> <li> Asked one of my staff to start a post with the sole intention of defining Web 2.0 properly </li> <li> I then attempted to edit the initial post </li> <li> I left a typo re. REST </li> <li> Got set on Fire etc... (see very beginning of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Web_2.0&action=history">Wikipedia Web 2.0 history page</a>) </li> </ol> <p>As annoying as the experience above was, I didn't find this inconsistent with the spirit of Wikipedia (i.e. open contribution and discourse). I felt, at the time, that a lot of historical data was being left in place for future reference etc.. In addition, the ultimate aim of creating an evolving Web 2.0 document did commence albeit some distance from "modern man" re. accuracy and meaningfulness as of my last read (today).</p> <p>Even closer to home, I repeated the process above re. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Virtuoso Universal Server</a>. This basically ended up being a live case study on how you handle the Wikipedia NPOV conundurum. Just look at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Virtuoso Universal Server Talk Pages</a> to see how the process evolved (the key was Virtuoso's lineage and it's proximity to the very DBMS platform upon which Wikipedia runs i.e <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySQL">MySQL</a>).</p> <p>Bearing in mind the size and magnitude of Microsoft, there should be no reason why Microsoft's "Microsoft Digital Caucus" ( legions of Staff, MSDN members, Integrators, and other partners) can't simply go into Wikipedia and participate in the edit and discourse process.</p> <p> Truth cannot be surpressed! At best, it can only be temporarily delayed :-) Even more so on the Web!</p>
SPARQL, Ajax, Tagging, Folksonomies, Share Ontologies and Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-12-07#1095
2006-12-07T17:35:29Z
2006-12-13T15:09:50-05:00
<p>A quick dump that demonstrates how I integrate tags and links from del.icio.us with links from my local bookmark database via one of my public Data Spaces (this demo uses the <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/dataspace/kidehen">kidehen Data Space</a>).</p> <p> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a> (query language for the Semantic Web) basically enables me to query a collection of typed links (predicates/properties/attributes) in my Data Space (<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">ODS</a> based of course) without breaking my existing local bookmarks database or the one I maintain at del.icio.us.</p> <p>I am also demonstrating how <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">Web 2.0</a> concepts such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tags">Tagging</a> mesh nicely with the more formal concepts of Topics in the Semantic Web realm. The key to all of this is the ability to generate <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/">RDF Data Model</a> Instance Data based on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_ontology_(computer_science)">Shared Ontologies</a> such as <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">SIOC</a> (from <a href="http://www.semanticweb.org/">DERI</a>'s <a href="http://sioc-project.org/">SIOC Project</a>) and <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/">SKOS</a> (again showing that <a href="http://tomgruber.org/writing/ontology-of-folksonomy.htm">Ontologies and Folksonomies</a> are complimentary).</p> <p>This demo also shows that Ajax also works well in the Semantic Web realm (or <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1037">web dimension of interaction 3.0</a>) especially when you have a toolkit with Data Aware controls (for SQL, RDF, and XML) such as OAT (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a>). For instance, we've successfully used this to build a <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/isparl/">Visual Query Building Tool for SPARQL</a> (alpha) that really takes a lot of the pain out of constructing SPARQL Queries (there is much more to come on this front re. handling of DISTINCT, FILTER, ORDER BY etc..). </p> <p>For now, take a look at the SPARQL Query dump generated by this <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/DAV/home/kidehen/gallery/my_photos/sparql_qbe_sioc_skos_shot1.png">SIOC & SKOS SPARQL QBE Canvas Screenshot</a>. </p> <p>You can cut and paste the queries that follow into the Query Builder or use the screenshot to build your variation of this query sample. Alternatively, you can simply click on *<a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/sparql?default-graph-uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace&query=PREFIX+rdf%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2F02%2F22-rdf-syntax-ns%23%3E%0D%0APREFIX+sioc%3A+++%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Frdfs.org%2Fsioc%2Fns%23%3E%0D%0APREFIX+dct%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fdc%2Felements%2F1.1%2F%3E%0D%0APREFIX+skos%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2004%2F02%2Fskos%2Fcore%23%3E%0D%0A%0D%0ASELECT+distinct+%3Fforum_name%2C+%3Fowner%2C+%3Fpost%2C+%3Ftitle%2C+%3Flink%2C+%3Furl+%3Ftag%0D%0AFROM+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%3E%0D%0AWHERE+%7B%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+a+sioc%3AForum.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+sioc%3Atype+%22bookmark%22.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+sioc%3Aid+%3Fforum_name.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+sioc%3Ahas_member+%3Fowner.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fowner+sioc%3Aid+%22kidehen%22.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+sioc%3Acontainer_of+%3Fpost+.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fpost++dct%3Atitle+%3Ftitle+.%0D%0A++++++++optional+%7B+%3Fpost+sioc%3Atopic+%3Ftopic.%0D%0A+++++++++++++++++++%3Ftopic+a+skos%3AConcept%3B%0D%0A+++++++++++++++++++++++++skos%3AprefLabel+%3Ftag.+%7D%0D%0A++++++++optional%7B+%3Fpost+sioc%3Alink+%3Flink++%7D+.%0D%0A++++++++optional%7B+%3Fpost+sioc%3Alinks_to+%3Furl+%7D%0D%0A++++++%7D%0D%0AORDER+BY+%3Ftitle&format=text%2Fhtml">This</a>* <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/">SPARQL Protocol</a> URL to see the query results in a basic HTML Table. And one last thing, you can grab the <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/DAV/home/kidehen/SPARQL/tagging_sioc_skos_delicios_my_bookmarks.rq">SPARQL Query File</a> saved into my <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsBriefcase">ODS-Briefcase</a> (the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV">WebDAV</a> repository aspect of my Data Space). </p> <p> <b>Note the following SPARQL Protocol Endpoints:</b> </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/sparql/">MyOpenLink Data Space</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/isparql/">Experimental Data Space SPARQL Query Builder</a> (you need to register at http://myopenlink.net:8890/ods to use this version)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql/">Live Demo Sever</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql/">Demo Server SPARQL Query Builder</a> (use: demo for both username and pwd when prompted)</li> </ol> <p>My beautified Version of the SPARQL Generated by QBE (you can cut and paste into "Advanced Query" section of QBE) is presented below:</p> <pre> PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> PREFIX sioc: <http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#> PREFIX dct: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> PREFIX skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> <br /> SELECT distinct ?forum_name, ?owner, ?post, ?title, ?link, ?url, ?tag FROM <http://myopenlink.net/dataspace> WHERE { ?forum a sioc:Forum; sioc:type "bookmark"; sioc:id ?forum_name; sioc:has_member ?owner. ?owner sioc:id "kidehen". ?forum sioc:container_of ?post . ?post dct:title ?title . optional { ?post sioc:link ?link } optional { ?post sioc:links_to ?url } optional { ?post sioc:topic ?topic. ?topic a skos:Concept; skos:prefLabel ?tag}. } </pre> <p>Unmodified dump from the QBE (this will be beautified automatically in due course by the QBE):</p> <pre> PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> PREFIX sioc: <http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#> PREFIX dct: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> PREFIX skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> <br /> SELECT ?var8 ?var9 ?var13 ?var14 ?var24 ?var27 ?var29 ?var54 ?var56 WHERE { graph ?graph { ?var8 rdf:type sioc:Forum . ?var8 sioc:container_of ?var9 . ?var8 sioc:type "bookmark" . ?var8 sioc:id ?var54 . ?var8 sioc:has_member ?var56 . ?var9 rdf:type sioc:Post . OPTIONAL {?var9 dc:title ?var13} . OPTIONAL {?var9 sioc:links_to ?var14} . OPTIONAL {?var9 sioc:link ?var29} . ?var9 sioc:has_creator ?var37 . OPTIONAL {?var9 sioc:topic ?var24} . ?var24 rdf:type skos:Concept . OPTIONAL {?var24 skos:prefLabel ?var27} . ?var56 rdf:type sioc:User . ?var56 sioc:id "kidehen" . } } </pre> <p> Current missing items re. Visual QBE for SPARQL are:</p> <ol> <li> Ability to Save properly to WebDAV so that I can then expose various saved SPARQL Queries (.rq file) from my Data Space via URIs </li> <li> Handling of DISTINCT, FILTERS (note: OPTIONAL is handled via dotted predicate-links) </li> <li>General tidying up re. click event handling etc. </li> </ol> Note: You can even open up your own account (using our <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ods">Live Demo</a> or <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/ods">Live Experiment Data</a> Space servers) which enables you to repeat this demo by doing the following (post registration/sign-up): <ol> <li>Export some bookmarks from your local browser to the usual HTML bookmarks dump file</li> <li>Create an ODS-Bookmarks Instance using your new ODS account</li> <li>Use the ODS-Bookmark Instance to import your local bookmarks from the HTML dump file</li> <li>Repeat the same import sequence using the ODS-Bookmark Instance, but this time pick the del.icio.us option</li> <li>Build your query (change 'kidehen' to your ODS-user-name)</li> <li>That's it you now have Semantic Web presence in the form of a Data Space for your local and del.icio.us hosted bookmarks with tags integrated</li> </ol> <p>Quick Query Builder Tip: You will need to import the following (using the Import Button in the Ontologies & Schemas side-bar); </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#</a> (<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/">RDF</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#">http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#</a> (<a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">SIOC</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/</a> (<a href="http://dublincore.org/">Dublin Core</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#">http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#</a> (<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-swbp-skos-core-guide-20050510/">SKOS</a>)</li> </ol> <p>Browser Support: The SPARQL QBE is SVG based and currently works fine with the following browsers; Firefox 1.5/2.0, Camino (Cocoa variant of Firefox for Mac OS X), Webkit (Safari pre-release / advanced sibling), Opera 9.x. We are evaluating the use of the Adobe SVG plugin re. IE 6/7 support.</p> <p>Of course this should be a screencast, but I am the middle of a plethora of things right now :-) </p>
Contd: Web 3.0 Commentary etc..
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-24#1090
2006-11-24T15:55:21Z
2006-11-24T13:30:08.000001-05:00
<p>This post is part contribution to the general Web 3.0 / Data-Web / Semantic Web discourse, and part experiment / demonstration of the Data Web.</p> <p>I came across a pretty deep comments trail about the aforementioned items on <a href="http://avc.blogs.com">Fred Wilson's blog</a> (aptly titled: A VC) under the subject heading: <a href="http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2006/11/web_30_is_the_s.html">Web 3.0 Is The Semantic Web.</a> </p> <p>Contributions to the general Semantic Web discourse by way of responses to valuable questions and commentary contributed by a Semantic Web skeptic (Ed Addison who may be this <a href="http://www.csee.umbc.edu/cikm/1998/addison-abstract.html">Ed Addison according to Google</a>):</p> <p></p> <blockquote>Ed, Responses to your points re. Semantic Web Matrialization: <ul> << 1) ontologies can be created and maintained by text extractors and crawlers" >> <p>Ontologies will be developed by Humans. This process has already commenced and far more landscape has been covered that you may be aware of. For instance, there is an Ontology for Online Communities with Semantics factored in. More importantly, most Blogs, Wikis, and other "points of presence" on the Web are already capable of generating Instance Data for this Ontology by way of the underlying platforms that drive these things. The Ontology is called: SIOC (<a href="http://sioc-project.org">Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities</a>).</p> </ul> <ul> << 2) the entire web can be marked up, semantically indexed, and maintained by spiders without human assistance >> <p>Most of it can, and already is :-) Human assistance should, and would, be on an "exception basis" a preferred use of human time (IMHO). We do not need to annotate the Web manually when this labor intensive process can be automated (see my earlier comments).</p> </ul> <ul> << 3) inference over the semantic web does not require an extremely deep heuristic search down multiple, redundant, cyclical pathways with many islands that are disconnected >> <p>When you have a foundation layer of RDF Data (generated in the manner I've discussed above), you then have a substrate that's far more palatable to Intelligent Reasoning. Note, the Semantic Web is made of many layers. The critical layer at this juncture is the Data-Web (Web of RDF Data). Note, when I refer to RDF I am not referring to RDF/XML the serialization format, I am referring to the Data Model (a Graph).</p> </ul> <ul> << 4) the web becomes smart enough to eliminate websites or data elements that are incorrect, misleading, false, or just plain lousy >> <p>The Semantic Web vision is not about eliminating Web Sites (The Hypertext-Document-Web). It is simply about adding another dimension of interaction to the Web. This is just like the Services-Web dimension as delivered by Web 2.0.</p> We are simply evolving within an innovation continuum. There is no mutual exclusivity about any of the Web Dimensions since they collectively provide us with a more powerful infrastructure for building and exploiting "collective wisdom". </ul> </blockquote> <p>As for the Data-Web experiment part of this post, I would expect to see this post exposed as another contribution to the Data-Web via the <a href="http://pingthesemanticweb.com">PingTheSemanticWeb</a> notification service :-) Implying, that all the relevant parts of this conversation are in a format (Instance Data for the <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">SIOC Ontology</a>) that is available for further use in a myriad of forms.</p>
Web Me2.0 -- Exploding the Myth of Web 2.0
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-15#1081
2006-11-15T23:17:36Z
2006-11-16T16:11:46-05:00
<p> <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/">Nova Spivack</a> provides poignant insights into the recent Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0 brouhaha which I've excerpted below: </p> <blockquote> <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2006/11/web_me20_explod.html">Web Me2.0 -- Exploding the Myth of Web 2.0</a>: <p>"Many people have told me this week that they think 'Web 2.0' has not been very impressive so far and that they really hope for a next-generation of the Web with some more significant innovation under the hood -- regardless of what it's called. A lot of people found the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco to be underwhelming -- there was a lot of self-congratulation by the top few brands and the companies they have recently bought, but not much else happening. Where was all the innovation? Where was the focus on what's next? It seemed to be a conference mainly about what happened in the last year, not about what will happen in the coming year. But what happened last year is already so 'last year.' And frankly Web 2.0 still leaves a lot to be desired. The reason Tim Berners-Lee proposed the Semantic Web in the first place is that it will finally deliver on the real potential and vision of the Web. Not that today's Web 2.0 sucks completely -- it only sort of sucks. It's definitely useful and there are some nice bells and whistles we didn't have before. But it could still suck so much less!"</p> </blockquote> <p>Web 2.0 is a (not was) a piece of the overall Web puzzle. The Data Web (so called Web 3.0) is another critical piece of this puzzle, especially as it provides the foundation layer (Layer 1) of the Semantic Web.</p> <p>Web 2.0 was never about "Open Data Access", "Flexible Data Models", or "Open World" meshing of disparate data sources built atop disparate data schemas (see: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1032">Web 2.0's Open Data Access Conundrum</a>). It was simply about "Execution and APIs". I already written about "Web Interaction Dimensions", but you call also look at the relationship of the currently perceived dimensions through the M-V-C programming pattern: </p> <ol> <li>Viewer (V) - Web 1.0 (Interaction, Dimension 1 - Interactive-Web)</li> <li>Controller (C) - Web 2.0 (Services, Dimension 2 - Services-Web which is about Execution & Application Logic; SOA outside/in-front-of the Firewall for Enterprise 2.0 crowd)</li> <li>Model (M) - Web 3.0 (Data, Dimension 3 - Data-Web which is about data model dexterity and open data access)</li> </ol> <p>Another point to note, Social Networking is hot, but nearly every social network that I know (and I know and use most of them) suffers from an impedance mismatch between the service(s) they provide (social networks) and their underlying data models (in many cases Relational as opposed to Graph). Networks are about Relationships (N-ary) and your cannot effectively exploit the deep potential of: "Network Effects" (Wisdom of Crowds, Viral Marketing etc..) without a complimentary data model, you simply can't.</p> <p>Finally, the Data Web is already here, I promised a long time ago (Internet Time) that the manifestation of the Semantic Web would occur unobtrusively, meaning, we will wake up one day and realize we are using critical portions of the Semantic Web (i.e. Data-Web) without even knowing it. Guess what? It's already happening. Simple case in point, you may have started to notice the emergence of <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">SIOC</a> gems in the same way you may have observed those RSS 2.0 gems at the dawn of Web 2.0. What I am implying here is that the real question we should be asking is: Where is the Semantic Web Data? And how easy or difficult will it be to generate? And where are the tools? My answers are presented below:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://pingthesemanticweb.com/">Pingthesemanticweb.com</a> - Semantic Web Data Source Lookup & Tracking Service</li> <li> <a href="http://swoogle.umbc.edu/">Swoogle </a>- Semantic Web Ontology Location Service</li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/RdfAndSql">Semantic Web Solutions for Generating RDF Data from SQL Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SemanticWebTools">Semantic Web Solutions Directory</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://sioc-project.org/">SIOC Project</a> - Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities Ontology, a grassroots effort that provides a critical bridge between Web 2.0 and the Data-Web. For instance, existing Web 2.0 application profiles such as; Blogs, Wikis, Feed Aggregators, Content Managers, Discussion Forums etc.. are much closer to the Data-Web than you may think :-) </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/">Virtuoso</a> - our <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Universal Server</a> for the Data-Web</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (ODS) - our SIOC based platform for transparent incorporation of the Data-Web into Web 1.0 and Web 2.0</li> </ol> <p>Next stop, less writing, more demos, these are long overdue! At least from my side of the fence :-) I need to produce a little step-by-guide oriented screencasts that demonstrates how Web 2.0 meshes nicely with the Data-Web.</p> <p>Here are some (not so end-user friendly) examples of how you can use <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a> (Data-Web's Query Language) to query Web 2.0 Instance Data projected through the SIOC Ontology:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Weblog%20Data%20Space">Weblog Data Query</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Wiki%20Data%20Space">Wiki Data Query</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Feeds%20/%20Subscriptions%20Data%20Space%20(Feed%20Aggregation)">Aggregated Feeds Data Query</a> - (RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom etc)</li> <li a="a" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Bookmarks%20Data%20Space">Shared Bookmarks Data Space</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Briefcase%20Applications%20Data%20Space">Web Filesystem Data Query</a> - (Briefcase - Virtual Spotlight of sorts)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Photo%20Gallery%20Data%20Space">Photo Gallery Data Query</a> (this could be data from Flickr etc..)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Discussion%20/%20Conversation%20Data%20Space">Discussion Data Query</a> (e.g. Blog posts comments)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Generic%20Data%20Space%20Queries">Data Queries across different Data Spaces</a> - combining data from Wikis, Blogs, Feeds, Photos, Bookmarks, Discussions etc..</li> </ol> <p>Note: You can use the online SPARQL Query Interface at: http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql.</p> <p> </p> <p> Other Data-Web Technology usage demos include:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/ajar/tab">TimBL's Tabulator</a> - A Data-Web Browser</li> <li> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/semwebclient/#examples">Semantic Web Client Library</a> - <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-concepts/">RDF</a> Data Drill Down Demos using SPARQL</li> <li> <a href="http://sioc-project.org/firefox">Semantic Radar</a> - A Firefox plug-in for auto-discovering SIOC Instance Data</li> <li> <a href="http://www.talkdigger.com/">Talk Digger</a> - SIOC based Web Conversation Tracker</li> </ol>
Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0 Brouhaha!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-14#1080
2006-11-14T00:35:12Z
2008-09-04T23:00:54-04:00
<p>It's kind of ironic to see what has emerged after <a href="http://iswc2006.semanticweb.org/" id="link-id12171fc0">ISWC 2006</a> and the <a href="http://web2con.com/" id="link-id10fff940">Web 2.0 Summit</a>. From my vantage point, it appears as though the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 2.0 event inadvertently (albeit beneficially) left its attendees looking for the next big thing re. the Web Innovation Continuum as exemplified by the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/business/12web.html?ei=5094&en=a34a6306f48166fb&hp=&ex=1163394000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all" id="link-id145eb180">"Web 3.0" meme from the New York Times (NYT)</a> which triggered the current "Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0 Brouhaha".</p> <p>Amongst the numerous comments about this subject, I felt most compelled to respond to the commentary from Tim O'Reilly (based on his proximity to Web 2.0 etc..) in relation to his view that the NYT's Web 3.0 = Collective Intelligence Harnessing aspect of his <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html" id="link-id10b00010">Web 2.0 meme</a>. </p> <p>My response is dumped semi-verbatim below:</p> <blockquote> <p>Tim,</p> <p>A few things:</p> <ol> <li> We are in an innovation continuum </li> <li> The Web as a medium of innovation will evolve forever </li> <li> Different commentators have different views about monikers associated with these innovations</li> <li> To say Web 3.0 (aka the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Web or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0xb1aeb88">Semantic Web</a> - Layer 1) is what Web 2.0's collective intelligence is all about is a little inaccurate (IMHO); Web 2.0 doesn't provide "Open Data Access" </li> <li> Web 2.0 is a "Web of Services" primarily, a dimension of "Web Interaction" defined by interaction with Services </li> <li> Web 3.0 ("Data Web" or "Web of Databases" or "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a> - Layer 1") is a Web dimension that provides "Open Data Access" that will be exemplified by the transition from "Mash-ups" (brute force data joining) to "Mesh-ups" (natural data joining) </li> </ol> <p> The original "Web of Hypertext" or "Interactive Web", the current "Web of Services", and the emerging "Data Web" or "Web of Databases" collectively provide dimensions of interaction in the innovation continuum called the Web. </p> <p> There are many more dimensions to come. Monikers come and go, but the retrospective "Long Shadow" of Innovation is ultimately timeless.</p> <p> "Mutual Inclusivity" is a critical requirement for truly perceiving these "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%20dimensions&type=text&output=html" id="link-id10de2178">Web Interaction Dimensions</a>" ("Participation" if I recall). "Mutual Exclusivity" on the other hand, simpy leads to obscuring reality with Versionitis as exemplified by the ongoing: Web 1.0 vs 2.0 vs 3.0 debates.</p> </blockquote> <p>BTW - I enjoyed reading <a href="http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/11/welcome_web_30.php" id="link-id1855a380">Nick Carr's take on the Web 3.0 meme</a>, especially his "tongue in cheek" power-grab for the rights to all "Web 3.0" Conferences etc. :-) </p>
ISWC 2006 - Technical Links
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-11#1079
2006-11-11T19:35:16Z
2006-11-11T16:59:50-05:00
<p>It's really nice to see DAWG-Fooding in effect at ISWC 2006 as demonstrated by this <a href="http://iswc2006.semanticweb.org/program/tech_links.htm#core">ISWC 2006 Technical Links Page</a> :-)</p> <p>Likewise, It would be nice if there were some Mash-ups, Service Endpoints, or Syndication Feeds that exposed relevant Data from the <a href="http://www.web2con.com/">Web 2.0 Summit</a> (beyond the usual selective, best-of, type <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/47754442/web_20_summit_wrap-up.php">Blog Commentary</a> and traditional <a href="http://www.web2con.com/pub/w/49/speakers.html">Speakers List</a>).</p>
Web 2.0 and Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-08#1077
2006-11-08T22:25:28Z
2006-11-09T08:34:34-05:00
<p>We currently have the<a href="http://www.web2con.com/"> Web 2.0 Summit</a> and the <a href="http://iswc2006.semanticweb.org/">International Semantic Web Conference 2006</a> running concurrently.</p> <p>From the ISWC event (<a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/">#swig</a>) I just located a presentation by TimBL titled:<a href="http://www.w3.org/2006/Talks/1108-swui-tbl/"> Semantic Web & Web 2.0</a> </p> <p>Key Excerpt: Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web work "Well Apart" and "Great Together".</p>
Contd: Web Dimensionality
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-10-24#1072
2006-10-24T20:41:00Z
2006-10-25T18:19:40.000001-04:00
<a href="http://fgiasson.com"> Frederick Giasson</a> continues <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php?title=the_first_three_dimensions_of_the_web_in&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1">the conversation about the Web Experience Dimensions</a> in a new post --the first of several-- that chronicles the evolution of Pingthesemanticweb.com and Talk Digger, from Interactive-Web (Web 1.0) sites to Data-Web oriented Data Spaces:<br /> <br />On a related front, I also came across an e-Government Data Reference Model presentation (<a href="http://web-services.gov/scopedrmit210172005.ppt">PPT</a>) by <a href="http://www.project10x.com/pages/team.html">Mills Davis</a> from the <a href="http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?DRMImplementationThroughIterationandTestingPilotProjects">Colab Wiki</a> that illustrates the aforementioned Web Dimensions (even though his presentation didn't have dimensionality of the Web in mind) in one of its graphics (which I've yanked and placed into this post so that it has a URI courtesy of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">ODS</a> <img src="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/images/smileys/01.gif" />):<br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/briefcase/Public/graphics/drm-smart-search.png" /> <br /> <br /> Notes:<br />=====<br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Conceptual</span> - Data-Web (*we are starting to comprehend and use this dimension* aka Semantic Web Layer 1)<br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Logical Theory </span>- To follow when we let loose the intelligent agents that enrichen the Data Web experience<br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Philosophy</span> - by way of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiology">Axiology </a>(sometime in the future, but note, we are talking Internet time :-) )<br /> <br />I also stumbled across another graphic that actually provides visual delineation of the value propositions of XML (Structure) and RDF (Context):<br /> <img src="http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SICoP/EPADRM2.0/ombdrm2.gif" /> <br />Notes:<br />=====<br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Description</span> - <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-infoset/#intro">XML</a> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Context</span> - <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-concepts/">RDF</a> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sharing</span> - Access Points (e.g <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>, <a href="http://www.xmla.org/faq.asp">XMLA,</a> <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/">GData</a> Generic Query oriented Web Service Endpoints)<br />
Geonames marches foward with ontology v1.2
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-10-23#1067
2006-10-23T12:26:00Z
2006-10-23T09:02:33-04:00
<p> <a href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/2006/10/22/geonames-marches-foward-with-ontology-v12#comments">Geonames marches foward with ontology v1.2</a>: "</p> <p> <a title="geonames" href="http://geonames.org">Geonames</a> announced the release of its <a title="http://www.geonames.org/ontology/ontology_v1.2.rdf" target="_blank" href="http://www.geonames.org/ontology/ontology_v1.2.rdf">Geonames ontology v1.2</a>. The new ontology has few enhancements. It introduced the notion of <em>linked data</em> and made clear distinction between URI that intended for linking documents and for linking ontology concepts.</p> <p> <a id="more-156"></a>Different types of geospatial data are of different spatial granularity. Data of different spatial granularity may relate to each other by the containment relation. For example, countries contain states, states contains cities and so on. Some geospatial data are of the similar spatial granularity (e.g., two cities that are nearby each other, or two countries that are neighboring each other). To support the knowledge representation of these relationships, the ontology introduced three new properties: <em>childreanFeatures</em>, <em>nearbyFeatures</em> and <em>neighbouringFeatures</em>.</p> <p>In the Semantic Web, both ontology concepts and physical web documents are linked by URI. Sometimes in applications, it’s useful to make clear whether the use of a URI is intended for linking documents or for linking ontology concepts. The new Geonames ontology introduced a URI convention for identifying the intended usage of a URI. This convention also simplifies the discovering of geospatial data using Geonames web services.</p> <p>Here is an example:</p> <ul> <li>URI for linking to the concept city Berlin: <a target="_blank" title="http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/" href="http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/">http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/</a> </li> <li>URI for linking to the descriptions about the city Berlin: <a target="_blank" title="http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/about.rdf" href="http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/about.rdf">http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/about.rdf</a> </li> <li>URI for linking to the descriptions of places that are nearby Berlin: <a target="_blank" title="http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/nearby.rdf" href="http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/nearby.rdf">http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/nearby.rdf</a> </li> </ul> <p>Other interesting ontology properties include <em>wikipediaArticle</em> and <em>locationMap</em>. The former links a <em>Feature </em>instance to a Web article on <a target="_blank" title="wikipedia" href="http://www.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a>, and the latter links a <em>Feature </em>instance to a digital map Web page.</p> <p>For additional information about Geonames ontology v1.2, see <a target="_blank" title="Semantic Web : Concept vs Document" href="http://geonames.wordpress.com/2006/10/21/semantic-web-concept-vs-document/">Marc’s post</a> at the Geonames blog. </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com">Geospatial Semantic Web Blog</a>.)</p>
Virtuoso's SQL Schema to RDF Ontology Mapping Language (1.0)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-10-18#1064
2006-10-18T22:18:00Z
2006-11-17T18:24:25-05:00
<p>A new technical white paper about our declarative language for SQL Schema to RDF Ontology Mapping has just been published.</p> <h2>What is this?</h2> <p>A declarative language adapted from SPARQL's graph pattern language (N3/Turtle) for mapping SQL Data to RDF Ontologies. We currently refer to this as a Graph Pattern based RDF VIEW Definition Language.</p> <h2>Why is it important?</h2> <p>It provides an effective mechanism for exposing existing SQL Data as virtual RDF Data Sets (Graphs) negating the data duplication associated with generating physical RDF Graphs from SQL Data en route to persistence in a dedicated Triple Store. </p> <p>Enterprise applications (traditional and web based) and most Web Applications (Web 1.0 and Web 2.0) sit atop relational databases, implying that SQL/RDF model and data integration is an essential element of the burgeoning "Data Web" (Semantic Web - Layer 1) comprehension and adoption process.</p> <p>In a nutshell, this is a quick route for non disruptive exposure of existing SQL Data to SPARQL supporting RDF Tools and Development Environments.</p> <h2>How does it work?</h2> <h3>RDF Side</h3> <ol> <li>locate one or more Ontologies (e.g FOAF, SIOC, AtomOWL, SKOS etc.) that effectively defines the Concepts (Classes) and Terms (Predicates) to be exposed via your RDF Graph</li> <li>Using the Virtuoso's RDF View Definition Language declare a International Resource Identifier (or URI) for your Graph. Example:<pre>CREATE GRAPH IRI("http://myopenlink.net/dataspace")</pre> </li> <li>Then create Classes (Concepts), Class Properties/Predicates (Memb), and Class Instances (Inst) for the new Graph. Example: <pre>CREATE IRI CLASS odsWeblog:feed_iri "http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/weblog/MyFeeds" ( in memb varchar not null, in inst varchar not null)</pre> </li> </ol> <h3>SQL Side</h3> <ol> <li>If Virtuoso isn't your SQL Data Store, Identify the ODBC or JDBC SQL data source(s) containing the SQL data to be mapped to RDF and then link the relevant tables into Virtuoso's Virtual DBMS Layer</li> <li>Then use the RDF View Definition Language's graph pattern feature to generate SQL to RDF Mapping Template for your Graph. As shown in this <a href="http://www.usnet.private:8889/wiki/main/Main/VOSSQLRDF#MappingOdsBlogToAtomOwlExample">ODS Weblog -> AtomOWL Mapping example</a>.</li> </ol>
Blogosphere 2.0
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-11#1038
2006-09-11T22:52:47Z
2006-09-11T20:27:47.000002-04:00
Ha! It just dawned on me that the <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2006/09/11/latest-developments-in-the-sioc-o-sphere/">burgeoning SIOC-o-sphere</a> (online communities exporting and exposing content via SIOC Ontology) is actually: Blogosphere 2.0 :-) Ironically, this is far more a "2.0" (a 'la enhancement over base technology) than Web 2.0 (which is simply a usage pattern relative to Web 1.0).
Dimensions of the Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-08#1037
2006-09-08T22:11:00Z
2006-11-12T18:55:54.000001-05:00
<p>I have just watched a pretty nifty presentation (courtesy of <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/the_10_dimensions_of_reality">Babelfish</a>) about <a href="http://www.tenthdimension.com/flash2.php">the 10 dimensions of our existence</a> (a 'la <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory">String Theory</a>) when it dawned on me that similar thinking can be applied to the Web :-)</p> <il> </il> <ol> Dimension 1 = Interactive Web (Visual Web of HTML based Sites aka Web 1.0) </ol> <ol> Dimension 2 = Services Web (Presence based Web of Services; a usage pattern commonly referred to as Web 2.0) </ol> <ol> Dimension 3 = Data Web (Presence and Open Data Access based Web of Databases aka Semantic Web layer 1) </ol> <ol> Dimension 4 = Ontology Web (Intelligent Agent palatable Web aka Semantic Web layer 2)</ol> <ol> .... </ol> <p>Hopefully, I can expand further :-)</p>
Creating connections between discussion clouds with SIOC
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-07#1036
2006-09-08T00:56:00Z
2008-02-04T23:22:26.000001-05:00
<p>Another example of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=%27data%20spaces%27&type=text&output=html">Data Spaces</a> in action by <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog">John Breslin</a>.. In this case John visualizes the connections that are exploitable by creating SIOC (<a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/">Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities</a>) instance data from existing Distributed Collaborative Application profiles (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%202.0&type=text&output=html">Web 2.0</a> in current parlance). Of course, SIOC is an Ontology for RDF data since it describes the Concepts and Terms for a a network mesh of online communities. Which by implication provides another insight into the realization that the Web we know has always been a "Web of Databases" (federation of Graph Model Databases encapsulated in Data Spaces). The emergence of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=sparql%0D%0A&type=text&output=html">SPARQ</a>L as the standard <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">Query Language for querying RDF Data Sets</a>, alongside the SPARQL Protocol for transmitting SPARQL Queries over HTTP, and the SPARQL Query Results Serialization formats (XML or JSON) Results Serialization Format), basically set the stage truly open and flexible data access across Web Data Space clusters such as: the Blogosphere, Wikispehere, Usenetverse, Linkspaces, Boardscapes, and others.</p> <p> For additional clarity re. my comments above, you can also look at the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef">SPARQL & SIOC Usecase samples document</a> for our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">OpenLink Data Spaces platform</a>. Bottom line, the Semantic Web and SPARQL aren't <a href="http://morenews.blogspot.com/2006/09/myth-of-web-20.html"> BORING.</a> In fact, quite the contrary, since they are essential ingredients of a more powerful Web than the one we work with today!</p> <p>Enjoy the rest of John's post:</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2006/09/07/creating-connections-between-discussion-clouds-with-sioc/#comments">Creating connections between discussion clouds with SIOC</a>: </p> <p>(Extract from our forthcoming <a href="http://blogtalk.net/Main/Program"> BlogTalk</a> paper about browsers for SIOC.)</p> <p> <a class="imagelink" title="20060907b.png" href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/20060907a.png"><img id="image515" alt="20060907b.png" src="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/20060907b.png" /> </a> </p> <p>SIOC provides a unified vocabulary for content and interaction description: a semantic layer that can co-exist with existing discussion platforms. Using SIOC, various linkages are created between the aforementioned concepts, which allow new methods of accessing this linked data, including:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Virtual Forums</strong>. These may be a gathering of posts or threads which are distributed across discussion platforms, for example, where a user has found posts from a number of blogs that can be associated with a particular category of interest, or an agent identifies relevant posts across a certain timeframe.</li> <li> <strong>Distributed Conversations</strong>. Trackbacks are commonly used to link blog posts to previous posts on a related topic. By creating links in both directions, not only across blogs but across all types of internet discussions, conversations can be followed regardless of what point or URI fragment a browser enters at.</li> <li> <strong>Unified Communities</strong>. Apart from creating a web page with a number of relevant links to the blogs or forums or people involved in a particular community, there is no standard way to define what makes up an online community (apart from grouping the people who are members of that community using FOAF or OPML). SIOC allows one to simply define what objects are constituent parts of a community, or to say to what community an object belongs (using sioc:has_part / part_of): users, groups, forums, blogs, etc.</li> <li> <strong>Shared Topics</strong>. Technorati (a search engine for blogs) and BoardTracker (for bulletin boards) have been leveraging the free-text tags that people associate with their posts for some time now. SIOC allows the definition of such tags (using the subject property), but also enables hierarchial or non-hierarchial topic definition of posts using sioc:topic when a topic is ambiguous or more information on a topic is required. Combining with other Semantic Web vocabularies, tags and topics can be further described using the SKOS organisation system.</li> <li> <strong>One Person, Many User Accounts</strong>. SIOC also aims to help the issue of multiple identities by allowing users to define that they hold other accounts or that their accounts belong to a particular personal identity (via foaf:holdsOnlineAccount or sioc:account_of). Therefore, all the posts or comments made by a particular person using their various associated user accounts across platforms could be identified.</li> </ul> </blockquote>
Web 2.0's Open Data Access Conundrum (Update)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-05#1034
2006-09-05T21:02:00Z
2006-11-16T16:11:45-05:00
<p> Open Data Access and Web 2.0 have a very strange relationship that continues to blur the lines of demarcation between where Web 2.0 ends and where Web.Next (i.e Web 3.0, Semantic/Data Web, Web of Databases etc.) starts. But before I proceed, let me attempt to define Web 2.0 one more time: </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <em>A phase in the evolution web usage patterns that emphasizes Web Services based interaction between âWeb Usersâ and âPoints of Web Presenceâ over traditional âWeb Usersâ and âWeb Sitesâ based interaction. Basically, a transition from visual site interaction to presence based interaction.</em> </p> <p> BTW - Dare Obasanjo also commented about Web usage patterns in his post titled: <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=929a7fd6-1dfc-43f4-a549-d2c9fa873655">The Two Webs</a>. Where he concluded that we had a dichotomy along the lines of: HTTP-for-APIs (2.0) and HTTP-for-Browsers (1.0). Which <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell">Jon Udell</a> evolved into: HTTP-Services-Web and HTTP-Intereactive-Web during our recent <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/ju_idehen.mp3">podcast conversation</a>. </p> <p> With definitions in place, I will resume my quest to unveil the aforementioned Web 2.0 Data Access Conundrum: </p> <ul> <li>Emphasis on XML's prowess in the realms of Data and Protocol Modeling alongside Data Representation. Especially as SOAP or REST styles of Web Services and various XML formats (RSS 0.92/1.0/1.1/2.0, Atom, OPML, OCS etc.) collectively define the Web 2.0 infrastructure landscape</li> <li>Where a modicum of Data Access appreciation and comprehension does exist it is inherently compromised by business models that mandate some form of âWalled Gardensâ and âData Silosâ</li> <li>Mash-ups are a response to said âWalled Gardensâ and âData Silosâ . Mash-ups by definition imply combining things that were not built for recombination.</li> </ul> <p> As you can see from the above, Open Data access isn't genuinely compatible with Web 2.0. </p> <p> We can also look at the same issue by way of the popular M-V-C (Model View Controller) pattern. Web 2.0 is all about the âVâ and âCâ with a modicum of âMâ at best (data access, open data access, and flexible open data access are completely separate things). The âCâ items represent application logic exposed by SOAP or REST style web services etc. I'll return to this later in this post. </p> <p> What about Social Networking you must be thinking? Isn't this a Web 2.0 manifestation? Not at all (IMHO). The Web was developed / invented by Tim Berners-Lee to leverage the âNetwork Effectsâ potential of the Internet for connecting <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/Image1.gif">People and Data</a>. Social Networking on the other hand, is simply one of several ways by which construct network connections. I am sure we all accept the fact that connections are built for many other reasons beyond social interaction. That said, we also know that through social interactions we actually develop some of our most valuable relationships (we are social creatures after-all). </p> <p> The Web 2.0 Open Data Access impedance reality is ultimately going to be the greatest piece of tutorial and usecase material for the Semantic Web. I take this position because it is human nature to seek Freedom (in unadulterated form) which implies the following: </p> <ul> <li>Access Data from a myriad of data sources (irrespective of structural differences at the database level)</li> <li>Mesh (not Mash) data in new and interesting ways</li> <li>Share the meshed data with as many relevant people as possible for social, professional, political, religious, and other reasons</li> <li>Construct valuable networks based on data oriented connections</li> </ul> <p> Web 2.0 by definition and use case scenarios is inherently incompatible with the above due to the lack of Flexible and Open Data Access. </p> <p> If we take the definition of Web 2.0 (above) and rework it with an appreciation Flexible and Open Data Access you would arrive at something like this: </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <em>A phase in the evolution of the web that emphasizes interaction between âWeb Usersâ and âWeb Dataâ facilitated by Web Services based APIs and an Open & Flexible Data Access Model â. </em> </p> <p> <em> <br /> </em>In more succinct form: </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <em>A pervasive network of people connected by data or data connected by people.</em> </p> <p> <em> <br /> </em>Returning to M-V-C and looking at the definition above, you now have a complete of âMâ which is enigmatic in Web 2.0 and the essence of the Semantic Web (Data and Context). </p> <p> To make all of this possible a palatable Data Model is required. The model of choice is the Graph based RDF Data Model - not to be mistaken for the RDF/XML serialization which is just that, a data serialization that conforms to the aforementioned RDF data model. </p> <p> <strong>The Enterprise Challenge</strong> </p> <p> Web 2.0 cannot and will not make valuable inroads into the the enterprise because enterprises live and die by their ability to exploit data. Weblogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmarking Systems, and other Web 2.0 distributed collaborative applications profiles are only valuable if the data is available to the enterprise for meshing (not mashing). </p> <p> A good example of how enterprises will exploit data by leveraging networks of people and data (social networks in this case) is shown in this nice presentation by Accenture's Institute for High Performance Business titled: <a href="http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/AccentureSNA.swf">Visualizing Organizational Change</a>. </p> <p> Web 2.0 commentators (for the most part) continue to ponder the use of Web 2.0 within the enterprise while forgetting the congruency between enterprise agility and exploitation of people & data networks (The very issue emphasized in this original <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html">Web vision document by Tim Berners-Lee</a>). Even worse, they remain challenged or spooked by the Semantic Web vision because they do not understand that Web 2.0 is fundamentally a Semantic Web precursor due to Open Data Access challenges. Web 2.0 is one of the greatest demonstrations of why we need the Semantic Web at the current time. </p> <p> Finally, juxtapose the items below and you may even get a clearer view of what I am an attempting to convey about the virtues of Open Data Access and the inflective role it plays as we move beyond Web 2.0: </p> <p> <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html">Information Management Proposal </a>- <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/">Tim Berners-Lee</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/AccentureSNA.swf">Visualizing Organizational Change</a> - <a href="http://www.accenture.com/Global/High_Performance_Business/default.htm">Accenture Institute of High Performance Business</a> </p>
Data Spaces and Semantic Web Animation
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-05#1035
2006-09-05T20:14:00Z
2006-09-05T16:00:17.000001-04:00
<p>I just spotted a nice <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/20051015a.gif">Semantic Desktop animation</a> Courtesy of <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/">John Breslin</a>.</p> <p>This is fundamentally an animation demonstrating Semantic Web exploitation in the classic: picture speaks a thousand words manner. It also illustrates (yet again) the important <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=%27data%20spaces%27&type=text&output=html">Data Space(s)</a> aspect of creating Semantic Web presence.</p> <p>Finally, the Web 2.0 usage pattern tries to espouse what's demonstrated in this animation via data-context-challenged interactions (due to its <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=connundrum&type=text&output=html">"Walled Garden" and "Data Silo" approach to Data Access</a> etc..). The <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=%27semantic%20web%27&type=text&output=html">Semantic Web</a> (as per numerous posts on the subject) on the other hand achieves this via data-context-aware interactions (as will be exemplified via meshups).</p>
Data Spaces, Internet Reinvention, and Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-04#1033
2006-09-04T21:06:00Z
2007-01-25T16:50:40.000001-05:00
<p> In the last week I've dispatch some thoughts about a number of issues (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1030">Data Spaces</a> and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1032">Web 2.0's Open Data Access Paradox</a>) that basically equate to the identification of the Web 2.0 to Semantic Web (Data Web, Web of Databases, Web.next etc..) inflection. </p> <p> One of the great things about the moderate “open data access” that we have today (courtesy of the blogosphere) is the fact that you can observe the crystallization of new thinking, and/or new appreciation of emerging ideas, in near real-time. Of course, when we really hit the tracks with the Semantic Web this will be in “conditional real-time” (i.e. you choose and control your scope and sensitivity to data changes etc..). </p> <p> For instance, by way of feed subscriptions, I stumbled upon a series of posts by <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/">Jason Kolb</a> that basically articulate what I (and others who believe in the Semantic Web vision) have been attempting to convey in a myriad of ways via posts and commentary etc.. </p> <p> Here are the links to the 4 part series by Jason: </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/08/reinventing_the.html">Reinventing the Internet part 1</a> (appreciating “Presence” over traditional “Web Sites”)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/08/reinventing_the_1.html">Reinventing the Internet part 2</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/08/reinventing_the_2.html">Reinventing the Internet part 3</a> (appreciating and comprehending URIs)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/08/reinventing_the_3.html">Reinventing the Internet part 4</a> (nice visualization of what “<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1030">Data Spaces</a>”)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/09/reinventing_the.html">Reinventing the Internet part 5</a> (everyone will have a Data Space in due course becuase the Internet is really a Federation of Data Spaces)<br /> </li> </ol>
Web 2.0's Open Data Access Conundrum
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-02#1032
2006-09-02T16:47:52Z
2006-11-16T15:51:43-05:00
<p> Open Data Access and Web 2.0 have a very strange relationship that continues to blur the lines of demarcation between where Web 2.0 ends and where Web.Next (i.e Web 3.0, Semantic/Data Web, Web of Databases etc.) starts. But before I proceed, let me attempt to define Web 2.0 one more time: </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <em>A phase in the evolution web usage patterns that emphasizes Web Services based interaction between âWeb Usersâ and âPoints of Web Presenceâ over traditional âWeb Usersâ and âWeb Sitesâ based interaction. Basically, a transition from visual site interaction to presence based interaction.</em> </p> <p> BTW - Dare Obasanjo also commented about Web usage patterns in his post titled: <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=929a7fd6-1dfc-43f4-a549-d2c9fa873655">The Two Webs</a>. Where he concluded that we had a dichotomy along the lines of: HTTP-for-APIs (2.0) and HTTP-for-Browsers (1.0). Which <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell">Jon Udell</a> evolved into: HTTP-Services-Web and HTTP-Intereactive-Web during our recent <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/ju_idehen.mp3">podcast conversation</a>. </p> <p> With definitions in place, I will resume my quest to unveil the aforementioned Web 2.0 Data Access Conundrum: </p> <ul> <li>Emphasis on XML's prowess in the realms of Data and Protocol Modeling alongside Data Representation. Especially as SOAP or REST styles of Web Services and various XML formats (RSS 0.92/1.0/1.1/2.0, Atom, OPML, OCS etc.) collectively define the Web 2.0 infrastructure landscape</li> <li>Where a modicum of Data Access appreciation and comprehension does exist it is inherently compromised by business models that mandate some form of âWalled Gardensâ and âData Silosâ</li> <li>Mash-ups are a response to said âWalled Gardensâ and âData Silosâ . Mash-ups by definition imply combining things that were not built for recombination.</li> </ul> <p> As you can see from the above, Open Data access isn't genuinely compatible with Web 2.0. </p> <p> We can also look at the same issue by way of the popular M-V-C (Model View Controller) pattern. Web 2.0 is all about the âVâ and âCâ with a modicum of âMâ at best (data access, open data access, and flexible open data access are completely separate things). The âCâ items represent application logic exposed by SOAP or REST style web services etc. I'll return to this later in this post. </p> <p> What about Social Networking you must be thinking? Isn't this a Web 2.0 manifestation? Not at all (IMHO). The Web was developed / invented by Tim Berners-Lee to leverage the âNetwork Effectsâ potential of the Internet for connecting <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/Image1.gif">People and Data</a>. Social Networking on the other hand, is simply one of several ways by which construct network connections. I am sure we all accept the fact that connections are built for many other reasons beyond social interaction. That said, we also know that through social interactions we actually develop some of our most valuable relationships (we are social creatures after-all). </p> <p> The Web 2.0 Open Data Access impedance reality is ultimately going to be the greatest piece of tutorial and usecase material for the Semantic Web. I take this position because it is human nature to seek Freedom (in unadulterated form) which implies the following: </p> <ul> <li>Access Data from a myriad of data sources (irrespective of structural differences at the database level)</li> <li>Mesh (not Mash) data in new and interesting ways</li> <li>Share the meshed data with as many relevant people as possible for social, professional, political, religious, and other reasons</li> <li>Construct valuable networks based on data oriented connections</li> </ul> <p> Web 2.0 by definition and use case scenarios is inherently incompatible with the above due to the lack of Flexible and Open Data Access. </p> <p> If we take the definition of Web 2.0 (above) and rework it with an appreciation Flexible and Open Data Access you would arrive at something like this: </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <em>A phase in the evolution of the web that emphasizes interaction between âWeb Usersâ and âWeb Dataâ facilitated by Web Services based APIs and an Open & Flexible Data Access Model â. </em> </p> <p> <em> <br /> </em>In more succinct form: </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <em>A pervasive network of people connected by data or data connected by people.</em> </p> <p> <em> <br /> </em>Returning to M-V-C and looking at the definition above, you now have a complete of âMâ which is enigmatic in Web 2.0 and the essence of the Semantic Web (Data and Context). </p> <p> To make all of this possible a palatable Data Model is required. The model of choice is the Graph based RDF Data Model - not to be mistaken for the RDF/XML serialization which is just that, a data serialization that conforms to the aforementioned RDF data model. </p> <p> <strong>The Enterprise Challenge</strong> </p> <p> Web 2.0 cannot and will not make valuable inroads into the the enterprise because enterprises live and die by their ability to exploit data. Weblogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmarking Systems, and other Web 2.0 distributed collaborative applications profiles are only valuable if the data is available to the enterprise for meshing (not mashing). </p> <p> A good example of how enterprises will exploit data by leveraging networks of people and data (social networks in this case) is shown in this nice presentation by Accenture's Institute for High Performance Business titled: <a href="http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/AccentureSNA.swf">Visualizing Organizational Change</a>. </p> <p> Web 2.0 commentators (for the most part) continue to ponder the use of Web 2.0 within the enterprise while forgetting the congruency between enterprise agility and exploitation of people & data networks (The very issue emphasized in this original <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html">Web vision document by Tim Berners-Lee</a>). Even worse, they remain challenged or spooked by the Semantic Web vision because they do not understand that Web 2.0 is fundamentally a Semantic Web precursor due to Open Data Access challenges. Web 2.0 is one of the greatest demonstrations of why we need the Semantic Web at the current time. </p> <p> Finally, juxtapose the items below and you may even get a clearer view of what I am an attempting to convey about the virtues of Open Data Access and the inflective role it plays as we move beyond Web 2.0: </p> <p> <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html">Information Management Proposal </a>- <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/">Tim Berners-Lee</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/AccentureSNA.swf">Visualizing Organizational Change</a> - <a href="http://www.accenture.com/Global/High_Performance_Business/default.htm">Accenture Institute of High Performance Business</a> </p>
Data Spaces and Web of Databases
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-08-28#1030
2006-08-28T19:38:00Z
2006-09-04T18:58:56.000001-04:00
<p>Note: An updated version of a previously unpublished blog post:</p> <p> Continuing from <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/04/28.html">our recent Podcast conversation</a>, Jon Udell sheds further insight into the essence of our conversation via a âStrategic Developerâ column article titled: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/03/77873_19OPstrategic_1.html">Accessing the web of databases</a>. </p> <p> Below, I present an initial dump of a DataSpace FAQ below that hopefully sheds light on the DataSpace vision espoused during my podcast conversation with Jon. </p> <p> What is a DataSpace? <br /> </p> <p>A moniker for Web-accessible atomic containers that manage and expose Data, Information, Services, Processes, and Knowledge. </p> <p> What would you typically find in a Data Space? Examples include: </p> <ul> <li>Raw Data - SQL, HTML, XML (raw), XHTML, RDF etc.<br /> <br /> </li> <li>Information (Data In Context) - XHTML (various microformats), Blog Posts (in RSS, Atom, RSS-RDF formats), Subscription Lists (OPML, OCS, etc), Social Networks (FOAF, XFN etc.), and many other forms of applied XML.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Web Services (Application/Service Logic) - REST or SOAP based invocation of application logic for context sensitive and controlled data access and manipulation.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Persisted Knowledge - Information in actionable context that is also available in transient or persistent forms expressed using a Graph Data Model. A modern knowledgebase would more than likely have RDF as its Data Language, RDFS as its Schema Language, and OWL as its Domain Definition (Ontology) Language. Actual Domain, Schema, and Instance Data would be serialized using formats such as RDF-XML, N3, Turtle etc).</li> </ul> <p> How do Data Spaces and Databases differ? <br />Data Spaces are fundamentally problem-domain-specific database applications. They offer functionality that you would instinctively expect of a database (e.g. AICD data management) with the additonal benefit of being data model and query language agnostic. Data Spaces are for the most part DBMS Engine and Data Access Middleware hybrids in the sense that ownership and control of data is inherently loosely-coupled. </p> <p>How do Data Spaces and Content Management Systems differ?<br />Data Spaces are inherently more flexible, they support multiple data models and data representation formats. Content management systems do not possess the same degree of data model and data representation dexterity. </p> <p>How do Data Spaces and Knowledgebases differ?<br />A Data Space cannot dictate the perception of its content. For instance, what I may consider as knowledge relative to my Data Space may not be the case to a remote client that interacts with it from a distance, Thus, defining my Data Space as Knowledgebase, purely, introduces constraints that reduce its broader effectiveness to third party clients (applications, services, users etc..). A Knowledgebase is based on a Graph Data Model resulting in significant impedance for clients that are built around alternative models. To reiterate, Data Spaces support multiple data models. </p> <p> What Architectural Components make up a Data Space? </p> <ul> <li>ORDBMS Engine - for Data Modeling agility (via complex purpose specific data types and data access methods), Data Atomicity, Data Concurrency, Transaction Isolation, and Durability (aka ACID).<br /> <br /> </li> <li>Virtual Database Engine - for creating a single view of, and access point to, heterogeneous SQL, XML, Free Text, and other data. This is all about Virtualization at the Data Access Level.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Web Services Platform - enabling controlled access and manipulation (via application, service, or protocol logic) of Virtualized or Disparate Data. This layer handles the decoupling of functionality from monolithic wholes for function specific invocation via Web Services using either the SOAP or REST approach.</li> </ul> <br />Where do Data Spaces fit into the Web's rapid evolution?<br />They are an essential part of the burgeoning Data Web / Semantic Web. In short, they will take us from data âMash-upsâ (combining web accessible data that exists without integration and repurposing in mind) to âMesh-upsâ (combining web accessible data that exists with integration and repurposing in mind).<p> Where can I see a DataSpace along the lines described, in action? </p> <p> Just look at my blog, and take the journey as follows: </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/">Front Door</a> (Web 1.0)</li> <li>Lounge (Web 2.0) via <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/GData/127">GData</a> or <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&type=text&kwds=%27semantic+web%27&OpenSearch">OpenSearch</a> </li> <li>Floor Plan via <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/about.rdf">FOAF</a> or <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/sioc.rdf">SIOC</a> RDF Data Sets (Graphs)</li> <li>Rest of the house (beyond Web 2.0) sending <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSODSSparqlSamples">SPARQL Queries</a> to a <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/sparql/">SPARQL Endpoint</a>.<br /> </li> </ul> <p> What about other Data Spaces? </p> <p> There are several and I will attempt to categorize along the lines of query method available: <br />Type 1 (Free Text Search over HTTP): <br />Google, MSN, Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, and most Web 2.0 plays . </p> <p> Type 2 (Free Text Search and XQuery/XPath over HTTP) <br />A few blogs and Wikis (Jon Udell's and a few others)</p>Type 3 (RDF Data Sets and SPARQL Queryable):<br /> <ul> <li>  <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SIOC/EnabledSites">SIOC enabled sites</a> (aka points of semantic web presence)<br /> </li> <li>  <a href="http://pingthesemanticweb.com/">PingTheSemantic</a> <br /> </li> </ul>Type 4 (Generic Free Text Search, OpenSearch, GData, XQuery/XPath, and SPARQL):<br />Points of Semantic Web presence such as the Data Spaces at: <br /> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com">My Blog Data Space</a> (as stated earlier in this post)<br /> </li> <li> <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com">My General Data Space</a> - (ditto; note that this is currently experimental)<br /> </li> </ul> <p>What About Data Space aware tools?<br /> <br /> </p> <ul> <li>  <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/oat/index.html/">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit </a>- provides Javascript Control level binding to Query Services such as XMLA for SQL, GData for Free Text, OpenSearch for Free Text, SPARQL for RDF, in addition to service specific Web Services (Web 2.0 hosted solutions that expose service specific APIs)</li> <li>  <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/firefox">Semantic Radar </a>- a Firefox Extension</li> <li>  <a href="http://pingthesemanticweb.com/">PingTheSemantic</a> - the Semantic Webs equivalent of Web 2.0's weblogs.com</li> <li>  <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/">PiggyBank</a> - a Firefox Extension</li> </ul> <p> </p>
Paul Graham was Surprised by Google Calendar?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-08-19#1028
2006-08-19T20:17:31Z
2006-08-19T23:39:03-04:00
<p>Dare's insightful take below, sheds light on the problems associated with building Web 2.0 business offerings around a single Collaborative Application feature as opposed to a coherently integrated platform.</p> <p> BTW - I am just as perplexed as Dare about Paul Graham being blind-sided by the integration of Calendaring and Email by Google.</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/CommentView.aspx?guid=a0e893a1-95a1-4277-b635-2b4abb240b69">Paul Graham was Surprised by Google Calendar?</a>: "</p> <p> I was just reading Paul Graham's post entitled <a href="http://paulgraham.infogami.com/blog/kiko">The Kiko Affair</a> which talks about <a href="http://jkanstyle.com/2006/08/17/actual-lessons-from-kiko/">the recent failure of Kiko</a>, an AJAX web-calendaring application. I was quite surprised to see the following sentence in Paul Graham's post </p> <blockquote> <i>The killer, unforseen by the Kikos and by us, was Google Calendar's integration with Gmail. The Kikos can't very well write their own Gmail to compete.</i> </blockquote> <p> Integrating a calendaring application with an email application seems pretty obvious to me especially since the most popular usage of calendaring applications is using Outlook/Exchange to schedule meetings in corporate environments. What's surprising to me is how surprised people are that <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1023-219412.html?legacy=cnet">an idea that failed in 1990s</a> will turn out any differently now because you sprinkle the AJAX magic pixie dust on it. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.kiko.com/">Kiko</a> was a feature, not a full-fledged online destination let alone a viable business. There'll be a lot more entrants into the <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/tag/deadpool">TechCrunch deadpool</a> that are features masquerading as companies before the 'Web 2.0' hype cycle runs its course. </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>.)</p> </blockquote>
OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (OAT) 1.0 Released
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-08-08#1023
2006-08-08T22:11:45Z
2006-08-09T05:12:48-04:00
<p> We have finally released the 1.0 edition of OAT. </p> <p> OAT offers a broad Javascript-based, browser-independent widget set <br />for building data source independent rich internet applications that are usable across a broad range of Ajax-capable web browsers. </p> <p> OAT's support binding to the following data sources via its Ajax Database Connectivity Layer: </p> <p> SQL Data via XML for Analysis (XMLA) <br />Web Data via SPARQL, GData, and OpenSearch Query Services <br />Web Services specific Data via service specific binding to SOAP and REST style web services </p> <p> The toolkit includes a collection of powerful rich internet application prototypes include: SQL Query By Example, Visual Database Modeling, and Data bound Web Form Designer. </p> <p> Project homepage on sourceforge.net: </p> <p> <span style="color:#0000ff;text-decoration:underline;">http://sourceforge.net/projects/oat</span> </p> <p> Source Code: </p> <p> <span style="color:#0000ff;text-decoration:underline;">http://sourceforge.net/projects/oat/files</span> </p> <p> Live demonstration: </p> <p> <span style="color:#0000ff;text-decoration:underline;">http://www.openlinksw.com/oat/</span> </p>
Google vs Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-20#1018
2006-07-20T19:19:16Z
2006-07-29T19:55:57-04:00
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://morenews.blogspot.com/2006/07/goggle-vs-semantic-web.html">Goggle vs Semantic Web</a>: "<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6095705.html?part=rss&tag=6095705&subj=news">Google exec challenges Berners-Lee</a> 'At the end of the keynote, however, things took a different turn. Google Director of Search and AAAI Fellow Peter Norvig was the first to the microphone during the Q&A session, and he took the opportunity to raise a few points.<br /> <br />'What I get a lot is: 'Why are you against the Semantic Web?' I am not against the Semantic Web. But from Google's point of view, there are a few things you need to overcome, incompetence being the first,' Norvig said. Norvig clarified that it was not Berners-Lee or his group that he was referring to as incompetent, but the general user.'<br /> <br />Related: <a href="http://blogmatrix.semantic.blogmatrix.com/:entry:blogmatrix-2006-07-17-0005/">Google Base -- summing up</a>."</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://morenews.blogspot.com">More News</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>When will we drop the ill conceived notion that end-users are incompetent?</p> <p> Has it every occurred to software developers and technology vendors that incompetent, dumb, and other contemptuous end-user adjectives simply reflect the inability of most technology products to surmount end-user "Interest Activation Thresholds"?</p> <p>Interest Activation Threshold (IAT)? What's That?</p> <p>I have a fundamental personal belief that all human beings are intelligent. Our ability to demonstrate intelligence, or be perceived as intelligent, is directly proportional to our interest level in a given context. In short, we have "Ambivalence Quotients" (AQs) just as we have "Intelligence Quotients" (IQs).</p> <p>An interested human being is an inherently intelligent entity. The abstract nature of human intelligence also makes locating the IQ and AQ on/off buttons a mercurial quest at the best of times.</p> <p>Technology end-users exhibit high AQs, most of the time due to the inability of most technology products to truly engage, and ultimately stimulate genuine interest, by surmounting IAT and reducing AQ.</p> <p>Ironically, when a technology vendor is lagging behind its competitors in the "features arms race" it is common place to use the familiar excuse: "our end-users aren't asking for this feature". </p> <p> <b>Note To Google:</b> </p> <p>Ambivalence isn't incompetence. If end-users were genuinely incompetent, how is that they run rings around your page rank algorithms by producing google-friendly content at the expense of valuable context? What about the <a href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/2006/07/25/revealed-how-google-manages-click-fraud/">deteriorating value of Adsense due to click fraud</a>? Likewise, the continued erosion of the value of your once exemplary "keyword based search" service? As we all know, necessity is the mother of invention, so when users develop high AQs because there is nothing better, we end up with a forced breech of "IAT"; which is why the issues that I mention remain long term challenges for you. Ironically, the so called "incompetents" are already outsmarting you, and you don't seem to comprehend this reality or its inevitable consequences.</p> <p>Finally, how you are going to improve value without integrating the Semantic Web vision into your R&D roadmap? I can tell you categorically that you have little or no wiggle room re. this matter, especially if you want to remain true to your: "don't be evil" mantra. My guess is that you will incorporate Semantic Web technologies sooner rather than later (Google Co-op is a big clue). I would even go as far as predicting a Google hosted SPARQL Query Endpoint alongside your GData endpints during the next 6-12 months (if even that long). I believe that your GData protocol (like the rest of Web 2.0) will ultimately accelerate your appreciation of the data model dexterity that RDF brings to loosely coupled knowledge networks espoused by the Semantic Web vision.</p> <p> <b>Google & Semantic Web Paradox</b> </p> <p> The Semantic Web vision has the RDF graph data model at its core (and for good reason), but even more confusing for me, as I process Google sentiments about the Semantic Web, is the fact that RDF's actual creator (Ramanathan Guha aka. Guha) currently works at Google. There's a strange disconnect here IMHO.</p> <p>If I recall correctly, Google wants to organize the worlds data and information, leaving the knowledge organization to someone else which is absolutely fine. What is increasingly irksome, is the current tendency to use corporate stature to generate Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt when the subject matter is the "Semantic Web".</p> <p> BTW - I've just read <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php?title=norvig_and_berners_lee_on_the_semantic_w_06&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1">Frederick Giasson's perspective on the Google Semantic Web paradox</a> which ultimately leads to the same conclusions regarding Google's FUD stance when dealing with matters relating to the Semantic Web. </p> <p>I wonder if anyone is tracking the google hits for "<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=google+fud+semantic+web&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official">fud google semantic web</a>"?</p>
Web 2.0 Self-Experiment aids Web 3.0 comprehension
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-17#1009
2006-07-17T21:46:42Z
2006-07-18T01:17:43-04:00
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://vzach.blogspot.com/2006/07/web-20-self-experiment.html">Web 2.0 Self-Experiment</a>: "</p> <blockquote>I shopped for everything except food on eBay. When working with foreign-language documents, I used translations from Babel Fish. (This worked only so well. After a Babel Fish round-trip through Italian, the preceding sentence reads, 'That one has only worked therefore well.') Why use up space storing files on my own hard drive when, thanks to certain free utilities, I can store them on Gmail's servers? I saved, sorted, and browsed photos I uploaded to Flickr. I used Skype for my phone calls, decided on books using Amazon's recommendations rather than 'expert' reviews, killed time with videos at YouTube, and listened to music through customizable sites like Pandora and Musicmatch. I kept my schedule on Google Calendar, my to-do list on Voo2do, and my outlines on iOutliner. I voyeured my neighborhood's home values via Zillow. I even used an online service for each stage of the production of this article, culminating in my typing right now in Writely rather than Word. (Being only so confident that Writely wouldn't somehow lose my work -- or as Babel Fish might put it, 'only confident therefore' -- I backed it up into Gmail files.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17061&ch=infotech">Interesting article</a>, Tim O'Reilly's response is <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/07/levels_of_the_game.html">here</a>" <p>(Via <a href="http://vzach.blogspot.com">Valentin Zacharias (Student)</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>Tim O'Reilly's response provides the following hierarchy for Web 2.0 based on The what he calls: "Web 2.0-ness":</p> <blockquote> <p>level 3: The application could ONLY exist on the net, and draws its essential power from the network and the connections it makes possible between people or applications. These are applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. EBay, craigslist, Wikipedia, del.icio.us, Skype, (and yes, Dodgeball) meet this test. They are fundamentally driven by shared online activity. The web itself has this character, which Google and other search engines have then leveraged. (You can search on the desktop, but without link activity, many of the techniques that make web search work so well are not available to you.) Web crawling is one of the fundamental Web 2.0 activities, and search applications like Adsense for Content also clearly have Web 2.0 at their heart. I had a conversation with Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, the other day, and he summed up his philosophy and strategy as "Don't fight the internet." In the hierarchy of web 2.0 applications, the highest level is to embrace the network, to understand what creates network effects, and then to harness them in everything you do.</p> <p> Level 2: The application could exist offline, but it is uniquely advantaged by being online. Flickr is a great example. You can have a local photo management application (like iPhoto) but the application gains remarkable power by leveraging an online community. In fact, the shared photo database, the online community, and the artifacts it creates (like the tag database) is central to what distinguishes Flickr from its offline counterparts. And its fuller embrace of the internet (for example, that the default state of uploaded photos is "public") is what distinguishes it from its online predecessors.</p> <p> Level 1: The application can and does exist successfully offline, but it gains additional features by being online. Writely is a great example. If you want to do collaborative editing, its online component is terrific, but if you want to write alone, as Fallows did, it gives you little benefit (other than availability from computers other than your own.) </p> <p> Level 0: The application has primarily taken hold online, but it would work just as well offline if you had all the data in a local cache. MapQuest, Yahoo! Local, and Google Maps are all in this category (but mashups like housingmaps.com are at Level 3.) To the extent that online mapping applications harness user contributions, they jump to Level 2.</p> </blockquote> <p>So, in a sense we have near conclusive confirmation that Web 2.0 is simply about APIs (typically service specific Data Silos or Walled-gardens) with little concern, understanding, or interest in truly open data access across the burgeoning "<a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/03/77873_19OPstrategic_1.html">Web of Databases</a>". Or the<a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/0623-sb-IEEEStorConf/"> Web of "Databases and Programs"</a> that I prefer to describe as "<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/DataSpaceFAQ">Data Spaces</a>"</p> <p>Thus, we can truly begin to conclude that Web 3.0 (Data Web) is the addition of Flexible and Open Data Access to Web 2.0; where the Open Data Access is achieved by leveraging Semantic Web deliverables such as the RDF Data Model and the SPARQL Query Language :-)</p>
Standards as social contracts
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-04#995
2006-07-04T17:25:51Z
2006-07-04T14:53:48.000001-04:00
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.tnl.net/blog/2006/06/07/standards-as-social-contracts/#comments">Standards as social contracts</a>: "Looking at Dave Winer's efforts in evangelizing OPML, I try to draw some rough lines into what makes a de-facto standard. De Facto standards are made and seldom happen on their own. In this entry, I look back at the history of HTML, RSS, the open source movement and try to draw some lines as to what makes a standard. </p> <p> <a href="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~a/TNLnet?a=nXIQUu"><img src="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~a/TNLnet?i=nXIQUu" border="0" /> </a> </p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?a=dklI2jYY"><img src="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?i=dklI2jYY" border="0" /> </a> <a href="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?a=HoauA2Ma"><img src="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?i=HoauA2Ma" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?a=DxOLN3Br"><img src="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?i=DxOLN3Br" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?a=zU2uLdOm"><img src="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?i=zU2uLdOm" border="0" /></a> </div>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.tnl.net/blog">Tristan Louis</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>I posted a comment to the Tristan Louis' post along the following lines:</p> <p>Analysis is spot on re. the link between de facto standardization and bootstrapping. Likewise, the clear linkage between boostrapping and connected communities (a variation of the social networking paradigm). </p> <p>Dave built a community around a XML content syndication and subscription usecase demo that we know today as the blogosphere. Superficially, one may conclude that Semantic Web vision has suffered to date from a lack a similar bootstrap effort. Whereas in reality, we are dealing with "time and context" issues that are critical to the base understanding upon which a "Dave Winer" style bootstrap for the Semantic Web would occur.</p> <p>Personally, I see the emergence of Web 2.0 (esp. the mashups phenomenon) as the "time and context" seeds from which the Semantic Web bootstrap will sprout. I see shared ontologies such as <a href="http://oplussol5.usnet.private:8893/foaf">FOAF</a> and <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/">SIOC</a> leading the way (they are the RSS 2.0's of the Semantic Web IMHO).</p>
Syndication Format Family Tree
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-06-28#992
2006-06-28T16:29:10Z
2006-06-28T13:02:39.000001-04:00
<p>Important bookmark reference to note as the Web 2.0->[Data Web|Semantic Web] fusion's inflection takes shape: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndication_format_family_tree">Syndication Format Family Tree.</a> </p> <p>This particular inflection and, ultimately, transistion is going to occur at Warp Speed!</p>
Structured Data vs. Unstructured Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-06-23#991
2006-06-23T18:35:09Z
2006-06-27T01:39:09-04:00
There is an interesting article at regdeveloper.com titled: <a href="http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2006/06/23/unstructured_data/">Structured data is boring and useless</a>.. This article provides insight into a serious point of confusion about what exactly is structured vs. unstructured data. Here is a key excerpt: <blockquote> <cite>"We all know that structured data is boring and useless; while unstructured data is sexy and chock full of value. Well, only up to a point, Lord Copper. Genuinely unstructured data can be a real nuisance - imagine extracting the return address from an unstructured letter, without letterhead and any of the formatting usually applied to letters. A letter may be thought of as unstructured data, but most business letters are, in fact, highly-structured." .... </cite> </blockquote> Duncan Pauly, founder and chief technology officer of Coppereye add's eloquent insight to the conversation: <blockquote> <cite>"The labels "structured data" and "unstructured data" are often used ambiguously by different interest groups; and often used lazily to cover multiple distinct aspects of the issue. In reality, there are at least three orthogonal aspects to structure: <il></il></cite> <ol> * The structure of the data itself.</ol> <ol>* The structure of the container that hosts the data.</ol> <ol>* The structure of the access method used to access the data.</ol> These three dimensions are largely independent and one does not need to imply another. For example, it is absolutely feasible and reasonable to store unstructured data in a structured database container and access it by unstructured search mechanisms." </blockquote> <p> Data understanding and appreciation is dwindling at a time when the reverse should be happening. We are supposed to be in the throws of the "Information Age", but for some reason this appears to have no correlation with data and "data access" in the minds of many -- as reflected in the broad contradictory positions taken re. unstructured data vs structured data, structured is boring and useless while unstructured is useful and sexy....</p> <p> The difference between "Structured Containers" and "Structured Data" are clearly misunderstood by most (an unfortunate fact).</p> <p> For instance all DBMS products are "Structured Containers" aligned to one or more data models (typically one). These products have been limited by proprietary data access APIs and underlying data model specificity when used in the "Open-world" model that is at the core of the World Wide Web. This confusion also carries over to the misconception that Web 2.0 and the Semantic/Data Web are mutually exclusive. </p> <p> But things are changing fast, and the concept of multi-model DBMS products is beginning to crystalize. On our part, we have finally released the long promised "OpenLink Data Spaces" application layer that has been developed using our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso Universal Server</a>. We have structured unified storage containment exposed to the data web cloud via endpoints for querying or accessing data using a variety of mechanisms that include; GData, OpenSearch, SPARQL, XQuery/XPath, SQL etc.. </p> <p> To be continued.... </p>
Screencast: Building Database Centric Web 2.0 Mash-ups using Ajax Database Connectivity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-26#985
2006-05-26T22:38:00Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
This screencast covers the actual codeless process of building a database centric Web 2.0 mash-up using OAT's database-aware Forms Designer. This is basically the simplicity of Paradox or Microsoft ACCESS form building delivered via Ajax without any database or operating system lock-in. This demo uses the Google Mapping Service (note: there is a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/%7Ekidehen/blog/public/Screencasts/oat-formdesigner-mashup-yahoo-maps-demo1.mov">Yahoo! Mapping Service screencast demo</a> that follows this post). Also note that fact that in this demonstration I actually incorporate the Pivot building functionality from an earlier <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=983">Ajax based Pivot Building screencast</a>.<br /> <br />
A Web 2.0 Style Mash-up using the OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (OAT)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-25#981
2006-05-25T20:47:00Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
We are now on the verge of finally releasing one of the many items discussed in my recent <a href="http://www.usnet.private:8889/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/index.vspx?page=&id=965&sid=e295397b4a9d07fa9c12baf31569aa97&realm=wa">chat with Jon Udell</a>. The item in question is the OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (OAT) that enables the rapid development of Database Independent Rich Internet Applications. My very first public screencast is deliberately silent (since its a live work in progress etc.). <br /> <br />The screencast style demo covers the production of a map based mashup that simply unveils the national flag of each country underneath its map marker (a lookup associated with geocoded map pin).<br /> <br />This post is also a deliberate test of the automatic production of IPod and Yahoo RSS sytle syndication gems based on the content of my blog post. Naturally, this is a demonstration of the soon to be unveiled OpenLink Data Spaces technology (the one that supports GData and SPARQL Query Services).<br /> <br />BTW - The the Data Space that is this blog has been <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/%7Ekidehen/GData">GData</a> aware for a few weeks now (I digress, just watch the movie!):<br /> <br />Note: If you are reading this post Web 1.0 style (i.e. via traditional non aggregating browser UI) then click on the "enclosure" link to grab the quicktime movie file. If on the other hand your are reading via a Web 2.0 aggregator, note that the Podcast Gem should alert you to the existence of the movie enclosure.<br />
Simplicity, Incentives, Semantic Web and Web 2.0
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-17#979
2006-05-17T03:35:12Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=210">Simplicity, Incentives, Semantic Web and Web 2.0</a>: "</p> <p>Despite page ranking and other techniques, the scale of the Internet is straining available commercial search engines to deliver truly relevant content.' This observation is not new, but its relevance is growing.' Similarly, the integration and interoperabillity challenges facing enterprises have never been greater.' One approach to address these needs, among others, is to adopt semantic Web standards and technologies.</p> <p>The image is compelling:' targeted and unambiguous information from all relevant sources, served in usable bit-sized chunks.' It sounds great; why isn’t it happening? </p> <p>There are clues — actually, reasons — why semantic Web technology is not being embraced on a broad-scale way.' I have <a title="Starting Small via the Semantic Organization" href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=145">spoken elsewhere</a> as to why enterprises or specific organizations will be the initial adopters and promoters of these technologies.' I still believe that to be the case.' The complexity and lack of a network effect ensure that semantic Web stuff will not initially arise from the public Internet.</p> <p> <strong>Parellels with Knowledge Management</strong> </p> <p> Paul Warren, in' '<a href="http://dsonline.computer.org/portal/site/dsonline/menuitem.9ed3d9924aeb0dcd82ccc6716bbe36ec/index.jsp?&pName=dso_level1&path=dsonline/2006/02&file=x1war.xml&xsl=article.xsl&" title=" distributed="distributed" systems="systems" online="online" technology.guardian.co.uk="technology.guardian.co.uk" weekly="weekly" story="story" html="html" edgeperspectives.typepad.com="edgeperspectives.typepad.com" edge_perspectives="edge_perspectives" soa_versus_web_.html="soa_versus_web_.html" blogs.zdnet.com="blogs.zdnet.com" hinchcliffe="hinchcliffe" enterprise="enterprise" web="web" web2.wsj2.com="web2.wsj2.com" web_20_for_the_enterprise_where_the_action_is.htm="web_20_for_the_enterprise_where_the_action_is.htm" for="for" the="the" center="center" directions="directions" hinchcliffe.org="hinchcliffe.org" img="img" web2entdirections.jpg="web2entdirections.jpg" _blank="_blank" www.sekt-project.com="www.sekt-project.com" p="p"> </a> </p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com">AI3 - Adaptive Information:::</a>.)</p>
Search Engine Challenges Posed by the Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-17#978
2006-05-17T03:34:17Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=216">Search Engine Challenges Posed by the Semantic Web</a>: "</p> <p> A pre-print from Tim Finin and Li Deng entitled, <a title="Search Engines for Semantic Web Knowledge" href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/paper/html/id/304/Search-Engines-for-Semantic-Web-Knowledge">Search Engines for Semantic Web Knowledge</a>,<sup>1</sup> presents a thoughtful and experienced overview of the challenges posed to conventional search by semantic Web constructs.' The authors’ base much of their observations on their experience with the <a href="http://swoogle.umbc.edu/" title="Swoogle">Swoogle</a> semantic Web search engine over the past two years.' They also used Swoogle, whose index contains information on over 1.3M RDF documents, to generate statistics on the semantic Web size and growth in the paper.</p> <p>Among other points, the authors note these key differences and challenges from conventional search engines:</p> <ul> <li> <em>Harvesting</em> — the need to discriminantly discover semantic Web documents and to accurately index their semi-structured components</li> <li> <em>Search </em>- the need for search to cover a broader range than documents in a repository, going from the universal to the atomic granularity of a triple.' Path tracing and provenance of the information may also be important</li> <li> <em>Rank</em> — results ranking needs to account for the contribution of the semi-structured data, and <br /> </li> <li> <em>Archive</em> — more versioning and tracking is needed since undelrying ontologies will surely grow and evolve.</li> </ul> <p>The authors particularly note the challenge of i<em>ndexing</em> as repositories grow to actual Internet scales.</p> <p>Though not noted, I would add to this list the challenge of user interfaces. Only a small percentage of users, for example, use Google’s more complicated advanced search form.' In its full-blown implementation, semantic Web search variations could make the advanced Google form look like child’s play.</p> <p>'</p> <hr width="33%" size="2" align="left" /> <p> <sup>1</sup>Tim Finin and Li Ding, 'Search Engines for Semantic Web Knowledge,' a pre-print to be published in the <em>Proceedings of XTech 2006: Building Web 2.0</em>, May 16, 2006, 19 pp.' A <a title="PDF: Search Engines for Semantic Web Knowledge" href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/get/a/publication/268.pdf">PDF of the paper is available for download</a>.</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com">AI3 - Adaptive Information:::</a>.)</p>
Two graphs that explain most IT dysfunction (Part I)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-15#974
2006-05-15T16:06:05Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>Dumped verbatim below, is a timeless post by <a href="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog">Louche Cannon</a>. It is especially poignant in light of the many <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2006/05/wheres_the_semantic_web_excite.html">misguided perceptions about the mutual exclusivity of Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web</a>. Enjoy!</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/?p=42#comments">Two graphs that explain most IT dysfunction (Part I)</a>: "</p> <p>Inspired by reading about other peopleâs <a href="http://edu-blogger.blogspot.com/2005/05/my-blogging-weakness.html">blogging weaknesses</a>, Iâve decided to finally get this one off the back burner and post it. Iâm pretty sure that this isnât original, but I started thinking about this way back in 1996 (pre-social-bookmarking) and Iâve lost my pointer to whatever influenced it. Anybody who can set me straight- Iâd appreciate it.</p> <p>So here goes.</p> <p>There are two graphs which, when seen together, explain a hell of a lot about various forms of dysfunction that you see in the technology world.</p> <p>In this first graph, <strong>X</strong> represents relative âtechnical expertiseâ and <strong>Y</strong> represents the âperceived benefitâ in the introduction of a new technology:</p> <p> <a href="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/benefit.png" onclick="window.open('http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/benefit.png','popup','width=676,height=600,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false"><img src="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/benefit-tm.jpg" height="100" width="112" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Benefit" /> </a> </p> <p>The summary is that technical neophytes (A) tend to see high potential benefit in new technologies, while people who have a bit of technology experience (B) grow increasingly cynical about technology claims and can rattle-off the names of technologies that they have seen over-hyped and that have under-delivered. The interesting thing though, is that, as people become really expert in technology (C), their view of the potential benefits in new technology starts to increase again. At the far right of this scale Iâm talking about the real experts- the alpha-geeks of the world.</p> <p>In the second graph, <strong>X</strong> again represents technical expertise, but <strong>Y</strong> represents âperceived riskâ associated with the introduction of a new technology:</p> <p> <a href="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/risk.png" onclick="window.open('http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/risk.png','popup','width=676,height=600,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false"><img src="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/risk-tm.jpg" height="100" width="112" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Risk" /> </a> </p> <p>Here the curve is inverted, but the basic pattern is the same. The neophytes (A) are blissfully unaware of the things that can go wrong with the introduction of a new technology. The tech-savvy (B) are battle-scarred and have seen (and possibly caused) countless disasters. The alpha-geeks (C) have also seen their share of problems, but they have also learned from their mistakes and know how to avoid them in the future. The alpha-geeks understand how to manage the risk.</p> <p>Now things get interesting when you map these two dynamics against each other:</p> <p> <a href="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/benefit_risk.png" onclick="window.open('http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/benefit_risk.png','popup','width=676,height=600,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false"><img src="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/benefit_risk-tm.jpg" height="100" width="112" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Benefit Risk" /> </a> </p> <p>You see that neophytes in group A have essentially the same world view as the alpha-geeks in group C, but for completely different reasons. The trouble starts when you realize that most of senior executives, venture capitalists and members of the popular press are in group A. At the other extreme, most R&D groups, architecture groups, independent consultancies, technology pundits, etc. are in group C . There are a few problems with this:</p> <ul> <li>People in group A will often talk to and solicit advice from people in group C</li> <li>There are relatively few people in group C</li> <li>Most of the people who actually have to implement new technologies are in group B.</li> </ul> <p>So you can start to see the problem.</p> <p>In <strong><a href="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/?p=44">Part II</a></strong> Iâl talk some more about group B and Iâll discuss some of the classic patterns that emerge when A, B and C try to work with each other. </p>" </blockquote>
ETech 2006 Trip Report: eBay Web Services: A Marketplace Platform for Fun and Profit
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-03-11#938
2006-03-11T03:04:00Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p> <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=d39467a3-7662-4fc4-a782-9c068d47e1b4">ETech 2006 Trip Report: eBay Web Services: A Marketplace Platform for Fun and Profit</a>: "</p> <p> These are my notes from the session <a class="url" href="http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2006/view/e_sess/8513">eBay Web Services: A Marketplace Platform for Fun and Profit</a> by <a href="http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2006/view/e_spkr/1518">Adam Trachtenberg</a>. </p> <p> This session was about the <a href="http://developer.ebay.com/">eBay developer program</a>. The talk started by going over the business models for 'Web 2.0' startups. Adam Trachtenberg surmised that so far only two viable models have shown up (i) get bought by <a href="http://www.yahoo.com">Yahoo!</a> and (ii) put a lot of <a href="https://www.google.com/adsense/">Google AdSense</a> ads on your site. The purpose of the talk was to introduce a third option, making money by integrating with eBay's APIs. </p> <p> Adam Trachtenberg went on to talk about the differences between providing information and providing services. Information is read-only while services are read/write. Services have value because they encourage an 'architecture of participation'. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.ebay.com">eBay</a> is a global, online marketplace that facilitates the exchange of goods. The site started off as being a place to purchase used collectibles but now has grown to encompass old and new items, auctions and fixed price sales (fixed price sales are now a third of their sales) and even sales of used cars. There are currently 78 million items being listed at any given time on <a href="http://www.ebay.com">eBay</a>. </p> <p> As <a href="http://www.ebay.com">eBay</a> has grown more popular they have come to realize that one size doesn't fit all when it comes to the website. It has to be customized to support different languages and markets as well as running on devices other the PC. Additionally, they discovered that some companies had started screen scraping their site to give an optimized user experience for some power users. Given how fragile screen scraping is the <a href="http://www.ebay.com">eBay</a> team decided to provide a SOAP API that would be more stable and performant for them than having people screen scrape the website. </p> <p> The API has grown to over 100 methods and about 43% of the items on the website are added via the SOAP API. The API enables one to build user experiences for <a href="http://www.ebay.com">eBay</a> outside the web browser such as integration with cell phones, Microsoft Office, gadgets & widgets, etc. The API has an affiliate program so developers can make money for purchases that happen through the API. An example of the kind of mashup one can build to make money from the eBay API is <a href="https://www.dudewheresmyusedcar.com/">https://www.dudewheresmyusedcar.com</a>. Another example of a mashup that can be used to make money using the eBay API is <a href="http://www.ctxbay.com/">http://www.ctxbay.com</a> which provides contextual eBay ads for web publishers. </p> <p> The aforementioned sites are just a few examples of the kinds of mashups that can be built with the eBay API. Since the API enables buying and listing of items for sale as well as obtaining inventory data from the service, one can build a very diverse set of applications. </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>.)</p>
what is web 2.0?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-18#909
2005-11-18T21:49:15Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><a href="http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/2005/11/there_has_been_.html">what is web 2.0?</a>: " </p><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><a href="http://blog.del.icio.us/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/graph1.png" onclick="window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=600,height=463,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false"><img height="77" border="0" alt="Graph1" width="100" src="http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/images/graph1.png" style="float: left; margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px;" title="Graph1" /></a>There has been lot of discussion about what Web 2.0 really is, so we thought weâd use the power of Web 2.0 itself to come up with the answer, and here it is:</p><p>42.</p> <p>Just kidding. What we actually did was take a look at all the tag data going back to February 2004 (the month of the first use of Web 2.0 as a tag on del.icio.us), and analyzed all the bookmarks and tags related to the term. We can report that as of October 31, 2005 there have been over 230,000 separate bookmarks and over 7,000 unique tags associated with the term âWeb 2.0â by del.icio.us users. So for this exercise, we lopped off the really long tail and normalized some similar terms (e.g. combining blog, blogs, and blogging), and came up with this snapshot of what Web 2.0 REALLY is â at least according to del.icio.us users' most popular tags through the end of October 2005:</p> <table> <tr><td><a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/ajax">ajax</a></td><td>9.9%</td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/blog">blog</a></td><td>6.1%</td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/social">social</a></td><td>4.2%</td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/tools">tools</a></td><td>4.1%</td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/software">software</a></td><td>3.3%</td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/tagging">tagging</a></td><td>3.3%</td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/javascript">javascript</a></td><td>2.8%</td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/internet">internet</a></td><td>2.6%</td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/programming">programming</a></td><td>2.5%</td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/rss">rss</a></td><td>2.5%</td></tr> </table> <p>Other notable tags included <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/rubyonrails">rubyonrails</a> (1.8%), <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/del.icio.us">del.icio.us</a> (1.6%), <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/folksonomy">folksonomy</a> (1.4%), <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/community">community</a> (1.1%), <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/wiki">wiki</a> (.9%), <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/flickr">flickr</a> (.8%), <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/free">free</a> (.7%), <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/trends">trends</a> (.6%), <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/flock">flock</a> (.4%) and <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/googlemaps">googlemaps</a> (.3%).</p> <p>So there you have it - interesting, but it still seems to fall short of a definitive answer. Maybe the blinding flash of the obvious is that Web 2.0 is best defined as arguing about what Web 2.0 is really about.</p></div> " <p>(Via <a href="http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/">del.icio.us</a>.)</p><a href="index.vspx?tag=webservices" rel="tag" style="display:none;">webservices</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=web2.0" rel="tag" style="display:none;">web2.0</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=web20" rel="tag" style="display:none;">web20</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=ajax" rel="tag" style="display:none;">ajax</a>
Podcast: Vinod Khosla at Web 2.0 2005
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-18#908
2005-11-18T12:52:51Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>Listen and Learn from a genuinely wise man. Note the commentary about Excite and Google (this situation plays out over and over again in our industry).</p> <blockquote><p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ITConversations-EverythingMP3?m=492">Vinod Khosla: Web 2.0 2005</a>: "Web 2.0 enriches online user experience by facilitating collaboration, participation, and communication. This is exciting investors once more and new Web 2.0 startups are finding it easy to get funding from venture capitalists. Although Vinod Khosla is a venture capitalist himself, he warns startups to learn the lessons of the failures of Web 1.0 companies and to use the money they raise judiciously and to remain creative rather than become comfortable with a business plan. [Web 2.0 audio from IT Conversations]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ITConversations-EverythingMP3?g=492" />"</p><p>(Via <a href="http://www.itconversations.com/index.html">IT Conversations</a>.)</p></blockquote>
A Tag Cloud for APIs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-16#906
2005-11-16T21:45:25Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/cloud">Tag Cloud for Web 2.0 APIs</a> </p> <p>(Via <a href="http://blog.programmableweb.com">ProgrammableWeb.com</a>.)</p>
Ajax-S: Ajaxian slideshow software
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-16#905
2005-11-16T20:50:32Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<blockquote><p><a href="http://www.ajaxian.com/archives/2005/11/ajaxs_ajaxian_s.html">Ajax-S: Ajaxian slideshow software</a>: "The idea came to me because I wanted a lightweight slideshow based on HTML, CSS and JavaScript, but I also wanted to separate the data of each page from the actual code that presents it. Therefore, I decided to move the data into an XML file and then use AJAX to retrieve it. The name AJAX-S is short for AJAX-Slides (or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML Slides, if you want to)."</p><p>(Via <a href="http://www.ajaxian.com/">Ajaxian Blog</a>.)</p></blockquote><p>AJAX is clearly illuminating one of my pet issues: Separation of Application/Service Logic and Data. Even better, the concept of XML instance data is gradually getting much clearer. AJAX has created context for validating the concept of browser hosted Rich Internet Applications (RIA).</p><p>AJAX has become a widely accepted framework for the InternetOS that facilitates Rich Internet Application development using Web 2.0 (and beyond) APIs.</p>
This Week’s Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-14#902
2005-11-14T19:44:03Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>(Via <a href="http://dannyayers.com">Danny Ayers</a>.):</p> <p><a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/2005/11/13/this-weeks-semantic-web/">This Weekâs Semantic Web</a>: </p><p>"Ok, my first attempt at a round-up (in response to Philâs observation of <a href="http://weblog.philringnalda.com/?p=1008">Planetary damage</a>). Thanks to the conference thereâs loads more here than thereâs likely to be subsequent weeks, although itâs still only a fairly random sample and some of the links here are to heaps of other resourcesâ¦<br /> <em>Incidentally, if anyoneâs got a list/links for SemWeb-related blogs that arenât on <a href="http://planetrdf.com">Planet RDF</a>, Iâd be grateful for a pointer. PS. Ok, I forget⦠are there any blogs that arenât on Daveâs <a href="http://journal.dajobe.org/journal/2003/07/semblogs/">list</a> yet..?</em></p> <p>Quote of the week:</p> <blockquote><p> In the Semantic Web, it is not the Semantic which is new, it is the Web which is new. </p></blockquote> <p>- <a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/people/w/welty/">Chris Welty</a>, IBM (lifted from TimBLâs <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/">slides</a>)</p> <h4>Events</h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://iswc2005.semanticweb.org/">4th International Semantic Web Conference</a> - happened this week, see : <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/conference/iswc2005/">ISWC2005 Semantic Bank</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.gnowsis.org/Events/HackBerlin2005">Semantic Desktop Workshop</a>, 9-13 December 2005, Berlin</li> <li><a href="http://trinity.dit.unitn.it/vikef/swap2005/">Semantic Web Applications and Perspectives/Workshop</a> (SWAP2005), 14-16 December, 2005</li> <li><a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com/juc2006"> Jena User Conference</a> - May 10-11 2006, Bristol UK</li> </ul> <h4>Docs etc</h4> <ul> <li> Conference highlights on the #swig chump: <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-06.html">2005-11-06</a>, <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-07.html">-07</a>, <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-08.html">-08</a>, <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-09.html">-09</a>, <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-10.html">-10</a>; Ianâs <a href="http://internetalchemy.org/tag/iswc2005">notes</a>; Johnâs <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2005/11/06/iswc-2005/">resources</a>; Leoâs <a href="http://leobard.twoday.net/topics/SemWeb">stories</a>; Uldisâ <a href="http://captsolo.net/info/blog_a.php/2005/11/12/iswc_2005_do_the_right_thing">call to action</a>; <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/iswc2005">del.icio.us/iswc2005</a>; <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/iswc2005/">flickr/iswc2005</a>; <a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/2004/media/date/2005/11/">foaf-moblog</a>. </li> <li>Slides from Sir TimBLâs conference keynotes: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1107-iswc-tbl/">Semantic Web for the Industry</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/">Putting the Web back in Semantic Web</a></li> <li>Daniel Weitznerâs keynote: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-p4-semweb-iswc/">Privacy, Provenance, Property and Personhood</a></li> <li>Long-time SW researcher <a href="http://www.stefandecker.org">Stefan Decker</a> now has a blog, inspirationally entitled <a href="http://www.stefandecker.org/blog/">Stefan Decker on the Semantic Web</a>. (Stefanâs one of the head honchos at <a href="http://www.deri.ie/">DERI</a>). Sample snippet:<br /> <blockquote><p> I just noticed the article from Dan Zambonini â<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8013?CMP=OTC-TY3388567169">Is Web 2.0 killing the Semantic Web?</a>â. From my perspective the article shows a misconception that people seems to have around the Semantic Web: the Semantic Web effort itself is not provide applications (like the <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html">Web 2.0 meme</a> indicates) - it rather provides standards to interlink applications. </p></blockquote> </li> <li>Leigh Dodds has two pieces demonstrating neat facilities offered by <a href="http://jena.sourceforge.net/ARQ">ARQ</a> the SPARQL query API for Java: <a href="http://www.ldodds.com/blog/archives/000251.html">parameterised queries</a> and <a href="http://www.ldodds.com/blog/archives/000252.html">extension functions</a>. </li> <li>A new W3C Working Group has been chartered: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/rules/wg/charter">Rule Interchange Format WG</a> - <em>â to produce a core rule language plus extensions which together allow rules to be translated between rule languages and thus transferred between rule systems.â</em>. As noted by <a href="http://journal.dajobe.org/journal/">dajobe</a>, phase 1 includes making a new XML syntax for RDFâ¦</li> <li><a href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/resource/html/id/94/">UMBC Semantic Web Reference Card</a> <em>- if you only print one thing this yearâ¦or did you already do the <a href="http://www.dajobe.org/2005/04-sparql/">SPARQL Reference card</a>..?</em></li> <li><a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/WebDescription">WebDescription</a> - root wiki page for collecting notes on web description languages (ESW Wiki, <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-http-desc/2005Nov/0000.html">announcement</a>)</li> <li><a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/Bot">Bot</a> - IRC/Jabber chat bots that are either in use by Semantic Web developers or use Semantic Web technologies (ESW Wiki)</li> <li><a href="http://microformats.org/wiki/faqs-for-rdf">microformat FAQs for RDF fans</a> (ESW Wiki)</li> <li> W3C working draft : <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl20-rdf/">WSDL 2.0 - RDF Mapping</a></li> <li>SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organisation System) updated drafts: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-skos-core-spec">SKOS Core Vocabulary Specification</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-skos-core-guide">SKOS Core Guide</a></li> <li>working draft: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/sprot11/">SPARQL Protocol for RDF Using WSDL 1.1</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2005/HPL-2005-170.html">A relational algebra for SPARQL</a>, <a href="http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2005/HPL-2005-171.html">Note on database layouts for SPARQL datastores</a> (PDFs, Richard Cyganiak, HP)</li> <li><a href="http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11042/">Amateur Fiction Online</a> - The Web of Community Trust A Case Study in Community Focused Design for the SemanticWeb (<a href="http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11042/01/case_study.pdf">PDF</a>)</li> <li><a href="http://dsonline.computer.org/portal/site/dsonline/menuitem.9ed3d9924aeb0dcd82ccc6716bbe36ec/index.jsp?&pName=dso_level1&path=dsonline/0511&file=x5sem.xml&xsl=article.xsl">Building a Semantic Wiki</a> - IEEE article. See also: <a href="http://m3pe.org/semperwiki/">SemperWiki - Semantic Personal Wiki</a>, <a href="http://wiki.navigable.info/"> WikSAR - Towards a Semantic Wiki Experience</a> <br /> </li> </ul> <h4>Software and stuff</h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://challenge.semanticweb.org/">Semantic Web Challenge</a> applications (winner: <a href="http://www.confoto.org/">CONFOTO</a> - congrats bengee!)</li> <li><a href="http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/">Piggy Bank 2.1.1</a> released.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openiris.org/">IRIS</a> is a semantic desktop application framework that enables users to create a âpersonal mapâ across their office-related information objects. IRIS includes a machine-learning platform to help automate this process. It provides âdashboardâ views, contextual navigation, and relationship-based structure across an extensible suite of office applications, including a calendar, web and file browser, e-mail client, and instant messaging client.<br /> <em>(open source release due Jan 2006)</em> </li> <li><a href="http://www.mksearch.mkdoc.org/">MKSearch</a> - <em>âA new kind of search engineâ</em> - RDF-backed (Sesame) with Web crawler, extracts and indexes metadata.</li> <li><a href="http://www.foafrealm.org">FOAFRealm</a> - Our goal is to design and implement D-FOAF, a distributed authentication and trust infrastructure without a centralised authority. D-FOAF will be a backbone for trust applications based on social relationships and will establish identity of users similar to the way we establish identify and trust in real life.</li> <li>Perl <a href="http://search.cpan.org/dist/Net-Flickr-RDF-1.1/">Net::Flickr::RDF</a></li> <li>WordPress <a href="http://rdfs.org">SIOC</a> (Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities) plugin updated (just copy <a href="http://sw.deri.org/svn/sw/2005/08/sioc/wordpress/wp-sioc.php">wp-sioc.php</a> into the root of your WP install and it <em>just works</em>)</li> <li><a href="http://ontomedia.ecs.soton.ac.uk/">OntoMedia</a> is intended for the representation of heterogenous media through description of the semantic content of that media. The representation may be limited to the description of some or all of the elements contained within the source or may include information regarding the narrative relationship that these elements have both to the media and to each other.</li> <li><a href="http://mspace.fm/">mSpace</a> is an interaction model to help explore relationships in information - <em>âImagine Google on iTunesâ</em></li> </ul> <p>Blog post title of the week: </p> <blockquote><p> <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/2005-11-12/Don_t_give">Donât give me that monkey-ass Web 1.0, either</a> </p></blockquote> <p>- <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/">Uche Ogbuji</a></p> <p>Alsoâ¦a new threat to Semantic Web developers has been discovered: <a href="http://planb.nicecupoftea.org/archives/001309.html">typhoid</a>!, and the key to the Webâs full potential isâ¦<a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/2004/media/2005/11/07/3448">Tetris</a>." </p>
Solutions to allow XMLHttpRequest to talk to external services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-11#900
2005-11-11T21:01:15Z
2006-07-21T07:23:03.000001-04:00
<blockquote><p><a href="http://www.ajaxian.com/archives/2005/11/solutions_to_al.html">Solutions to allow XMLHttpRequest to talk to external services</a>: "</p><p>Over on XML.com they published <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/11/09/fixing-ajax-xmlhttprequest-considered-harmful.html">Fixing AJAX: XmlHttpRequest Considered Harmful</a>.</p> <p>This article discusses a few ways to get around the security constraints that we have to live with in the browsers theses days, in particular, only being able to talk to your domain via XHR.</p> <p>The article walks you through three potential solutions:</p> <ol> <li><strong>Application proxies</strong>. Write an application in your favorite programming language that sits on your server, responds to <code>XMLHttpRequest</code>s from users, makes the web service call, and sends the data back to users.</li> <li><strong>Apache proxy</strong>. Adjust your Apache web server configuration so that <code>XMLHttpRequest</code>s can be invisibly re-routed from your server to the target web service domain.</li> <li><strong>Script tag hack with application proxy</strong> (doesn't use <code>XMLHttpRequest</code> at all). Use the HTML <code>script</code> tag to make a request to an application proxy (see #1 above) that returns your data wrapped in JavaScript. This approach is also known as <a href="http://ajaxpatterns.org/On-Demand_Javascript">On-Demand JavaScript</a>.</li> </ol> <p>I can't wait for <em>Trusted Relationships</em> within the browser - server infrastructure. </p> <p>With respect to Apache proxies, these things are priceless. I recently talked about them in relation to <a href="http://www.almaer.com/blog/archives/001099.html">Migrating data centers with zero downtime</a>.</p> <p>What do you guys think about this general issue? Have you come up with any interesting solutions? Any ideas on how we can keep security, yet give us the freedom that we want?</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.ajaxian.com/">Ajaxian Blog</a>.)</p></blockquote> <p>Well here is what I think (actually know): </p> <p>Our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso Universal Server</a> has been sitting waiting to deliver this for years (for the record see the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/v2releas.htm">Virtuoso 2000 Press Release</a>). Virtuoso can proxy for disparate data sources and expose disparate data as Well-Formed XML using an array of vocabularies (you experience this SQL-XML integration on the fly every time you interact with various elements of my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/">public blog</a>).</p> <p>Virtuoso has always been able to expose Application Logic as SOAP and/or RESTful/RESTian style XML Web Services. <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127">This blog's search page</a> is a simple demo of this capability.</p> <p>Virtuoso is basically a Junction Box / Aggregator / Proxy for disparate Data, Applications, Services, and BPEL compliant business processes. AJAX clients talk to this single multi-purpose server which basically acts as a conduit to content/data, services, and processes (which are composite services).</p> <p>BTW - there is a lot more, but for now, thou shall have to seek in order to find :-) </p>
Will Web 2.0 kill Windows?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-10#896
2005-11-10T02:54:56Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>Michael Gartenberg poses the question: <a href="http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/gartenberg/archives/011791.html">Will Web 2.0 kill Windows?</a>: " </p><p>Answer: NO.</p> <p>Comparing Web 2.0 to Windows is like comparing Apples and Oranges!</p> <p>The Internet displaced Windows (long time ago!). The effect of this reality is simply working its way through Geoffrey Moore's Bell Curve - in "left to right" fashion. By the way, there isn't a single thing Microsoft can do about this beyond accepting this reality and gearing itself up to compete as best it can in this new reality.</p> <p><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/index.vspx?page=&id=885">The Internet is the Operating System for the New Computer</a> - aptly coined: "The Network" by Sun years ago (unfortunately a blind preoccupation with Java has completely obscured Sun's fundamental vision regarding this matter).</p> <p>Web 2.0 provides the Windows API equivalent for the InternetOS.</p> The real message in today's well publicized memos from Bill and Ray is a realization on the part of Microsoft that they can no longer bet the house on Windows; Integrated Innovation will no longer imply: covert ways of locking unsuspecting customers and partners into Windows. In short, Microsoft is wrestling with its <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/11/understanding_l.html">Local Max</a>.
Cool Semantic Web Demo from MIT's SIMILE project
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-08#894
2005-11-08T21:20:32Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>Very <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/conference/iswc2005/">cool Semantic Web use case Demo </a> via <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/">Piggy Bank</a>'s sever component called "<a href="http://simile.mit.edu/semantic-bank/">Semantic Bank</a>". These complimentary projects are part of the <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/">MIT SMILE project</a>. </p> <p>As you can see Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web are mutually inclusive paradigms as reemphasized via this additional "<a href="http://simile.mit.edu/bank/bank?command=browse&resultsViewParam=http%3A%2F%2Fsimile.mit.edu%2F2005%2F05%2Fontologies%2Flocation%23coordinates%3B&resultsView=map&-=%40lwq.project.PropertyProjector%3Bhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2F02%2F22-rdf-syntax-ns%23type%3B%40lwq.bucket.DistinctValueBucketer%3Brhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.alexshapiro.com%2Fontologies%2Fhunger%23Shelter%2Crhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.alexshapiro.com%2Fontologies%2Fhunger%23Meal_Site%2Crhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.alexshapiro.com%2Fontologies%2Fhunger%23pantry%2Crhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.alexshapiro.com%2Fontologies%2Fhunger%23DHS&">mashup</a>" (I don't really like the word "mashup", especially as it isn't different from/than "repurposing"?)</p>.
Clone the Google APIs: Kill That Noise
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-03#892
2005-11-03T22:44:04Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>I am kinda scratching my head a little re. the "Clone Google APIs" call; especially as Amazon's <a href="http://opensearch.a9.com/">A9</a> already provides <a href="http://opensearch.a9.com/docs/howto.jsp">infrastructure for generic search</a>. A9 is open at both ends; you can consume search services via a RESTian API or plug your search engine into A9 (playing the role of A9 search service provider). </p><p>Quick Example using my blog: </p><ul>1. <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127">My Blog's Search Page</a> (note it support Full Text and XPath/XQuery)</ul><ul>2. <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=#39web%202.0#39&type=text&output=html">Search on pattern 'Web 2.0'</a> via my Blog's Search Engine</ul><ul>3. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacktivism" xmlns:n0="http" n0:="http:" a9.com="a9.com" search="search" morecolumns.jsp="morecolumns.jsp" a="a">Hactivism</a>" regarding this matter. Certainly worth a full-post-scrape for my ongoing content annotation efforts (see <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=linkblog">Linkblog</a> and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=summary">BlogSummary</a>). <p>Digest the rest of Dare's post:</p><blockquote><p><a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=3faf48bb-cf43-4fad-9145-cd749bd0288e">Clone the Google APIs: Kill That Noise</a>: "</p><p> Yesterday Dave Winer wrote in a post about <a href="http://www.scripting.com/2005/11/02.html#When:2:31:38PM">cloning the Google API</a> Dave Winer wrote </p><blockquote><i>Let's make the <a href="http://www.clonethegoogleapi.com/">Google API an open standard</a>. Back in 2002, Google took a bold first step to enable open architecture search engines, by creating an API that allowed developers to build applications on top of their search engine. However, there were severe limits on the capacity of these applications. So we got a good demo of what might be, now three years later, it's time for the real thing.<br /><br /></i></blockquote>and earlier that <br /><blockquote><i>If you didn't get a chance to hear <a href="http://www.scripting.com/2005/11/01.html#When:12:26:58AM">yesterday's podcast</a>, it recommends that Microsoft clone the <a href="http://davenet.scripting.com/2002/04/13/whatsNextAfterTheGoogleApi">Google API</a> for search, without the keys, and without the limits. When a developer's application generates a lot of traffic, buy him a plane ticket and dinner, and ask how you both can make some money off their excellent booming application of search. This is something Google can't do, because search is their cash cow. That's why Microsoft should do it. And so should Yahoo. Also, there's no doubt Google will be competing with Apple soon, so they should be also thinking about ways to devalue Google's advantage.</i></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><p> This doesn't seem like a great idea to me for a wide variety of reasons but first, let's start with a history lesson before I tackle this specific issue </p><p><b>A Trip Down Memory Lane</b><br /> This history lesson <strike>used to be in</strike> is in a post entitled <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20041011135623/http://www.evhead.com/archives/2003_05_10_archive_default.asp">The Tragedy of the API</a> by <a href="http://www.evhead.com/">Evan Williams</a> <strike>but seems to be gone now</strike>. Anyway, back in the early days of blogging the folks at Pyra [which eventually got bought by Google] created the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/developers/api/1_docs/">Blogger API</a> for their service. Since Blogspot/Blogger was a popular service, a the number of applications that used the API quickly grew. At this point Dave Winer decided that since the Blogger API was so popular he should implement it in his weblogging tools but then he decided that he didn't like some aspects of it such as application keys (sound familiar?) and did without them in his version of the API. Dave Winer's version of the Blogger API became the <a href="http://www.xmlrpc.com/metaWeblogApi">MetaWeblog API</a>. These APIs became de facto standards and a number of other weblogging applications implemented them. </p><p> After a while, the folks at Pyra decided that their API needed to evolve due to various flaws in its design. As Diego Doval put it in his post <a href="http://www.dynamicobjects.com/d2r/archives/001921.html">a review of blogging APIs</a>, <i>The Blogger API is a joke, and a bad one at that</i>. This lead to the creation of the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/developers/api/documentation20.html">Blogger API 2.0</a>. At this point a heated debate erupted online where Dave Winer berated the Blogger folks for deviating from an industry standard. The irony of flaming a company for coming up with a v2 of their own API seemed to be lost on many of the people who participated in the debate. Eventually the Blogger API 2.0 went nowhere. </p><p> Today the blogging API world is a few de facto standards based on a hacky API created by a startup a few years ago, a number of site specific APIs (<a href="http://www.livejournal.com/doc/server/ljp.csp.xml-rpc.protocol.html">LiveJournal API</a>, <a href="http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/docs/mtmanual_programmatic.html">MovableType API</a>, etc) and a number of inconsistently implemented versions of the <a href="http://bitworking.org/projects/atom/">Atom API</a>.<br /></p><p><b>On Cloning the Google Search API</b><br /> To me the most salient point in the hijacking of the Blogger API from Pyra is that it didn't change the popularity of their service or even make Radio Userland (Dave Winer's product) catch up to them in popularity. This is important to note since this is Dave Winer's key argument for Microsoft cloning the Google API. </p><p> Off the top of my head, here are my top three technical reasons for Microsoft to ignore the calls to clone the Google Search APIs<br /></p><ol><li><p><u>Difference in Feature Set:</u> The features exposed by the API do not run the entire gamut of features that other search engines may want to expose. Thus even if you implement something that looks a lot like the Google API, you'd have to extend it to add the functionality that it doesn't provide. For example, compare the <a href="http://www.google.com/apis/reference.html">features provided by the Google API</a> to the <a href="http://developer.yahoo.net/search/">features provided by the Yahoo! search API</a>. I can count about half a dozen features in the Yahoo! API that aren't in the Google API. </p></li><li><p><u>Difference in Technology Choice:</u> The Google API uses SOAP. This to me is a phenomenally bad technical decision because it raises the bar to performing a basic operation (data retrieval) by using a complex technology. I much prefer Yahoo!'s approach of providing a RESTful API and <strike>MSN</strike> Windows Live Search's approach of providing RSS search feeds and a SOAP API for the folks who need such overkill. <br /></p></li><li><u>Unreasonable Demands:</u> A number of Dave Winer's demands seem contradictory. He asks companies to not require application keys but then advises them to contact application developers who've built high traffic applications about revenue sharing. Exactly how are these applications to be identified without some sort of application ID? As for removing the limits on the services? I guess Dave is ignoring the fact that providing services costs money, which I seem to remember is why <a href="http://www.kottke.org/05/10/weblogscom-sold-to-verisign">he sold weblogs.com to Verisign for a few million dollars</a>. I do agree that some of the limits on existing search APIs aren't terribly useful. The Google API limit of 1000 queries a day seems to guarantee that you won't be able to power a popular application with the service. <br /></li><li><p><u>Lack of Innovation:</u> Copying Google sucks. <br /></p></li></ol><p>(Via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>.)</p></blockquote></ul>
Self Annotation of Semantic Web (BBC Demo)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-28#887
2005-10-28T22:54:44Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<blockquote><p><a href="http://theobvious.typepad.com/blog/2005/10/stop_whatever_y.html">Stop whatever you are doing ...</a>: " </p><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>.. and go and read <a href="http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2005/10/on_the_bbc_annotatable_audio_project.shtml">Tom Coates' explanation</a> of his last project with the BBC. After 21 years working in broadcasting Ireckon this is one of the coolest things to happen for a very, very long time.</p><p>The ramifications of this will go very deep indeed."</p></div> <p>(Spotted Via <a href="http://theobvious.typepad.com/blog/">The Obvious?</a>.)</p></blockquote><p> Yes, the ramifications are deep! <a href="http://www.plasticbag.org/">Tom Coates'</a> screencast demonstrates an internal variation of an activity that is taking place on many fronts (concurrently) across the NET. I tend to refer to this effort as "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/index.vspx?page=&id=849">Self Annotation</a>"; the very process that will ultimately take us straight to "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=#39semantic%20web#39%20&type=text&output=html">Semantic Web</a>". It is going to happen much quicker than anticipated because technology is taking the pain out of metadata annotation (e.g. what you do when you tag everything that is ultimately URI accessible). Technology is basically delivering what <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell">Jon Udell</a> calls: <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/11/08.html">"reducing the activation threshold"</a>.</p><p>Using my comments above for context placement, I suggest you take a look at, or re-read <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/10/27.html#a1330">Jon Udell's post titled: Many Meanings of Metadata</a>. </p><p>Once again, the Web 2.0 brouhaha (in every sense of the word) is a reaction to a critical inflection that ultimately transitions the "Semantic Web" from "Mirage" to "Nirvana". Put differently (with humor in mind solely!), Web 2.0 is what I tend to call a "John the Baptist" paradigm, and we all know what happened to him :-)</p><p>Web 2.0 is a conduit to a far more important destination. The tendency to treat Web 2.0 as a destination rather than a conduit has contributed to the recent spate of <a href="http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SetTheBozoBit">Bozo bit</a> flipping posts all over the blogosphere (is this an attempt to behead John, metaphorically speaking?). Humor aside, a really important thing about the Web 2.0 situation is that when we make the quantum <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/link/evolution.html">evolutionary leap (internet time, mind you) to the "Semantic Web"</a> (or whatever groovy name we dig up for it in due course) we will certainly have a plethora of reference points (I mean <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=#39web%202.0#39&type=text&output=html">Web 2.0 URIs</a>) ensuring that we do not revisit the "Missing Link" evolutionary paradox :-)</p><p> BTW - You can see some example of my contribution to the ongoing annotation process by looking at: </p><ul><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/index.vspx?page=summary">My Blog Summary Page</a></ul><ul><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/index.vspx?page=linkblog">My Linkblog</a></ul><ul><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127">My Blog Search</a></ul><ul><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/BlogAPI/services.vsmx">My Blog Query Service</a> (click on the enhanced view if you're a SOAP geek; also note blogid=127)</ul>
You want disruptive? Here's disruptive...
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-27#885
2005-10-27T23:34:25Z
2010-05-16T15:04:54-04:00
<blockquote><p>"...Also today I came across the latest project of a man who wants to tear down <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/">Tim Berners-Lee</a>'s World Wide Web and replace it with his own vision. It used to be known as Xanadu, but has since morphed into <a href="http://transliterature.org/">Transliterature, A Humanist Design</a>. I am of course referring to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson">Ted Nelson</a>, who invented the term 'hypertext' in 1965 and is generally regarded as a computing pioneer.</p><p>Ted Nelson recently <a href="http://hyperland.com/trollout.txt">wrote an essay</a> about 'Indirect Documents', which got <a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/24/1054214&tid=230&tid=218">Slashdotted</a> today. In the essay Nelson outlines why (in his opinion) the Xanadu project failed and he explains his new vision for Transliterature. He takes a number of potshots at Tim Berners-Lee's WWW on the way, e.g.:</p><blockquote><p>'Why don't I like the web? I hate its flapping and screeching and emphasis on appearance; its paper-simulation rectangles of Valuable Real Estate, artifically created by the NCSA browser, now hired out to advertisers; its hierarchies exposed and imposed; its untyped one-way links only from inside the document. (The one-way links hidden under text were a regrettable simplification of hypertext which I assented to in '68 on the HES project. But that's another story.) Only trivial links are possible; there is nothing to support careful annotation and study; and, of course, there is no transclusion.'</p></blockquote><p>Ted Nelson is certainly an original and I'm glad he's still around to throw spanners in the works. <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001721.php">I've written about him before</a> and I'm sure I will again, Web 2.0 or not.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/readwriteweb?g=272" />" <p>(Excerpted From: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/">Read/Write Web</a>.)</p></blockquote><p>My thoughts on the commentary above:</p><p>There is nothing fundamentally incompatible between Ted Nelson's pursuits and future incarnation's of the Web. None whatsoever -- we are simply working our way through an process. The process in question is what I call "standards driven ubiquity" (becoming de facto at Internet Speed). Remember Sun's "The Network is the Computer" vision? Well, without a "Computer" in mind-space you can't think in terms of "Operating Systems". Thats all changing, because today we are gradually beginning to accept the imminent reality that "The Internet is the Operating System" and not Windows/UNIX/Mac OS X/Others. Ahem! And after the Operating System what comes next? I think a set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and I think we know what that is (in all of its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">controversial glory</a>), the very thing we refer to as <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=#39web%202.0#39&type=text&output=html">Web 2.0</a> (the APIs for the Internet Operating System).</p><p> Note: In addition to the Computer, Operating System, and Application Programming Interfaces, we also have those frequently misunderstood and under-appreciated workhorses called "Databases" in place (but we still call them Web Sites for now). And by the way, "Internet Filesystem" has been there forever, but for some reason we can't see <a href="http://www.webdav.org/">WebDAV</a> in all its current and future glory (that will change very soon also!).</p><p>Ted and TBL are cool with each (whether they know it or not)! I see no mutual exclusivity in their collective visions (IMHO) :-) </p>
Breaking the Web Wide Open!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-26#882
2005-10-26T19:28:47Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><a href="http://marc.blogs.it/">Marc Canter</a>'s <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/archives/2005/10/breaking_the_we.html">Breaking the Web Wide Open! </a> article is something I found pretty late (by my normal discovery standards). This was partly due to the pre- and post- Web 2.0 event noise levels that have dumped the description of an important industry inflection into the "Bozo Bin" of many. Personally, I think we shouldn't confuse the Web 2.0 traditional-pitch-fest conference with an attempt to identify an important industry inflection).</p><p> Anyway, Marc's article is a very refreshing read because it provides a really good insight into the general landscape of a rapidly evolving Web alongside genuine appreciation of our broader timeless pursuit of "Openness". </p><p>To really help this document provide additional value have scrapped the content of the original post and dumped it below so that we can appreciate the value of the links embedded within the article (note: thanks to Virtuoso I only had to paste the content into my blog, the extraction to my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=linkblog">Linkblog</a> and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=summary">Blog Summary</a> Pages are simply features of my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuos">Virtuoso </a>based Blog Engine):</p><blockquote><h3 class="hed2" style="padding-bottom: 10px">Breaking the Web Wide Open! (complete story)</h3><p>Even the web giants like AOL, Google, MSN, and Yahoo need to observe these open standards, or they'll risk becoming the "walled gardens" of the new web and be coolio no more.</p><p class="byline"><b><a href="http://community.alwayson-network.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/AlwaysOn.woa/wa/display?id=9254:Person">Marc Canter</a></b> [<a href="http://community.alwayson-network.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/AlwaysOn.woa/wa/display?id=9254:Person"><b>Broadband Mechanics, Inc.</b></a>] | POSTED: 09.26.05 @12:00</p><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td valign="TOP" class="copy1"><img src="http://community.alwayson-network.com/ao/images/thumb/19433429363e7cd6b1ecfb7.jpg" align="LEFT" border="0" width="80" style="margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px" alt="" /><i><b>Editorial Note:</b> Several months ago, AlwaysOn got a personal invitation from Yahoo founder Jerry Yang "to see and give us feedback on our new social media product, y!360." We were happy to oblige and dutifully showed up, joining a conference room full of hard-core bloggers and new, new media types. The geeks gave Yahoo 360 an overwhelming thumbs down, with comments like, "So the only services I can use within this new network are Yahoo services? What if I don't use Yahoo IM?" In essence, the Yahoo team was booed for being "closed web," and we heartily agreed. With Yahoo 360, Yahoo continues building its own "walled garden" to control its 135 million customersÂan accusation also hurled at AOL in the early 1990s, before AOL migrated its private network service onto the web. As the</i> <a href="http://bernardmoon.blogspot.com/2005/08/yahoos-personality-crisis.html" target="_blank">Economist<i> recently noted</i></a>, "Yahoo, in short, has old media plans for the new-media era."<br /><br />The irony to our view here is, of course, that today's AO Network is also a "closed web." In the end, Mr. Yang's thoughtful invitation and our ensuing disappointment in his new service led to the assignment of this article. It also confirmed our existing plan to completely revamp the AO Network around open standards. To tie it all together, we recruited the chief architect of our new site, <a href="http://www.corante.com/amateur/articles/20030211-3564.html" target="_blank">the notorious Marc Canter</a>, to pen this piece. We look forward to our reader feedback.<br /><br /><b>Breaking the Web Wide Open!</b><br />By Marc Canter<br /><br />For decades, "walled gardens" of proprietary standards and content have been the strategy of dominant players in mainframe computer software, wireless telecommunications services, and the World Wide WebÂit was their successful lock-in strategy of keeping their customers theirs. But like it or not, those walls are tumbling down. Open web standards are being adopted so widely, with such value and impact, that the web giantsÂAmazon, AOL, eBay, Google, Microsoft, and YahooÂare facing the difficult decision of opening up to what they don't control.<br /><br />The online world is evolving into a new open web (sometimes called the Web 2.0), which is all about being personalized and customized for each user. Not only open source software, but <i>open standards</i> are becoming an essential component. <br /><br />Many of the web giants have been using open source software for years. Most of them use at least parts of the <a href="http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2001/01/25/lamp.html" target="_blank">LAMP</a> (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/Python/PHP) stack, even if they aren't well-known for giving back to the open source community. For these incumbents that grew big on proprietary web services, the methods, practices, and applications of open source software development are difficult to fully adopt. And the next open source movementsÂwhich will be as much about open standards as about codeÂwill be a lot harder for the incumbents to exploit.<br /><br />While the incumbents use cheap open source software to run their back-ends systems, their business models largely depend on proprietary software and algorithms. But our view a new slew of open software, open protocols, and open standards will confront the incumbents with the classic <i><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/chapter/christensen.htm" target="_blank">Innovator's Dilemma</a></i>. Should they adopt these tools and standards, painfully cannibalizing their existing revenue for a new unproven concept, or should they stick with their currently lucrative model with the risk that eventually a bunch of upstarts eat their lunch? <br /><br />Credit should go to several of the web giants who have been making efforts to "open up." Google, Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon all have Open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) built into their data and systems. Any software developer can access and use them for whatever creative purposes they wish. This means that the API provider becomes an open platform for everyone to use and build on top of. This notion has expanded like wildfire throughout the blogosphere, so nowadays, Open APIs are pretty much required.<br /><br />Other incumbents also have open strategies. AOL has got the RSS religion, <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/entries/2005/07/27/aol_gets_rss_religion_with_my_aoland_feedsters_help.html" target="_blank">providing a feedreader and RSS search</a> in order to escape the "walled garden of content" stigma. <a href="http://www.apple.com/podcasting/" target="_blank">Apple now incorporates podcasts</a>, the "personal radio shows" that are latest rage in audio narrowcasting, into iTunes. Even Microsoft is supporting open standards, for example <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/plan/rtcprot.mspx#EKAA" target="_blank">by endorsing SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) for internet telephony and conferencing</a> over Skype's proprietary format or one of its own devising.<br /><br />But new open standards and protocols are in use, under construction, or being proposed every day, pushing the envelope of where we are right now. Many of these standards are coming from startup companies and small groups of developers, not from the giants. Together with the Open APIs, those new standards will contribute to a new, open infrastructure. Tens of thousands of developers will use and improve this open infrastructure to create new kinds of web-based applications and services, to offer web users a highly personalized online experience.<br /><br /><b>A Brief History of Openness</b><br /><br />At this point, I have to admit that I am not just a passive observer, full-time journalist or "just some blogger"Âbut an active evangelist and developer of these standards. It's the vision of "open infrastructure" that's driving <a href="http://www.broadbandmechanics.com/bbm2005.htm" target="_blank">my company </a> and the reason why I'm writing this article. This article will give you some of the background behind on these standards, and what the evolution of the next generation of open standards will look like.<br /><br />Starting back in the 1980s, establishing a software standard was a key strategy for any software company. My former company, MacroMind (which became Macromedia), achieved this goal early on with Director. As <a href="http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/99/27/index3a_page6.html?tw=multimedia" target="_blank">Director evolved into Flash</a>, the world saw that other companies besides Microsoft, Adobe, and Apple could establish true cross-platform, independent media standards.<br /><br />Then <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/" target="_blank">Tim Berners-Lee</a> and <a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/andreesen.html" target="_blank">Marc Andreessen</a> came along, and changed the rules of the software business and of entrepreneurialism. No matter how entrenched and "standardized" software was, the rug could still get pulled out from under it. <a href="http://geekphilosopher.com/MainPage/WebBrowserWars.htm?q=Stocks" target="_blank">Netscape did it to Microsoft, and then Microsoft did it <i>back</i> to Netscape</a>. The web evolved, and lots of standards evolved with it. The leading open source standards (such as the LAMP stack) became widely used alternatives to proprietary closed-source offerings. <br /><br />Open standards are more than just technology. Open standards mean sharing, empowering, and community support. Someone floats a new idea (or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme" target="_blank">meme</a>) and the community runs with it â with each person making their own contributions to the standard â evolving it without a moment's hesitation about "giving away their intellectual property."<br /><br />One good example of this was <a href="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/" target="_blank">Dave Sifry</a>, who built the Technorati blog-tracking technology inspired by the <a href="http://www.myelin.co.nz/ecosystem/" target="_blank">Blogging Ecosystem</a>, a weekend project by young hacker <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/archives/2005/07/phil_pearson_jo.html" target="_blank">Phil Pearson</a>. Dave liked what he saw and he ran with itÂturning Technorati into what it is today.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Winer" target="_blank">Dave Winer</a> has contributed enormously to this area of open standards. He defined and personally created several open standards and protocolsÂsuch as RSS, OPML, and XML-RPC. Dave has also <a href="http://newhome.weblogs.com/historyOfWeblogs" target="_blank">helped build</a> the blogosphere through his enthusiasm and passion.<br /><br />By 2003, hundreds of programmers were working on creating and establishing new standards for almost everything. The best of these new standards have evolved into compelling web services platforms â such as <a href="http://del.icio.us/" target="_blank">del.icio.us</a>, <a href="http://webjay.org/about" target="_blank">Webjay</a>, or <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/ao2005/" target="_blank">Flickr</a>. Some have even spun off formal standards â like XSPF (a standard for playlists) or instant messaging standard XMPP (also known as Jabber).<br /><br />Today's Open APIs are complemented by standardized SchemasÂthe structure of the data itself and its associated meta-data. Take for example a <a href="http://www.ipodder.org/whatIsPodcasting" target="_blank">podcasting feed</a>. It consists of: a) the radio show itself, b) information on who is on the show, what the show is about and how long the show is (the meta-data) and also c) API calls to retrieve a show (a single feed item) and play it from a specified server. <br /><br />The combination of Open APIs, standardized schemas for handling meta-data, and an industry which agrees on these standards are breaking the web wide open right now. So what new open standards should the web incumbentsÂand youÂbe watching? Keep an eye on the following developments:<br /><br /><b>Identity<br />Attention<br />Open Media<br />Microcontent Publishing<br />Open Social Networks<br />Tags<br />Pinging <br />Routing<br />Open Communications<br />Device Management and Control</b><br /><br /><br /><b>1. Identity</b><br /><br />Right now, you don't really control your own online identity. At the core of just about every online piece of software is a membership system. Some systems allow you to browse a site anonymouslyÂbut unless you register with the site you can't do things like search for an article, post a comment, buy something, or review it. The problem is that each and every site has its own membership system. So you constantly have to register with new systems, which cannot share dataÂeven you'd want them to. By establishing a <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68329-2,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1" target="_blank">"single sign-on" standard</a>, disparate sites can allow users to freely move from site to site, and let them control the movement of their personal profile data, as well as any other data they've created. <br /><br />With <a href="http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/01/03/stories/2005010301440200.htm" target="_blank">Passport, Microsoft unsuccessfully attempted</a> to force its proprietary standard on the industry. Instead, a world is evolving where most people assume that users want to control their own data, whether that data is their profile, their blog posts and photos, or some collection of their past interactions, purchases, and recommendations. As long as users can control their digital identity, any kind of service or interaction can be layered on top of it.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/" target="_blank">Identity 2.0</a> is all about users controlling their own profile data and becoming their own agents. This way the users themselves, rather than other intermediaries, will profit from their ID info. Once developers start offering single sign-on to their users, and users have trusted places to store their dataÂwhich respect the limits and provide access controls over that data, users will be able to access personalized services which will understand and use their personal data.<br /><br />Identity 2.0 may seem like some geeky, visionary future standard that isn't defined yet, but by putting each user's digital identity at the core of all their online experiences, Identity 2.0 is becoming the cornerstone of the new open web. <br /><br /><b>The Initiatives:</b><br />Right now, Identity 2.0 is under construction through various efforts from Microsoft (the <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/webservices/understanding/advancedwebservices/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnwebsrv/html/identitymetasystem.asp" target="_blank">"InfoCard" component built into the Vista operating system</a> and its "<a href="http://garage.docsearls.com/node/605" target="_blank">Identity Metasystem</a>"), <a href="http://sxip.com" target="_blank">Sxip Identity</a>, <a href="http://www.identtycommons.net" target="_blank">Identity Commons</a>, <a href="http://www.projectliberty.org/" target="_blank">Liberty Alliance</a>, <a href="http://lid.netmesh.org/" target="_blank">LID</a> (NetMesh's Lightweight ID), and SixApart's <a href="http://openid.net/" target="_blank">OpenID</a>.<br /><br /><b>More Movers and Shakers:</b><br />Identity Commons and <a href="http://www.identitywoman.net" target="_blank">Kaliya Hamlin</a>, Sxip Identity and <a href="http://blame.ca/dick/" target="_blank">Dick Hardt</a>, the <a href="http://www.identitygang.org/" target="_blank"> Identity Gang</a> and <a href="http://www.searls.com/dochome.html#Bio" target="_blank">Doc Searls</a>, Microsoft's <a href="http://www.identityblog.com/" target="_blank">Kim Cameron</a>, <a href="http://www.craigburton.com/" target="_blank">Craig Burton</a>, <a href="http://phil.windley.org/" target="_blank">Phil Windley</a>, and <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/05/2020221&from=rss" target="_blank">Brad Fitzpatrick</a>, to name a few.<br /><br /><br /><b>2. Attention</b><br /><br />How many readers know what their online attention is worth? If you don't, Google and Yahoo doÂthey make their living off our attention. They know what we're searching for, happily turn it into a keyword, and sell that keyword to advertisers. They make money off our attention. We don't. <br /><br />Technorati and friends proposed <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gillmor/index.php?p=74" target="_blank">an attention standard, Attention.xml</a>, designed to "help you keep track of what you've read, what you're spending time on, and what you should be paying attention to." <a href="http://attentiontrust.org/" target="_blank">AttentionTrust</a> is an effort by <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gillmor/?p=132" target="_blank">Steve Gillmor</a> and <a href="http://majestic.typepad.com/seth/2005/07/attentiontrusto.html" target="_blank">Seth Goldstein </a>to standardize on how captured end-user performance, browsing, and interest data are used. <br /><br />Blogger <a href="http://worcester.typepad.com/pc4media/2005/07/attentiontrusto_1.html" target="_blank">Peter Caputa gives a good summary</a> of AttentionTrust: <blockquote>"As we use the web, we reveal lots of information about ourselves by what we pay attention to. Imagine if all of that information could be stored in a nice neat little xml file. And when we travel around the web, we can optionally share it with websites or other people. We can make them pay for it, lease it ... we get to decide who has access to it, how long they have access to it, and what we want in return. And they have to tell us what they are going to do with our Attention data."</blockquote><br />So when you give your attention to sites that adhere to the AttentionTrust, your attention rights (<i>you own your attention, you can move your attention, you can pay attention and be paid for it</i>, and <i>you can see how your attention is used</i>) are guaranteed. Attention data is crucial to the future of the open web, and Steve and Seth are making sure that no one entity or oligopoly controls it. <br /><br /><b>Movers and Shakers:</b><br /><a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gillmor/" target="_blank">Steve Gillmor</a>, <a href="http://majestic.typepad.com/about.html" target="_blank">Seth Goldstein</a>, <a href="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/" target="_blank">Dave Sifry</a> and the <a href="http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/attentionxml" target="_blank">other Attention.xml folks</a>. <br /><br /><br /><b>3. Open Media</b><br /><br />Proprietary media standardsÂFlash, Windows Media, and QuickTime, to name a few Âhelped liven up the web. But they are proprietary standards that try to keep us locked in, and they weren't created from scratch to handle today's online content. That's why, for many of us, an Open Media standard has been a holy grail. Yahoo's new Media RSS standard brings us one step closer to achieving open media, as do <a href="http://www.vorbis.com/faq/#what" target="_blank">Ogg Vorbis</a> audio codecs, <a href="http://webjay.org/" target="_blank">XSPF playlists</a>, or <a href="http://musicbrainz.org/" target="_blank">MusicBrainz</a>. And several sites offer digital creators not only a place to store their content, but also to sell it. <br /><br /><a href="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss" target="_blank">Media RSS </a>(being developed by Yahoo with help from the community) extends RSS and combines it with "RSS enclosures" Âadds metadata to any media itemÂto create a comprehensive solution for media "narrowcasters." To gain acceptance for Media RSS, Yahoo knows it has to work with the community. As an active member of this community, I can tell you that we'll create Media RSS equivalents for <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/01/24/rdf.html" target="_blank">rdf</a> (an alternative subscription format) and <a href="http://www.atomenabled.org/" target="_blank">Atom</a> (yet <i>another</i> subscription format), so no one will be able to complain that Yahoo is picking sides in format wars.<br /><br />When Yahoo announced the purchase of Flickr, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang insinuated that Yahoo is acquiring "open DNA" to turn Yahoo into <a href="http://www.flickr.com/services/api/" target="_blank">an open standards player</a>. Yahoo is showing what happens when you take a multi-billion dollar company and make openness one of its core valuesÂso Google, beware, even if Google does have more research fellows and Ph.D.s. <br /><br />The open media landscape is far and wide, reaching from game machine hacks and mobile phone downloads to PC-driven bookmarklets, players, and editors, and it includes many other standardization efforts. <a href="http://www.xspf.org/" target="_blank">XSPF</a> is an open standard for playlists, and MusicBrainz is an alternative to the proprietary (and originally effectively stolen) database that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracenote" target="_blank">Gracenote</a> licenses. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.ourmedia.org/" target="_blank">Ourmedia.org</a> is a community front-end to Brewster Kahle's <a href="http://www.archive.org" target="_blank">Internet Archive</a>. Brewster has promised free bandwidth and free storage forever to any content creators who choose to share their content via the Internet Archive. Ourmedia.org is providing an easy-to-use interface and community to get content in and out of the Internet Archive, giving ourmedia.org users the ability to share their media anywhere they wish, without being locked into a particular service or tool. Ourmedia plans to offer open APIs and an open media registry that interconnects other open media repositories into a DNS-like registry (just like the www domain system), so folks can browse and discover open content across many open media services. Systems like <a href="http://www.brightcove.com/" target="_blank">Brightcove</a> and <a href="http://www.evhead.com/2005/02/how-odeo-happened.asp" target="_blank">Odeo</a> support the concept of an open registry, and hope to work with digital creators to sell their work to fulfill the financial aspect of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail" target="_blank">the "Long Tail."</a><br /><br /><b>More Movers and Shakers:</b><br /><a href="http://creativecommons.org/about/people" target="_blank">Creative Commons</a>, the <a href="http://www.omn.org/" target="_blank">Open Media Network</a>, <a href="http://www.momentshowing.net/about.html" target="_blank">Jay Dedman</a>, <a href="http://ryanedit.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Ryanne Hodson</a>, <a href="http://michaelverdi.com/index.php" target="_blank">Michael Verdi</a>, <a href="http://www.chapmanlogic.com/blog/aboutEli.html" target="_blank">Eli Chapman</a>, <a href="http://www.unmediated.org/" target="_blank">Kenyatta Cheese</a>, <a href="http://www.itconversations.com/about.html" target="_blank">Doug Kaye</a>, <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.09/yahoo.html" target="_blank">Brad Horowitz</a>, <a href="http://webjay.org/about#colophon" target="_blank">Lucas Gonze</a>, <a href="http://musicbrainz.org/wd/MusicBrainzBio" target="_blank">Robert Kaye</a>, <a href="http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/" target="_blank">Christopher Allen</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_Kahle" target="_blank">Brewster Kahle</a>, <a href="http://www.newmediamusings.com/" target="_blank">JD Lasica</a>, and indeed, <a href="http://www.corante.com/amateur/articles/20030211-3564.html" target="_blank">Marc Canter</a>, among others.<br /><br /><br /><b>4. Microcontent Publishing</b><br /><br />Unstructured content is cheap to create, but hard to search through. Structured content is expensive to create, but easy to search. <a href="http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/MicroFormats" target="_blank">Microformats</a> resolve the dilemma with simple structures that are cheap to use and easy to search.<br /><br />The first kind of widely adopted microcontent is blogging. Every post is an encapsulated idea, addressable via a URL called a permalink. You can syndicate or subscribe to this microcontent using RSS or an RSS equivalent, and news or blog aggregators can then display these feeds in a convenient readable fashion. But a blog post is just a block of unstructured textânot a bad thing, but just a first step for microcontent. When it comes to<i>structured</i> data, such as personal identity profiles, product reviews, or calendar-type event data, RSS was not designed to maintain the integrity of the structures. <br /><br />Right now, blogging doesn't have the underlying structure necessary for full-fledged microcontent publishing. But that will change. Think of local information services (such as movie listings, event guides, or restaurant reviews) that any college kid can access and use in her weekend programming project to create new services and tools.<br /><br />Today's blogging tools will evolve into microcontent publishing systems, and will help spread the notion of structured data across the blogosphere. New ways to store, represent and produce microcontent will create new standards, such as <a href="http://structuredblogging.org/" target="_blank">Structured Blogging</a> and <a href="http://microformats.org/" target="_blank">Microformats</a>. Microformats differ from RSS feeds in that you can't subscribe to them. Instead, Microformats are embedded into webpages and discovered by search engines like Google or Technorati. Microformats are creating common definitions for "What is a review or event? What are the specific fields in the data structure?" They can also specify what we can do with all this information.<a href="http://www.opml.org/spec" target="_blank">OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language)</a> is a hierarchical file format for storing microcontent and structured data. It was developed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Winer" target="_blank">Dave Winer</a> of RSS and podcast fame.<br /><br />Events are one popular type of microcontent. <a href="http://www.openevents.com" target="_blank">OpenEvents</a> is already working to create shared databases of standardized events, which would get used by a new generation of event portalsâsuch as <a href="http://eventful.com/gotevents/" target="_blank">Eventful/EVDB</a>, <a href="http://upcoming.org/" target="_blank">Upcoming.org</a>, and <a href="http://www.whizspark.com/" target="_blank">WhizSpark</a>. The idea of OpenEvents is that event-oriented systems and services can work together to establish shared events databases (and associated APIs) that any developer could then use to create and offer their own new service or application. <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/archives/2005/04/rvw_redux_openr.html" target="_blank">OpenReviews</a> is still in the conceptual stage, but it would make it possible to provide open alternatives to closed systems like Epinions, and establish a shared database of local and global reviews. Its shared open servers would be filled with all sorts of reviews for anyone to access. <br /><br />Why is this important? Because I predict that in the future, 10 times more people will be writing reviews than maintaining their own blog. The list of possible microcontent standards goes on: OpenJobpostings, OpenRecipes, and even OpenLists. Microsoft <a href="http://www.reallysimplesyndication.com/2005/06/22" target="_blank">recently revealed</a> that it has been working on an important new kind of microcontent: Listsâso OpenLists will attempt to establish standards for the <i>kind</i> of lists we all use, such as lists of Links, lists of To Do Items, lists of People, Wish Lists, etc.<br /><br /><b>Movers and Shakers:</b><br /><a href="http://tantek.com/log/2005/09.html" target="_blank">Tantek Ãelik</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Marks" target="_blank">Kevin Marks</a> of <a href="http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/MicroFormats" target="_blank">Technorati</a>, <a href="http://dannyayers.com/" target="_blank">Danny Ayers</a>, <a href="http://www.meyerweb.com/" target="_blank">Eric Meyer</a>, <a href="http://photomatt.net/" target="_blank">Matt Mullenweg</a>, <a href="http://zlab.commerce.net/" target="_blank">Rohit Khare</a>, <a href="http://ifindkarma.typepad.com/relax/" target="_blank">Adam Rifkin</a>, <a href="http://www.sivas.com/aleene/" target="_blank">Arnaud Leene</a>, <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0110772/" target="_blank">Seb Paquet</a>, <a href="http://hublog.hubmed.org/" target="_blank">Alf Eaton</a>, <a href="http://www.myelin.co.nz/post/" target="_blank">Phil Pearson</a>, <a href="http://www.joereger.com/" target="_blank">Joe Reger</a>, <a href="http://bobwyman.pubsub.com/" target="_blank">Bob Wyman</a> among others.<br /><br /><br /><b>5. Open Social Networks</b><br /><br />I'll never forget the first time I met <a href="http://www.jabrams.com/" target="_blank">Jonathan Abrams</a>, the founder of Friendster. He was arrogant and brash and he claimed he "<i>owned</i>" all his users, and that he was going to monetize them and make a fortune off them. This attitude robbed Friendster of its momentum, letting MySpace, Facebook, and other social networks take Friendster's place.<br /><br />Jonathan's notion of social networks as a way to control users is typical of the Web 1.0 business model and its attitude towards users in general. Social networks have become one of the battlegrounds between old and new ways of thinking. Open standards for Social Networking will define those sides very clearly. Since meeting Jonathan, I have been working towards finding and establishing open standards for social networks. Instead of closed, centralized social networks with 10 million people in them, the goal is making it possible to have 10 million social networks that each have 10 people in them.<br /><br />FOAF (which stands for Friend Of A Friend, and describes people and relationships in a way that computers can parse) is a schema to represent not only your personal profile's meta-data, but your social network as well. Thousands of researchers use the <a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/" target="_blank">FOAF schema</a> in their "Semantic Web" projects to connect people in all sorts of new ways. <a href="http://gmpg.org/xfn/" target="_blank">XFN</a> is a microformat standard for representing your social network, while <a href="http://www.imc.org/pdi/" target="_blank">vCard</a> (long familiar to users of contact manager programs like Outlook) is a microformat that contains your profile information. Microformats are baked into any xHTML webpage, which means that<i>any</i> blog, social network page, or any webpage in general can "contain" your social network in itÂand be used by<i>any</i> compatible tool, service or application. <br /><br />PeopleAggregator is an earlier project now being integrated into <a href="http://drupal.org/" target="_blank">open content management framework Drupal</a>. The <a href="http://www.broadbandmechanics.com/PeopleAggregator/" target="_blank">PeopleAggregator APIs</a> will make it possible to establish relationships, send messages, create or join groups, and post between different social networks. (Sneak preview: this technology will be available in the upcoming GoingOn Network.) <br /><br />All of these open social networking standards mean that inter-connected social networks will form a mesh that will parallel the blogosphere. This vibrant, distributed, decentralized world will be driven by open standards: personalized online experiences are what the new open web will be all aboutÂand what could be more personalized than people's networks?<br /><br /><b>Movers and Shakers:</b><br /><a href="http://esigler.2nw.net/" target="_blank">Eric Sigler</a>, <a href="http://lucifer.intercosmos.net/index.php?view=about" target="_blank">Joel De Gan</a>, <a href="http://crschmidt.net/" target="_blank">Chris Schmidt</a>, <a href="http://voidstar.com/" target="_blank">Julian Bond</a>, <a href="http://people.tribe.net/paul?_click_path=Application%5Btribe%5D.Person%5Bf2232c95-e123-43a3-b48d-24a5f11f09dc%5D&r=10535" target="_blank">Paul Martino</a>, <a href="http://napsterization.org/stories/archives/000513.html" target="_blank">Mary Hodder</a>, <a href="http://public.2idi.com/=Drummond.Reed" target="_blank">Drummond Reed</a>, <a href="http://danbri.org/" target="_blank">Dan Brickley</a>, <a href="http://360.yahoo.com/profile-9lciejI3aafX1stHPoIRNmkmv4EowQ--" target="_blank">Randy Farmer</a>, and <a href="http://www.kaliyasblogs.net/Iwoman/" target="_blank">Kaliya Hamlin</a>, to name a few.<br /><br /><br /><b>6. Tags</b><br /><br />Nowadays, no self-respecting tool or service can ship without <a href="http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2005/02/08/tagging/index_np.html" target="_blank">tags</a>. Tags are keywords or phrases attached to photos, blog posts, URLs, or even video clips. These user- and creator-generated tags are an open alternative to what used to be the domain of librarians and information scientists: categorizing information and content using taxonomies. Tags are instead creating <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/view.html?pg=4" target="_blank">"folksonomies."</a><br /><br />The recently proposed OpenTags concept would be an open, community-owned version of the popular <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/" target="_blank">Technorati Tags service</a>. It would aggregate the usage of tags across a wide range of services, sites, and content tools. In addition to Technorati's current tag features, OpenTags would let groups of people share their tags in "<a href="http://www.zeldman.com/daily/0405d.shtml/" target="_blank">TagClouds</a>." Open tagging is likely to include some of the open identity features discussed above, to create a tag system that is resilient to spam, and yet trustable across sites all over the web.<br /><br />OpenTags owes a debt to earlier versions of shared tagging systems, which include <a href="http://www.topicexchange.com/" target="_blank">Topic Exchange</a> and something called the <a href="http://www.evectors.com/itkcollector/" target="_blank">k-collector</a>Âa knowledge management tag aggregatorÂfrom Italian company eVectors. <br /><br /><b>Movers & Shakers:</b><br /><a href="http://www.myelin.co.nz/notes/" target="_blank">Phil Pearson</a>, <a href="http://matt.blogs.it/" target="_blank">Matt Mower </a>, <a href="http://paolo.evectors.it/" target="_blank">Paolo Valdemarin</a>, and <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/archives/2005/03/opentopics.html" target="_blank">Mary Hodder</a> and <a href="http://www.equalsdrummond.name/index.php?p=39" target="_blank"> Drummond Reed</a> again, among others.<br /><br /><br /><b>7. Pinging</b><br /><br />Websites used to be mostly static. Search engines that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler" target="_blank">crawled</a> (or "spidered") them every so often did a good enough job to show reasonably current versions of your cousin's homepage or even <i>Time</i> magazine's weekly headlines. But when blogging took off, it became hard for search engines to keep up. (Google has only <a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3548411" target="_blank">just managed</a> to offer <a href="http://www.google.com/help/about_blogsearch.html" target="_blank">blog-search functionality</a>, despite <a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=325_0_2_0_C" target="_blank">buying Blogger</a> back in early 2003.)<br /><br />To know what was new in the blogosphere, users couldn't depend on services that spidered webpages once in a while. The solution: a way for blogs themselves to automatically notify blog-tracking sites that they'd been updated. <a href="http://weblogs.com/" target="_blank">Weblogs.com</a> was the first blog "ping service": it displayed the name of a blog whenever that blog was updated. Pinging sites helped the blogosphere grow, and <a href="http://blo.gs/" target="_blank">more tools</a>, services, and portals started using pinging in new and different ways. Dozens of pinging services and sitesÂmost of which can't talk to each otherÂsprang up. <br /><br />Matt Mullenweg (the creator of open source blogging software WordPress) decided that a one-stop service for pinging was needed. He created <a href="http://pingomatic.com/" target="_blank">Ping-o-Matic</a>Âwhich aggregates ping services and simplifies the pinging process for bloggers and tool developers. With Ping-o-Matic, any developer can alert all of the industry's blogging tools and tracking sites at once. This new kind of open standard, with shared infrastructure, is a critical to the scalability of Web 2.0 services.<br /><br />As <a href="http://pingomatic.com/about/" target="_blank">Matt said</a>:<br /><blockquote>There are a number of services designed specifically for tracking and connecting blogs. However it would be expensive for all the services to crawl all the blogs in the world all the time. By sending a small ping to each service you let them know you've updated so they can come check you out. They get the freshest data possible, you don't get a thousand robots spidering your site all the time. Everybody wins.</blockquote><br /><b>Movers and Shakers:</b><br /><a href="http://photomatt.net/about/" target="_blank">Matt Mullenweg</a>, <a href="http://trainedmonkey.com/entry/2251" target="_blank">Jim Winstead</a>, <a href="http://newhome.weblogs.com/faq" target="_blank">Dave Winer</a><br /><br /><br /><b>8. Routing</b><br /><br />Bloggers used to have to manually enter the links and content snippets of blog posts or news items they wanted to blog. Today, some RSS aggregators can send a specified post directly into an associated blogging tool: as bloggers browse through the feeds they subscribe to, they can easily specify and send any post they wish to "<a href="http://www.microsoftmonitor.com/archives/010209.html" target="_blank">reblog</a>" from their news aggregator or feed reader into their blogging tool. (This is usually referred to as "<a href="http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=152&topic=17" target="_blank">BlogThis</a>.") As structured blogging comes into its own (see the section on Microcontent Publishing), it will be increasingly important to maintain the structural integrity of these pieces of microcontent when reblogging them. <br /><br />Promising standard <a href="http://redirectthis.com/" target="_blank">RedirectThis</a> will combine a "BlogThis"-like capability while maintaining the integrity of the microcontent. RedirectThis will let bloggers and content developers attach a simple "PostThis" button to their posts. Clicking on that button will send that post to the reader/blogger's favorite <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/000990.php" target="_blank">blogging tool</a>. This favorite tool is specified at the RedirectThis web service, where users register their blogging tool of choice. RedirectThis also helps maintain the integrity and structure of microcontentÂthen it's just up to the user to prefer a blogging tool that also attains that lofty goal of microcontent integrity. <br /><br />OutputThis is another nascent web services standard, to let bloggers specify what "destinations" they'd like to have as options in their blogging tool. As new destinations are added to the service, more checkboxes would get added to their blogging toolÂallowing them to route their published microcontent to additional destinations.<br /><br /><b>Movers and Shakers:</b><br /><a href="http://reblog.org/" target="_blank">Michael Migurski</a>, <a href="http://www.gonze.com/about" target="_blank">Lucas Gonze</a><br /><br /><br /><b>9. Open Communications</b><br /><br />Likely, you've experienced the joys of finding friends on AIM or Yahoo Messenger, or the convenience of Skyping with someone overseas. Not that you're about to throw away your mobile phone or BlackBerry, but for many, also having access to Instant Messaging (IM) and Voice over IP (VoIP) is crucial. <br /><br />IM and VoIP are mainstream technologies that already enjoy the benefits of open standards. Entire industries are bornÂright this secondÂbased around these open standards. <a href="http://www.jabber.org/" target="_blank">Jabber</a> has been an open IM technology for yearsÂin fact, <a href="http://www.xmpp.org/history.html" target="_blank">as XMPP</a>, it was officially dubbed a standard by <a href="http://www.ietf.org/overview.html" target="_blank">the IETF</a>. Although becoming an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IETF" target="_blank">official IETF standard</a> is usually the kiss of death, Jabber looks like it'll be around for a while, as entire generations of collaborative, work-group applications and services have been built on top of its messaging protocol. For VoIP, <a href="http://skype.com/helloagain.html" target="_blank">Skype</a> is clearly the leading standard todayÂthough one could <a href="http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000923058521/" target="_blank">argue just how "open" it is</a> (and defenders of the IETF's <a href="http://www.cs.columbia.edu/sip/" target="_blank">SIP standard</a> often do). But it is free and user-friendly, so there won't be much argument from <i>users</i> about it being insufficiently open. Yet there may be a cloud on Skype's horizon: web behemoth Google recently released a beta of <a href="http://www.google.com/talk/developer.html" target="_blank">Google Talk, an IM client committed to open standards</a>. It currently <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/08/google_talk_rel.html" target="_blank">supports XMPP, and will support SIP</a> for VoIP calls.<br /><br /><b>Movers and Shakers:</b><br /><a href="http://www.jabber.org/people/jer.shtml" target="_blank">Jeremie Miller</a>, <a href="http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/" target="_blank">Henning Schulzrinne</a>, <a href="http://www.von.com/schedule_eos11114704148.html" target="_blank">Jon Peterson</a>, <a href="http://www.pulver.com/jeff/" target="_blank">Jeff Pulver</a><br /><br /><br /><b>10. Device Management and Control</b><br /><br />To access online content, we're using more and more devices. BlackBerrys, iPods, Treos, you name it. As the web evolves, more and more different devices will have to communicate with each other to give us the content we want when and where we want it. No-one wants to be dependent on one vendor anymoreÂlike, <a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=P9409_0_6_0_C" target="_blank">say, Sony</a>Âfor their laptop, phone, MP3 player, PDA, and digital camera, so that it all works together. We need fully interoperable devices, and the standards to make that work. And to fully make use of how content is moving online content and innovative web services, those standards need to be open.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midi" target="_blank">MIDI (musical instrument digital interface)</a>, one of the very first open standards in music, connected disparate vendors' instruments, post-production equipment, and recording devices. But MIDI is limited, and <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8015" target="_blank">MIDI II has been very slow to arrive</a>. Now a new standard for controlling musical devices has emerged: <a href="http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/OpenSoundControl/" target="_blank">OSC (Open SoundControl)</a>. This protocol is optimized for modern networking technology and inter-connects music, video and controller devices with "other multimedia devices." OSC is used by a wide range of developers, and is being taken up in the mainstream MIDI marketplace.<br /><br />Another open-standards-based device management technology is <a href="http://www.zigbee.org" target="_blank">ZigBee</a>, for building wireless intelligence and network monitoring into all kinds of devices. ZigBee is supported by many networking, consumer electronics, and mobile device companies.<br /><br /><br />   · · · · · ·   <br /><br /><b>The Change to Openness</b><br /><br />The rise of open source software and its "<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/articles/architecture_of_participation.html" target="_blank">architecture of participation</a>" are completely shaking up the old proprietary-web-services-and-standards approach. Sun MicrosystemsÂwhose proprietary Java standard helped define the Web 1.0Âis opening its Solaris OS and has even announced the apparent paradox of an <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=418" target="_blank">open-source Digital Rights Management</a> system.<br /><br />Today's incumbents will have to adapt to the new openness of the Web 2.0. If they stick to their <a href="http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=131038" target="_blank">proprietary standards</a>, code, and content, they'll become the new walled gardensÂplaces users visit briefly to retrieve data and content from enclosed data silos, but not where users "live." The incumbents' revenue models will have to change. Instead of "owning" their users, users will know they own themselves, and will expect a return on their valuable identity and attention. Instead of being locked into incompatible media formats, users will expect easy access to digital content across many platforms. <br /><br />Yesterday's web giants and tomorrow's users will need to find a mutually beneficial new balanceÂbetween open and proprietary, developer and user, hierarchical and horizontal, owned and shared, and compatible and closed. <br /><br /><br /><i>Marc Canter is an active evangelist and developer of open standards. Early in his career, Marc founded MacroMind, which became Macromedia. These days, he is CEO of Broadband Mechanics, a founding member of the Identity Gang and of ourmedia.org. Broadband Mechanics is currently developing the <a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=11262_0_1_0_C" target="_blank">GoingOn Network</a> (with the AlwaysOn Network), as well as an open platform for social networking called the PeopleAggregator.</i><br /><br />A version of the above post appears in the Fall 2005 issue of AlwaysOn's quarterly print blogozine, and ran as <a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=12063_0_1_0_C" target="_blank">a four-part series</a> on the AlwaysOn Network website.</td></tr></table><br /><p>(Via <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/">Marc's Voice</a>.)</p></blockquote>
TechCrunch Top Web 2.0 VCs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-20#876
2005-10-20T03:50:55Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;"> By way of the upcoming <a href="http://wiki.techcrunch.com/third_meetup">TechCrunch âun-conferenceâ style demo-brainstorm-fest Wiki</a> I came across a blog post by <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/">Michael Arrington</a> titled: <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2005/10/19/top-five-web-20-venture-capitalists/">Top 5 Web 2.0 VCs</a>. Here is the entire list (Top 5, Notables, and Up and Coming) extracted from the post (see <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=linkblog">my linkblog page</a> to get some insight into the motivation behind this post): </span> </p><blockquote><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.bvp.com/about/bio.asp?id=7" id="7">David Cowan</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> is a partner at </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.bvp.com/">Bessemer Venture Partners</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> and writes a blog called </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://whohastimeforthis.blogspot.com/">Who Has Time For This</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">. Heâs on this list partially because he incubated the hottest and most anticipated company on the web right now, Flock. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.dfj.com/team/tim_bio.shtml">Tim Draper</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> invested in Skype. Done. He also sits on the board of SocialText, and his fund was in Baidu. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.augustcap.com/team/dh.shtml">David Hornik</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> is is a General Partner at August Capital and writes a </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.ventureblog.com/">blog</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> that has over 10,000 RSS readers. <br />Josh Kopelman, through </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.firstroundcapital.com/">FirstRoundCapital</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">, is quietly filtering through just about every young web 2.0 company, and investing in many of them. <br /><br />Fred Wilson is a founding partner of </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.unionsquareventures.com/">Union Square Ventures</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> and writes the extremely popular </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/">A VC</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">. If you are new to web 2.0, start with his </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2005/02/blogging_10.html">Blogging 1.0</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> post. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://softtechvc.blogs.com">Jeff Clavier</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://softtechvc.blogs.com/about.html">Jeff</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> is a former VC and still makes the odd angel investment (Feedster, Truveo, and a few others). His </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.softtechvc.com/">new venture</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> allows him to work with pre-funding companies and get them ready for prime time. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.feld.com/blog/">Brad Feld</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - Brad is a managing director at </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.mobiusvc.com/index.php">Mobius Venture Capital</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> and writes a must-read web 2.0 blog called Feld Thoughts. Read his </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/term_sheet/index.html">posts on Term Sheets</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> if you are in the process of raising capital. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.oatv.com/">OâReilly AlphaTech Ventures</a></span><span style="font-size:9pt;"></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - This is the only non-person on here. </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.oatv.com/">OATV</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> just closed a $50 million fund to invest in young companies. Given the incredible access Tim OâReilly has to these companies, OATV could quickly become an important fund in the web 2.0 space. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://pierre.typepad.com/">Pierre Omidyar</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://pierre.typepad.com/">Pierre</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> founded ebay and is the Co-founder of </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.omidyar.net/index.html">Omidyar Network</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">, where heâs invested in a number of interesting companies including EVDB, SocialText and Feedster, and others. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://earlystagevc.typepad.com/">Peter Rip</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - Peter is a founding partner of </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.leapfrogventures.com/">Leapfrog Ventures</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">, a $100 million fund. Peter also writes </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://earlystagevc.typepad.com/">Early Stage VC</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">, another must-read blog. His investments include ojos, an incredible new photo-metadata service that is going to be extremely disruptive (and useful). <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.thefoundersfund.com/index.html">Peter Thiel</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - Peter, the former CEO of paypal, has invested in LinkedIn, Friendster, LinkedIn and other web 2.0 companies. Heâs just created the </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.thefoundersfund.com/index.html">Founders Fund</a></span><span style="font-size:9pt;">. <br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#51796f;font-size:9pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.austinventures.com/team/teammember.asp?id=81" id="81">Thomas Ball</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.austinventures.com/team/teammember.asp?id=81" id="81">Tom</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> is a Venture Partner at Austin Ventures, a fund with $3 billion under management. Heâs their consumer and web 2.0 guy and seems to be spending a lot of time in Silicon Valley and at web 2.0 event. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.venrock.com/bio_deg.html">Dan Grossman</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.venrock.com/bio_deg.html">Dan</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> is a principal at Venrock Associates and has recently started a great blog called </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.aventureforth.com/">A Venture Forth</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> (where he wrote a much bookmarked post on </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.aventureforth.com/2005/09/06/top-10-ajax-applications/">Ajax</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">). <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.shastaventures.com/pressman.htm">Jason Pressman</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.shastaventures.com/pressman.htm">Jason</a></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> is a principal at Shasta Ventures, a young $200 million fund that has a deep commitment to and expertise in consumer-focused businesses. <br /></span></blockquote>
Web 2.0: Conversation with Vinod Khosla
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-08#874
2005-10-08T16:19:44Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>Courtesy of the <a href="http://blog.softtechvc.com/">Software Only</a> blog, here is an interesting <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/?id=645">interview with Vinod Khosla</a>, an industry veteran who always makes sense (since he fundamentally understands the big picture, IMHO):</p> <blockquote><p><a href="http://blog.softtechvc.com/2005/10/web_20_conversa.html">Web 2.0: Conversation with Vinod Khosla</a>: </p><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img height="158" alt="Vinod Khosla" hspace="2" src="http://blog.softtechvc.com/VinodKhosla_small.jpg" width="160" align="right" vspace="2" border="0" />Vinod started by explaining that, contrary to the rumor, he is not starting a fund, he is just investing his own capital - hiring a few people to help with this. He was a General Partner in all Kleiner funds he was involved in, but decided to forego his GP position in KPCB XI (which means that he is less involved in the fund, and the firm).</p><p>He sees opportunities in peer-to-peer infrastructure: communication, media distribution and mangling (as in being on the computer and imâing whilst watching TV - something I do all the time), etc. He also states that personalization has not yet started to deliver on its promises on the web.</p><p>Vinod states that there is still too much capital in the coffins of the VCs, even if a lot of the overhang (âleftoversâ from the capital raised by the bubble funds) has been largely used up. This makes raising money âtoo easyâ, and cautions startups being funded nowadays that they should not take this as a sign of future success (neither on their capacity to execute nor raise further funds), and that management teams should spend frugally by trying things at small scale and get market response.</p><p>On the subject of search, he recalls Exciteâs rebuttal of Vinodâs suggestion of buying Googleâs technology for $1M (very very early on) because Excite guys thought they could do so much better. Lesson: be open to otherâs capabilities to disrupt your turf - even when you are successful (actually, especially when you are successful because you might become complacent).</p><p>The discussion moves to the topic of trust in the blogosphere, put in the perspective of MSM and reporting on disasters, like Katrina and London bombings. Vinod argues that he will trust more aggregated reports from hundreds of bloggers rather than CNN, even if there is no blog trust/reputation infrastructure (I would argue that linking behavior is an OK proxy for now - Scoble would say that this is what we get with <a href="http://tech.memeorandum.com/">Memeorandum</a>).</p> <p>I don't think so re. Memeorandum (as I stated earlier, his is a genuine big picture thinker and thought leader, Memeorandum is a step in the right direction, but in no way the final destination envisaged).</p><blockquote><p>On the mobile revolution, he sees an increased usage, way beyond ringtones and wallpapers, into communication and new types of interactions. An example he gives is using cell phones to help people improve their english (a real challenge for Chinese, Indian⦠and French people :-). Just in Shanghai, there are over 5M customers/users of such a product.</p><p>Moving to education, Vinod states that kids now need to learn about sifting through thousands and thousands of search engine results on any topic they might research, and critically assessing which source to trust or not. He would use new communcation mechanisms to offer remote tutoring, and would open source textbooks in a wikipedia model - which would save billions of dollars every year in California that could be reinvested into more critical projects.</p><p>Staying with open source, he gives the example of patented seeds that could benefit greatly to developing country and their ability to engineer seeds matching their particular requirements and environment. This is not feasilble today because of patent protection.</p><p>On improving on Googleâs relevance (question from Michael Yang from Become.com), Vinod sees value in collaborative filtering, and diverse applications of information retrieval and extraction.</p><p>(Via <a href="http://blog.softtechvc.com/">Software Only</a>.)</p></blockquote></div></blockquote>
Web 2.0 Conference Notes: Mary Meeker
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-06#873
2005-10-06T21:33:17Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/meeker_internet_trends100605.pdf">Mary Meeker's Web 2.0 Presentation</a>. <blockquote><p>Key data points: </p> <ul> <li>Market cap of big 5: $2B (2000 pre-IPO), $178B (2000 peak), $32B (2002 trough) $261B (2005)</li> <li>27% of US Internet users read blogs</li> <li>54MM registered Skype users (9/05) - fastest product ramp ever?</li> <li>China - More Internet users < age of 30 than anywhere</li> <li>S. Korea Broadband penetration of 70%+ - No. 1 in world</li> <li>Mobile is most important direction now</li> </ul> <p>Conclusion: first ten years (1995-2005) of commercial Internet were a warm up act for what is about to happen</p> " <p>(Via <a href="http://silkworm.talis.com/blog/">Silkworm Blog</a>.)</p></blockquote>
Post-Processed Web 2.0 Report
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-06#872
2005-10-06T20:21:50Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>If you've read Dare's recent post titled: "Mash-ups 2.0 - Where's the Business Model?", you will notice that it's filled with juicy Web 2.0 currency (URIs). Thus, rapid extraction of the embedded URIs becomes essential (I want see those mash-ups ASAP..) </p><p> Here is what my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> based blog system enables me to do with ease:</p><ul> 1. Grep all the URIs from Dare's "Mash-ups 2.0 - Where's the Business Model?" post via its <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=linkblog">linkblog</a>. </ul><ul> 2. Use Dare's Trip report to track broader Web 2.0 conversation across the blogosphere via its <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=summary">Summary Page</a>.</ul> In all cases relating to items 1&2, ensure that the content is syndicated in a range of formats (including the often forgotten XBEL which is a short-cut for building up your bookmarks database).
Web 2.0 Conference Trip Report: Mash-ups 2.0 - Where#39s the Business Model?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-06#871
2005-10-06T18:43:31Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>Great report from Dare as usual :-) Beyond the obvious value of the post (information wise), I am also using the post placement here as a simple demonstration of what Blogs can offer (if driven or built atop a Web 2.0+ platform like<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso"> Virtuoso</a>). See the post that follows...</p><blockquote><p><a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=fe52dada-78e0-4508-80c2-8764d9668651">Web 2.0 Conference Trip Report: Mash-ups 2.0 - Where's the Business Model?</a>: "</p><p> I attended the panel on business models for mash-ups hosted by <a href="http://www.web2con.com/cs/web2005/view/e_spkr/2453">Dave McClure</a>,<br /><a href="http://www.web2con.com/cs/web2005/view/e_spkr/1637">Jeffrey McManus</a>, <a href="http://www.web2con.com/cs/web2005/view/e_spkr/2277">Paul Rademacher</a>, and <a href="http://www.web2con.com/cs/web2005/view/e_spkr/1518">Adam Trachtenberg</a>. </p><p> A mash up used to mean remixing two songs into something new and cool but now the term has been hijacked by geeks to means mixing two or more web-based data sources and/or services. </p><p> Paul Rademacher is the author of the <a href="http://www.housingmaps.com/">Housing Maps mash-up</a> which he used as a way to find a house using Craig'sList + Google Maps. The data obtained from Craig's List is fetched via screen scraping. Although Craig's List has RSS feeds, they didn't meet his needs. Paul also talked about some of the issues he had with building the site such as the fact that since most browsers block cross-site scripting using XMLHttpRequest then a server needs to be set up to aggregate the data instead of all the code running in the browser. The site has been very popular and has garnered over 900,000 unique visitors based solely on word-of-mouth. </p><p> The question was asked as to why he didn't make this a business but instead took a job at Google. He listed a number of very good reasons </p><ol><li> He did not own the data that was powering the application.</li><li> The barrier to entry for such an application was low since there was no unique intellectual property or user interface design to his application </li></ol><p> I asked whether he'd gotten any angry letters from the legal department at Craig's List and he said they seem to be tolerating him because he drives traffic to their site and caches a bunch of data on his servers so as not to hit their servers with a lot of traffic. </p><p> A related mash-up site which scrapes real estate websites called <a href="http://www.trulia.com/">Trulia</a> was then demoed. A member of the audience asked whether Paul thought the complexity of mash-ups using more than two data sources and/or services increased in a linear or exponential fashion. Paul said he felt it increased in a linear fashion. This segued into a demo of <a href="http://www.simplyhired.com/">SimplyHired</a> with integrates with a number of sites including <a href="http://www.payscale.com/">PayScale</a>, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/">LinkedIn</a>, Job databases, etc. </p><p> At this point I asked whether they would have service providers giving their perspective on making money from mash-ups since they are the gating factor because they own the data and/or services mash-ups are built on. The reply was that the eBay & Yahoo folks would give their perspective later. </p><p> Then we get a demo of a <a href="http://www.trachtenberg.com/emgm/">Google Maps & eBay Motors mash-up</a>. Unlike the <a href="http://www.housingmaps.com/">Housing Maps mash-up</a>, all the data is queried live instead of cached on the server. eBay has dozens of APis that encourage people to build against their platform and they have an affiliates program so people can make money from building on their API. We also got showed <a href="http://www.unwiredbuyer.com/">Unwired Buyer</a> which is a site that enables you to bid on eBay using your cell phone and even calls you just before an auction is about to close. Adam Trachtenberg pointed out that since there is a <a href="http://share.skype.com/sdp">Skype API</a> perhaps some enterprising soul could mash-up eBay & Skype. </p><p> Jeffrey McManus of Yahoo! pointed out that you don't even need coding skills to build a Yahoo! Maps mash-up since all it takes is specifying your RSS feed with longitude and latitude elements on each item to have it embedded in the map. I asked why unlike Google Maps and MSN Virtual Earth, Yahoo! Maps doesn't allow users to host the maps on their page nor does there seem to be an avenue for revenue sharing with mash-up authors via syndicated advertising. The response I got was that they polled various developers and there wasn't significant interest in embedding the maps on developer's sites especially when this would require paying for hosting. </p><p> We then got showed a number mapping mashups including a mashup of the <a href="http://geepster.com/london.php">London bombings which used Google Maps, Flickr & RSS feeds of news</a> (the presenter had the poor taste to point out opportunities to place ads on the site), a mashup from alkemis which <a href="http://www.alkemis.com/default.php?pID=laboratory&pID2=googleMapA">mashes Google Maps, A9.com street level photos and traffic cams</a>, and a mash-up from Analygis which <a href="http://www.analygis.com/products/google_api.htm">integrates census data with Google Maps data</a>. </p><p> The following items were then listed as the critical components of mash-ups<br />  - AJAX (Jeffrey McManus said it isn't key but a few of the guys on the panel felt that at least dynamic UIs are better) <br />  - APIs<br />  - Advertising<br />  - Payment<br />  - Identity/Acct mgmt<br />  - Mapping Services<br />  - Content Hosting<br />  - Other? </p><p> On the topic of identity and account management, the problem of how mash-ups handle user passwords came up as a problem. If a website is password protected then user's often have to enter their usernames and passwords into third party sites. An example of this was the fact that PayPal used to store lots of username/password information of eBay users which caused the company some consternation since eBay went through a lot of trouble to protect their sensitive data only to have a lot of it being stored on Paypal servers. </p><p> eBay's current solution is similar to that used by <a href="http://www.passport.net">Microsoft Passport</a> in that applications are expected to have user's login via the eBay website then the user is redirected to the originating website with a ticket indicating they have been authenticated. I pointed out that although this works fine for websites, it offers no solution for people trying to build desktop applications that are not browser based. The response I got indicated that eBay hasn't solved this problem. </p><p> My main comment about this panel is that it didn't meet expectations. I'd expected to hear a discussion about turning mashups [and maybe the web platforms they are built on] into money making businesses. What I got was a show-and-tell of various mapping mashups. Disappointing. </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>.)</p></blockquote>
The Web 2.0 Litmus Test
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-04#870
2005-10-04T19:52:58Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
I have just read <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=e481327e-5e8b-4b93-982e-db206222a2cf">Dare Obasanjo's recent contribution to the Web 2.0 clarification effort</a>. His post-processing of the <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html?page=1">Web 2.0 treatise by Tim O'Reilly</a> certainly got me thinking about the thorny issue of attempting to define Web 2.0. As most already know, the subject of Web 2.0 definition has been contentious from the onset (unfortunately for the wrong reasons: hype over substance): <cite><blockquote>just take a look at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Web_2.0">oxymoronic Wikipedia 2.0 imbroglio</a> to get my drift. In retrospect, I should have called on <a href="http://news.com.com/Esquire+wikis+article+on+Wikipedia/2100-1038_3-5885171.html">Esquire magazine</a> to get the Web 2.0 article going :-) ).</blockquote></cite> Anyway, back to Dare's analysis of Tim's 7 Web 2.0 litmus test items listed below: <blockquote><cite><ul><li> Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability </li><li> Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them </li><li> Trusting users as co-developers </li><li> Harnessing collective intelligence </li><li> Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service </li><li> Software above the level of a single device </li><li> Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models </li></ul></cite></blockquote> And trimmed down to 3 by Dare: <blockquote><cite><ul dir="ltr"><li><div>Exposes Web services that can be accessed on any device or platform by any developer or user. RSS feeds, RESTful APIs and SOAP APIs are all examples of Web services. </div></li><li><div>Harnesses the collective knowledge of its user base to benefit users </div></li><li><div>Leverages the long tail through customer self-service </div></li></ul></cite></blockquote> Well, I would like to summarize this a little further using a few excerpts from my numerous contributions to the Web 2.0 talk page on Wikipedia (albeit mildly revised; see strikeouts etc.): <blockquote><cite>Web 2.0 is a web of <strike>executable</strike> service invocation endpoints (those Web Services URIs) and well-formed content (all of that RSS, Atom, RDF, XHTML, etc. based Web Content out on the NET). The <strike>executable</strike> service invocation endpoints and well-formed content are accessible via URIs. <p>Put in even simpler terms, Web 2.0 is an incarnation of the web defined by URIs for invoking Web Services and/or consuming or syndicating well-formed content.</p></cite><p>Looks like I've self edited my own definition in the process. :-)</p></blockquote><p>If you don't grok this definition then consider using it as a trigger for taking a closer look at the dynamics that genuinely differentiate Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.</p> In another Wikipedia "talk page" contribution (regarding "Web 2.0 Business Impact") I attempt to answer the question posed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Web_2.0#Business_Impact">here</a>, which should also shed light on the premise of my definition above: <blockquote><cite><p>Web 1.0 was about web sites geared towards an interaction with human beings as opposed to computers. In a sense this mirrors the difference between HTML and XML.</p><p>A simple example (purchasing a book):</p><p>amazon.com provides value to you by enabling you to search and purchase the desired book online via the site http://www.amazon.com.</p><p>In the Web 1.0 era the process of searching for your desired book, and then eventually purchasing the book in question, required visible interaction with the site http://www.amazon.com. In today's Web 2.0 based Web the process of discovering a catalog of books, searching for your particular book of interest, and eventually purchasing the book, occurs via Web Services which amazon has chosen to expose via an executable endpoint (<i>the Web point of presence for exposing its Web Services</i>).</p><p>Direct interaction via http://www.amazon.com is no longer required. A weblog can quite easily associate keywords, tags, and post categories with items in amazon.com's catalogs. In addition, weblogs can also act as entry points for consuming the amazon.com value proposition (making books available for purchase online), by enabling you to purchase a book directly from the weblog (assuming the blog owner is an amazon associate etc..). Now compare the impact of this kind of value discovery and consumption cycle driven by software to the same process driven by humans interaction with a static or dynamic HTML page (Web 1.0 site). </p></cite></blockquote><p>To surmise, Web 2.0 is a reflection of the potential of XML expressed through the collective impact of Web Services (XML based distributed computing) and Well-formed Content (Blogosphere, Wikisphere, XHTML micro content etc.). The potential simply comes down to the ability to ultimately connect events, triggers, impulses (chatter, conversation, etc.), and data in general via URIs.</p><p>Let's never forget that XML is the reason why we have a blogosphere (RSS/Atom/RDF are applications of XML). Likewise, XML is also the reason why we have Web Services (doesn't matter what format).</p><p>As I have stated in the past, we must go by Web 2.0 en route what is popularly referred to as the Semantic Web (it will be known by another name by the time we get there; 3.0 or 4.0, who knows or cares?). At the current time, the prerequisite activity of self annotation is in full swing on the current Web, thanks to the inflective effects of Web 2.0.</p><p>BTW - Would this <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=semantic%20web&type=text&output=html">URI</a> to <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=semantic%20web&type=text&output=html">all Semantic Web related posts on my blog</a> pass the Web 2.0 litmus test? Likewise, this <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%202.0&type=text&output=html">URI</a> to all <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%202.0&type=text&output=html">Web 2.0 related posts</a>? I wonder :-)</p>
Web 2.0 Meme Map
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-09-23#869
2005-09-23T04:01:26Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/002834.php">Web 2.0 Meme Map</a>: "</p><p>Tim O'Reilly has posted <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/36521959321@N01/44349798">a meme map of Web 2.0</a>, from the 'What is Web 2.0?' brainstorming session at FOO Camp 2005. Hat-tip <a href="http://www.bokardo.com/">Josh</a> for the link. It's kind of a business model map:</p><p><img src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/web20mememap.jpg" alt="Web 2.0 Meme Map" width="450" height="338" /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/36521959321@N01/44349798">Click here for full image</a></p><p>The orange box in the middle and brown ovals at the bottom cover some the themes I'll be writing about in the next chapter of Josh and I's book. The chapter is tentatively titled 'Building a Web 2.0 Business' and will explore the principles of Web 2.0 business. e.g. 'Services, not packaged app'.</p><p>I've just finished my first chapter, which was a general introduction to the 'Web as Platform' concept. So this will be an interesting follow-on from that.</p><p>Alex Barnett has done a nice <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2005/09/21/472405.aspx">'Microsoft mash-up'</a>, inserting links.</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/">Read/Write Web</a>.)</p>
A Webpage is Not An API or a Platform (The Populicio.us Remix)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-09-16#867
2005-09-16T17:47:38Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<blockquote><p><a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=9e1811b8-f4f9-4407-aff7-92b3cd170f73">A Webpage is Not An API or a Platform (The Populicio.us Remix)</a>: "</p><p> A few months ago in my post <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=87ad1fa6-08a9-491f-90c3-c77b22002c0c">GMail Domain Change Exposes Bad Design and Poor Code</a>, I wrote <em>Repeat after me, a web page is not an API or a platform</em>. It seems some people are still learning this lesson the hard way. In the post <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/002829.php">The danger of running a remix service</a> Richard MacManus writes </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://populicio.us/">Populicio.us</a> was a service that used data from social bookmarking site <a href="http://del.icio.us/">del.icio.us</a>, to create a site with enhanced statistics and a better variety of 'popular' links. However the Populicio.us service has just been taken off air, because its developer can no longer get the required information from del.icio.us. <a href="http://populicio.us/">The developer of Populicio.us wrote</a>: </p> <p> 'Del.icio.us doesn't serve its homepage as it did and I'm not able to get all needed data to continue Populicio.us. Right now Del.icio.us doesn't show all the bookmarked links in the homepage so there is no way I can generate real statistics.' </p> <p> This plainly illustrates the danger for remix or mash-up service providers who rely on third party sites for their data. del.icio.us can not only giveth, it can taketh away. </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> It seems Richard Macmanus has missed the point. The issue isn't depending on a third party site for data. The problem is depending on screen scraping their HTML webpage. An API is a service contract which is unlikely to be broken without warning. A web page can change depending on the whims of the web master or graphic designer behind the site. </p> <p dir="ltr"> Versioning APIs is hard enough, let alone trying to figure out how to version an HTML website so screen scrapers are not broken. Web 2.0 isn't about screenscraping. Turning the Web into an online platform isn't about legitimizing bad practices from the early days of the Web. Screen scraping needs to die a horrible death. Web APIs and Web feeds are the way of the future. </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>.)</p></blockquote> Amen!
Web 2.0 API Reference
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-09-14#865
2005-09-14T16:59:04Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>The <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com">Web 2.0 API reference site</a> is a great collection of <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/apis">Web 2.0 "Points of Presence" / endpoints and their published APIs</a>. I see this site evolving very quickly, especially as its starts to receive URIs for <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/examples">samples</a> and <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/mashups">mash-ups</a>. </p> <p>This site could provide a great exposure point for some very old Web 2.0 (nee "Web Services") demos from our <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/tutorial/services/index.vsp">Virtuoso tutorials / demos site</a>.</p>
Regurgitating an old rant (Encoding, XForms, and SOAP/XML-RPC)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-08-24#862
2005-08-24T07:56:52Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/2005/08/19#BinaryEncodingAndXMLRPCs">Regurgitating an old rant (Encoding, XForms, and SOAP/XML-RPC)</a>: " </p><p><!--keywords: xforms,soap,rest,webservices,encoding --></p> <p>I ran into two work-related problems today that left me feeling like there are some aspects of two very recent (Web 2.0-esque if we wish to join the buzzword orgy of late) architectures (REST/Services and XForms) that are problematic:</p> <h3>Demonstrating an Achilles Heel Of XML Messaging</h3> <p>XML as a medium for remote communication (evangelized more with WSDL-related architectures than in <a href="http://www.xfront.com/REST.html">REST</a>) has over-stated its usefullness in at least one concrete regard, in my estimation. I've had a hard time taking most of the architectural arguments on the pros/cons of SOAP/XML-RPC versus REST seriously because it seems to be nothing more than buzzword <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/dareobasanjo/archive/2005/03/22/400372.aspx">warfare</a>. However, I recently came across a concrete, real world example of the pitfalls of implementing certain remote service needs on XML-based communication mediums (such as SOAP/XML-RPC).</p> <p>If the objects/resources you wish to manipulate at the service endpoints are run of the mill (consider the standard cliche purchase order example(s)) then the benefits of communicating in XML is obvious: portability, machine readability, extensibility, etc.. However consider the scenario (which I face) in which the objects/resources you wish to manipulate are XML documents themselves! This scenario seems to work to the disadvantage of the communication architecture.</p> <p>Lets say you have a repository at one end (which I do) that has XML documents you wish to manipulate remotely. How do you update the documents? I've discussed this <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/2005-05-02/xdashboard">before</a> (see: <em>Base64 encoded XML content from an XForm</em>) so I'll spare the details of the problem. However, I will mention that in retrospect this particular problem further emphasizes the advantage of a MinimalistRemoteProcedureCall (MRPC) approach - MRPC is my alternative acronym for REST :).</p> <p>Consider the setContent message:</p> <pre><code>[SOAP:Envelope] [SOAP:Body] [foo:setContent] [path] .. path to document [/path] [src]... new document as a fragment ...[/src] [/foo:setContent] [/SOAP:Body] [/SOAP:Envelope] </code></pre> <p>Notice that the location of the resource we wish to update is embedded within the message transmitted (via SOAP), which is transported on top of another communication medium (HTTP) that already has the neccessary semantics for saying the same thing:</p> <blockquote> <p>Set the content of the resource identified by a path</p> </blockquote> <p>In the SOAP scenario, the above message is delivered to a single service endpoint (which serves as an external gateway for <em>all</em> SOAP messages) which has to then parse the <em>entire</em> XML message in order to determine the method invoked (setContent in this case) and the parameters passed to it (both of which are only header information on a document that consists mostly of the new document).</p> <p>However, in the MRPC scenario this service would be invoked simply as an HTTP PUT <a href="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/HTTP/Request.html">request</a> sent <em>directly</em> to the XML document we wish to update:</p> <pre><code>Method: PUT Protocol: HTTP/1.0 URI: http://remoteHost:port/< .. path to XML document ..> CONTENT: ... new document in it's entirety .. </code></pre> <p>Here, there is no need for a service middleman to interpret the service requested (and no need to parse a large XML document that contains another document embedded as a fragment). The HTTP request by itself specifies everything we need and does it using HTTP alone as the communication medium. This is even more advantageous when the endpoint is a repository that has a very well defined URI scheme or general addressing mechanism for it's resources (which 4Suite <a href="http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/akara/nodes/2003-10-03/ftss">does</a>, the repository in my case).</p> <h3>The Headaches of Base 64 Encoding in XForms</h3> <p>Since i didn't have the option of a REST-based service architecture (the preferred solution) I was relegated to having to base64 encode the new XML content and embed it within the XML message submitted to the service endpoint, like so:</p> <pre><code>[SOAP:Envelope] [SOAP:Body] [foo:setContent] [path] .. path to document [/path] [src]... base64 encoding of new document's serialization ...[/src] [/foo:setContent] [/SOAP:Body] [/SOAP:Envelope] </code></pre> <p>Base 64 seemed like the obvious encoding mechanism mostly because it would seem from an interpretation of the XForms <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xforms/slice8.html#ui-upload">specification</a> that due to the data binding restrictions of the Upload Control when bound to instances of type xsd:base64Binary a conforming XForms processor is responsible for having the capability to encode to Base 64 <em>on the fly</em>. Now, this is fine and dandy if the XML content you wish to submit is retrieved from a file on the local file system of the client communicating remotely with the server. However, what if you wish to use an instance (a live DOM) as the source for the update? This seems like a very reasonable requirement given that one of the primary motivation of XForms is to encourage the use of XML instances as the user interface data model (providing a complete solution to the 'M' in the MVC architecture.)</p> <p>However:</p> <ul> <li>There is no mechanism within XForms for serialising live instances (there needs to be such a standard so implementations don't create their own proprietary mechanisms)</li> <li>There is no mechanism within XForms for explicitely encoding text in some portable binary format (which is incredibly useful IMHO - as shown above)</li> </ul> " <p>(Via <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/">Uche Ogbuji</a>.)</p>
End of Line for Microsoft?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-07-26#856
2005-07-26T22:15:51Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1840479,00.asp">John C. Dvorak pens an interesting piece about the "deafening silence" accorded Windows Vista</a> thus far. <br /> </p><p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/?id=793">In the past I have expressed views that echo the essence</a> of John's piece. It has been pretty darn clear to me that Microsoft is struggling as a result of its inability to handle challenges associated with the metaphoric "computing vase" which it sought to own solely as a result of its proclivity for crushing and/or alienating erstwhile technology partners as part of this quest (a process that commenced a long time ago culminating the <a href="http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_No_IE7_for_Windows_2000/1117464807">contradiction and ultimate paradox called IE7</a>; remember not too long ago it was impossible to separate IE from Windows! It could only exist as an OS extension etc.).</p> <p>Windows in its current incarnation fails to provide a productive working environment, you either have a plethora of viruses and spyware contending for you computing resources, or you have all the software in place to protect against these assaults rendering the computing resources equally busy. The computing power lag is simply too much when using windows, and this is its achilles heel! </p> <p> I have been using Windows since version 2.0, and although I have always found the Mac OS variations to be superior on the UI front, I never found any of the historic versions viable alternatives. In my case, this is all about providing a productive work environment across the following usage modes, in descending order of priority:</p> <blockquote>1. Power User (OutLook, Excel, WORD, and other desktop productivity tools)<br /> 2. Product Testing and QA<br /> 3. Programmer Buddy (a Microsoft term)<br /> 4. Programming (for the most part prototyping)<br /> </blockquote> <p>The release of Mac OS X Tiger lead me down an evaluation path that I have repeated many times in the past: test the viability of moving wholesale from Windows to Mac OS X and remain functional (if really lucky, exceed existing productivity levels). This time around I found that I could actually migrate over 6 years worth of emails, contacts, presentations, documents, spreadsheets from Windows to Mac OS X. I also discovered that success extended all the way to my data linked documents that are transparently bound to back-end databases (in my case the norm rather the exception via ODBC). </p> <p>I now use Mac OS X as my prime working platform (I still have to use Windows as the platform remains strategic for all our product offerings), and I am absolutely loving it! The joint feelings of euphoria and confusion that I experienced post migration were similar to how I felt after making the transition from "stick shift" to "automatic" geared cars (as I transitioned my residence from the UK to the U.S). At the time I couldn't understand why anyone (other than a grand prix driver) would ever drive a "stick shift" by choice. </p> <p>Today, I can't understand why I stuck with Windows for so long at the expense of my daily working productivity. The biggest bonus from this transition is that Mac OS X has made it easier for me to engage less technical individuals (family & friends) in the sheer joy and potential of Information Technology across a variety of realms as opposed to being confined to the "business computing" realm solely. I can demonstrate the power and potential of the Internet, Web, Web Services, Blogosphere, Wikispehere, with much more sanity and coherence now that my machine responds in a timely fashion during these demos amongst other benefits. </p> <p>Some may deem this windows bashing, but if they take the time to look a little deeper, this is simply about "straight shooting" from a real computer user (I like my computers to do deliver on their hugh potential promised; I don't compromise this basic expectation; my computer and associate software should save me time and ramp up my productivity!) . If Microsoft is the company that it once was, then it would simply use this kind of commentary to rally its troops and get its act together! That's what I would do if a customer felt so badly about our technology (<a href="http://uda.openlinksw.com">UDA </a>or <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso</a>).</p>
When did Blogrolls Become Evil?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-05-16#846
2005-05-16T18:34:33Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>While I'm still trying to figure this out, you should read Shelley's original post, <a href="http://weblog.burningbird.net/archives/2005/03/15/steve-levy-dave-sifrey-and-nz-bear-you-are-hurting-us/">Steve Levy, Dave Sifry, and NZ Bear: You are Hurting Us</a> and see whether you think the arguments against blogrolls are as wrong as I think they are. </p></blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Shelley's <a href="http://weblog.burningbird.net/archives/2005/03/15/steve-levy-dave-sifrey-and-nz-bear-you-are-hurting-us/">post</a> does bring attention to important issues relating to the blogosphere. It touches on how a simple matter can get complex very quickly. All of a sudden what was so simple, becomes pretty complex.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Blogrolls are completely ambiguous. We use them in a variety of ways, but the inherent ambiguity leads to misinterpretation, and in some cases it breeds dysfunctionality of the kind Shelley alludes to in this excerpt:</div> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <div align="left"> <p><em>"..The Technorati Top 100 is too much like Google in that âÂÂnoiseâ becomes equated with âÂÂauthorityâÂÂ. Rather than provide a method to expose new voices, your list becomes nothing more than a way for those on top to further cement their positions. More, it can be easily manipulated with just the release of a piece of software.."</em></p></div></blockquote> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">When blogrolls started to appear on blog home pages there was no blogosphere as we know it today (most viewing was browser as opposed to aggregator based). Blogrolls where a great way of bootstrapping a burgeoning blogosphere (a kind of "look who's blogging now" symbol). The issue of Blogrolls being dynamic, static, or genuinely meaningful was unimportant, unfortunately. In a sense they were simple, static, and in today's parlance: fashionably sloppy.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Today, we have a very extensive and lively blogosphere, it is now mainstream, and has basically become a data source in its own right; introducing challenges exemplified by our inability to clearly state the meaning and purpose of a blogroll.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">The question of "blogroll meaning" may result in alternative use of "<a href="http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/attentionxml">attention.xml</a>" which has the prime goal of addressing challenges associated with tracking and reading posts from a large blog subscription pool. Why not use this as the basis for generating less ambiguous blogrolls?</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">The blogosphere has been an important catalyst for understanding the current Web 2.0 inflection as demonstrated by the transition from the Web Browsers to Feed Aggregators & Readers for reading and tracking blogs (blog home pages are secondary aspects of the interaction with any given blog these days). Unfortunately, there is a general perception that Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web are mutually exclusive, primarily due to the perceived lofty goals of the latter (what's wrong with being challenged?). From my vantage point, I continue to see Web 2.0 as a necessary infrastructure component for the Semantic Web that will ultimately provide context for understanding why it's so important. </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">The Semantic Web will certainly aid in our ability to infer or deduce the meaning of a blog owner's published blogroll since it provides a vehicle for conveying such meaning in human and machine consumable forms. Until then, I remain stumped. I see where Shelley is coming from, but I don't know what to do with my blogroll right this moment :-) On the other hand I certainly know what I am planning to do with my real blogroll (not the snapshot you see today) in the not too distant future.</div> <div align="left"> </div>
Advertising In RSS
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-28#816
2005-04-28T19:56:05Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p><a href="http://www.reallysimplesyndication.com/2005/04/28#a487">Advertising in RSS</a> is just starting now, for all practical purposes. If we wanted to, as an industry, reject the idea, we could. </p></blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">When XSL stylesheet integration becomes a standard feature across a majority of RSS readers the issue becomes moot. There is no need for industry wide rejection as this will ultimately come down to choice: "To Filter" or "Not To Filter".</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Adsense based RSS Advertising as currently implemented (bearing in mind the fundamental intent to perpetuate obtrusive advertising in a popular new realm) is hillarious when you really come to think about it. </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">XML and Obtrusiveness are mutually exclusive. This attempt to inject advertising into RSS may go down as one of the greatest pieces of XML tutorial material of all time. It could also serve as yet another example of how Web 2.0 is fundamentally different from Web 1.0.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Will we ever truly comprehend the unadulterated meaning of: "Free Will" ?</div>
Back To The Future: Hypermedia
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-26#766
2005-03-26T20:24:30Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>If a picture speaks a thousand words, I sometimes wonder how many words we attribute to a multimedia clip? Especially one that is now openly accessible to many who don't quite understand the high degree of: "Back To The Future" quotient of most of what we see today.</p> <p>The Internet Archive initiative is building up an amazing collection of content that includes this <a href="http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=computerchronicles&collectionid=CC501_hypercard">"must watch" movie</a> about the somewhat forgotten <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercard">hypercard</a> development environment.</p> <p>As I watched the hypercard movie I obtained clear reassurance that my vision of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">Web 2.0</a> as critical infrastructure for a future Semantic Web isn't unfounded. The solution building methodology espoused by hypercard is exactly how Semantic Web applications will be built, and this will be done by orchestrating the componentary of Web 2.0.</p> <p>When watching this clip make the following mental adjustments:</p> <ol> <li>Swap hypercard stacks for discrete and/or composite services that have published endpoints exposed by Web 2.0 points of presence<br><br></li> <li>Think of information taking the form of XML based content e.g. RSS, Atom, RDF, FOAF, XFN, and other future XML based data contextualization formats; all accessible via URIs<br><br></li> <li>When the Apple Mac operating system is mentioned (or infered) think of the Internet (you don't need Windows, Mac OS, Linux, UNIX etc. to realize the vision, the network provided by the Internet is the Operating System)<br><br></li> <li>When the Apple computer is mentioned simply think about a plethora of function specific devices (computers, mobile phones, PDAs etc.) that overtly or covertly provide conduits to the new operating environment (the Internet)<br><br></li> <li>As you hear term "whole new body of people that are non programmers contributing there ideas" think about yourself and the increasing ease of participation that's beginning to take shape in this emerging frontier!<br><br></li> <li>As for "<a href="http://www.wholeearthmag.com/about.html">Whole Earth Catalog", </a>think <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a> or more recent efforts such as <a href="http://www.answers.com">Answers.com</a>.</li></ol> <p>Web 2.0 is a reflection of the web taking its first major step out of the technology stone age (certainly the case relative to the hypercard movie and "pre web" application development in general). </p> <p> </p>
SOA, AJAX and REST: The Software Industry Devolves into the Fashion Industry
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-24#763
2005-03-24T15:20:36Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>Dare Obasanjo ponders about: <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/dareobasanjo/archive/2005/03/22/400372.aspx">SOA, AJAX and REST: The Software Industry Devolves into the Fashion Industry</a> .</p> <p>I absolutely understand the frustration expressed in Dare's post. An additional comment from my perspective is that this devolution has been in motion for a while and it is an integral part of the Misinformation and Disinformation based marketing strategies of many companies.</p> <p>Misinformation and Disinformation only work when the target audience is apathetic (unfortunately the sad reality to date!). The bad news for marketing strategies that assume perpetuation of the aforementioned apathy is that the Internet is fundamentally reducing the cost of knowledge acquisition; by implication today's naive customer is tomorrow's knowledgeable decision maker. Vendors have a choice: build valuable products, and then market these products by disseminating knowledge. If a competitor's product is better than yours, get back to the labs (developers are actually stimulated and motivated by constructive challenges; especially as any developer worth his or her salt intrinsically believes they are the best at their craft deep down; and so they should!). </p> <p>In the imminent future (Internet time) I expect to see the Wikisphere, Blogosphere, and other Web 2.0 (and beyond) realms bring clarity to the futility of Misinformation and Disinformation based marketing and PR (see my post about the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=746">Wikipedia induced inflection on Marketing and PR</a> ).</p> <p>BTW -- Does anyone know what's the difference between an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Service_Bus">ESB</a> and a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Service_Bus">Universal Server</a>? Likewise, the difference between a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_database">Virtual Database</a> and an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EII">EII</a> solution?</p>
An Interesting Marketing & PR Inflection In Progress
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-08#746
2005-03-08T19:50:00Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>Wikis, Blogs, and Search Engines are collectively fuelling a huge inflection across the interrelated realms of Technology Marketing and PR.</p> <p>When putting together a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=736">post yesterday about "Virtualization"</a>, I instinctively looked to <a href="http://www.gurunet.com/">Gurunet</a>'s "<a href="http://answers.com/">answers.com</a>" service for information on the subject: Enterprise Information Integration (EII). Woe and behold! Here is what I found at the tail end of the answers.com <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=eii&method=2&gwp=13">article</a> on this subject: </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <div class="boilerplate metadata" id="cleanup" style="BORDER-RIGHT: rgb(119,153,187) 1px solid; PADDING-RIGHT: 1em; BORDER-TOP: rgb(119,153,187) 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 1em; BACKGROUND: rgb(247,251,255) 0% 50%; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0pt; MARGIN: 0.5em 2.5%; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(119,153,187) 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 0pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(119,153,187) 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: justify; moz-background-clip: initial; moz-background-origin: initial; moz-background-inline-policy: initial"> <p><b>This article needs <a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cleanup" target="wpext" title="Wikipedia:Cleanup">cleanup</a></b>.<br>This article needs to be edited to conform to a <a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Style_and_How-to_Directory" target="wpext" title="Wikipedia:Style and How-to Directory">higher standard</a> of article quality. After the article has been cleaned up, you may remove this message. For help, see <a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page" target="wpext" title="Wikipedia:How to edit a page">How to Edit a Page</a> and the <a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Style_and_How-to_Directory" target="wpext" title="Wikipedia:Style and How-to Directory">style and How-to Directory</a> <span class="nslink">.</span></p></div></blockquote> <p>Now, I knew this was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a> content repurposed by "answers.com", and I proceeded to clean up the article. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EII">wikified article</a> took a while to complete, because true to the "Wikipedia" ethos, I had to contribute knowledge as opposed to the original weenie marketing gunk. Its naturally easier to cut and paste marketing fluff for a misguided quick win attempt than it is to embed links, add knowledge, and discern Wiki Markup (but "Wiki" <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-893/In_Living_Color/">don't play that</a>!).</p> <p>This little exercise has broader implications for marketing as a whole, especially for the IT sector. The end of days for "Misinformation based Marketing" are nigh! Wikis, Blogs, Search Engines, Web Services, and Social Networking are rapidly destroying the historically prohibitive costs associated with customer pursuit of facts.</p> <p>I am very confident that product quality will soon overshadow market share as the key determinant for both product selection on the part of customers (this is no longer a pipe dream!). I also have increased hope that IT product development and associated product marketing by technology vendors will veer in the same direction. </p>
Yahoo! Web Services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-02#718
2005-03-02T03:35:05Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<font size="2"> <p dir="ltr">Today is one of those days where one topic appears to be on the mind of many across cyberspace. You guessed right! Its that Web 2.0 thing again. </p> <p dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/1200">Paul Bausch</a> brings Yahoo!'s most recent Web 2.0 contribution to our broader attention in this excerpt from his <font size="2"><a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/02/28/yahoo.html">O'Reilly Network article</a></font>:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>I browse news, check stock prices, and get movie times with Yahoo! Even though I interact with Yahoo! technology on a regular basis, I've never thought of Yahoo! as a technology company. Now that Yahoo! has released a <a href="http://developer.yahoo.net/faq/">Web Services interface</a>, my perception of them is changing. Suddenly having programmatic access to a good portion of their data has me seeing Yahoo! through the eyes of a developer rather than a user.</p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The great thing about this move by Yahoo! is two fold (<a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=imho&method=2&gwp=13">IMHO</a>):</p> <ol dir="ltr"> <li> <div>It certainly makes Yahoo! a little more interesting of late. And it will certainly helps to distinguish Yahoo! from Google. Of course these companies overlap somewhat, but they are also pretty different in focus. I see Yahoo! increasingly as a portal platform play providing content access via syndication, publishing, and web services.<br><br></div></li> <li> <div>It will impact their bottom line pretty rapidly, and I hope they realize the impact of Web 2.0 when trying to explain the growth increments whenever they next report to their investors :-) In a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/index.vspx?id=637">previous post</a> I expressed my sense of some confusion on the part of Jeff Bezos regarding the total contribution of AWS to Amazon's growth (<a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=btw&method=2&gwp=13">BTW</a> - my articles to date re. Amazon and Web 2.0 are available from <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=amazon+web+2.0&type=text&output=html">here</a> in a variety of XML syndication formats: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=amazon+web+2.0&type=text&output=atom">Atom</a>, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=amazon+web+2.0&type=text&output=atom">RSS 2.0</a>, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=amazon+web+2.0&type=text&output=rdf">RDF</a>).<br></div></li></ol> <p>The great thing about the Platform oriented Web 2.0 is the ability to syndicate your value proposition (aka products and services) instead of pursuing fallable email campaigns. It enables the auto-discovery of products and services by user agents (the content aspect). Web 2.0 also provides an infrastructure for user agents to enter into a consumptive interactions with discrete or composite Web Services via published endpoints exposed by a platform (the execution aspect). </p> <p>A scenario example: </p> <p>You can obtain RSS feeds (electronic product catalogs) from Amazon today, although you have to explicitly locate these catalog-feeds since Amazon doesn't exploit <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/000967.html">feed auto-discovery</a> within their domain. </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p><em>If you use Firefox or another auto-discovery supporting RSS/Atom/RDF user agent; visit </em><a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/"><em>this URL</em></a><em>; Firefox users should simply click on the little orange icon bottom right of the browser's window to its RSS feed auto-discovery in action. </em></p> <p><em>Anyway, once you have the feeds the next step is execution endpoints discovery within the Amazon domain (the conduits to Amazon's order processing system in this example). At the current time there isn't broad standardization of Web Services auto-discovery but it's certainly coming; </em><a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/wsil.html"><em>WSIL</em></a><em> is a potential front runner for small scale discovery while UDDI provides a heavier duty equivalent for larger scale tasks that includes discovery and other related functionality realms.</em> </p></blockquote> <p>Back to the example trail, by having the RSS/Atom/RDF feed data within the confines of a user agent (an <a href="http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/2004/08/internet-application-manifesto.html">Internet Application</a> to be precise) nothing stops the extraction of key purchasing data from these feeds, plus your consumer data en route to assembling an execution message (as prescribed by the schema of the service in question)for Amazon's order processing/ shopping cart service. All of this happens without ever seeing/eye-balling the Amazon site (a prerequisite of Web 1.0 hence the dated term: Web Site).</p> <p>To summarize: Web 2.0 enables you to syndicate your value proposition and then have it consumed via Web Services, leveraging computer, as opposed to human interaction cycles. This is how I believe Web 2.0 will ultimately impact the growth rates (in most cases exponentially) of those companies that comprehend its potential. </font></p>
The Future of Search: Perspectives
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-01#710
2005-03-01T21:08:00Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p dir="ltr">I have yanked out a key segment from the <a href="http://www.emergic.org/archives/2005/03/01/index.html#tech_talk_the_future_of_search_perspectives">TECH TALK: The Future of Search: Perspectives</a> post that I find really poignant regarding the changing shape and form of the Web:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p></p> <p dir="ltr">It is clear that in comparison to the Web of the last century, the nature of data on the Web later in this decade will be very different in the following aspects:</p> <ul> <li dir="ltr">Volume of data is growing by orders of magnitudes every year<br>Multimedia and sensor data are becoming more and more common.<br><br></li> <li dir="ltr">Spatio-temporal attributes of data are important.<br><br></li> <li dir="ltr">Different data sources provide information to form the holistic picture.<br><br></li> <li dir="ltr">Users are not concerned with the location of data source, as long as its quality and credibility is assured. They want to know the result of the data assimilation (the big picture of the event).<br><br></li> <li dir="ltr">Real-time data processing is the only way to extract meaningful information<br>Exploration, not querying, is the predominant mode of interaction, which makes context and state critical.<br><br></li> <li dir="ltr">The user is interested in experience and information, independent of the medium and the source.<br></li></ul> <p>Effectively, the nature of the knowledge on the Web is changing very fast. It used to be mostly static text documents; now it will be a combination of live and static multimedia, including text, data and documents with spatio-temporal attributes. Considering these changes, can the search engines developed for static text documents be able to deal with the needs of the Web? [via <a href="http://www.emergic.org/">E M E R G I C . o r g</a>]</p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">No, but this doesn't render them useless since we wouldn't be at this point without the likes of Google, Yahoo! et al. But building upon the data substrate that web data oriented search engines provide is where the next batch of Information access and Knowledge discovery solutions will carve out their space. The symbiotic relationship between <a href="http://google.com/">Google </a>(data) and Gurunet's <a href="http://answers.com/">Answers.com</a> (Information and Knowledge) is one interesting example.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">The Web is a distributed collection of databases that implement variety of data storage models but are commonly accessible via protocols that rely on HTTP for transport (in-bound and out-bound messages) services. These databases increasingly using well-formed XML for query result (data contextualization) persistence and URIs for permenant reference. 'What Database?" you might ask, "What you once called your Web Site, Blog, Wiki, etc.." my time-less reply.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">When you have the database that I describe above, and a collection of entry points from which discrete or composite Web Services can be invoked available from one or more internet domains, you end up with what I prefer to call "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">Web 2.0</a>" presence, or what <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/002645.php">Richard McManus</a> describes as: "The Web as a Platform".</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Here is a collection of posts I have made in the past relating to Web 2.0, note that this list is dynamic since this blog is Virtuoso based (predictably):</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Free Text Search with XHTML results page (with Virtuoso generated URIs for RSS, Atom, and RDF): <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web+2.0&type=text&output=html">http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web+2.0&type=text&output=html</a> </p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">It's also no secret that I believe that <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/">Virtuoso</a> is a bleeding edge Web 2.0 technology platform (and more..). The URIs that I am exposing provide the foundation layer for other complimentary Web initiatives such as the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=semantic+web&type=text&output=html">Semantic Web </a>(Web 2.0 provides infrastructure for the Semantic Web as time will show). They are also completely usable outside the realm of this blog.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">BTW - <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon Udell</a> is writing, experimenting with, and demonstrating <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/03/01.html#a1187">similar concepts</a> across feeds within his Web 2.0 domain.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">These are indeed fun times!</p>
Have RSS feeds killed the email star?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-28#704
2005-02-28T20:36:19Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p><a href="http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39128215,00.htm">Have RSS feeds killed the email star? </a>silicon.com Feb 28 2005 12:58PM GMT </p></blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/rss">Moreover - XML and metadata news</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left"><a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/rss-protocol">RSS</a> and other <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=xml&method=2&gwp=13">XML</a> based syndication formats (<a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Resource+Description+Framework&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1">RDF</a>, <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/atom-standard?hl=atom&hl=syndication">Atom</a>, etc.) allow organizations to syndicate their value propositions via feeds. Thus, instead of, depending solely on sending out HTML based advertorial emails (which end up in Spam Folders 75% of the time anyhow) to targets such as; suspects, leads, and customers. You can rely on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">Web 2.0 </a>fabric for <a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/06/02/important_change_to_the_link_tag">auto-discovery</a> of syndicated feeds covering marketing collateral such as; <a href="http://rss.openlinksw.com/uda.xml">features & benefits data</a>, product documentation (ODBC/JDBC <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/mt/mtdocs.opml">Multi-Tier</a>, ODBC/JDBC <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/st/litedocs.opml">Single-Tier</a>, and <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/virtdocs.opml">Virtuoso</a> ), <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/tutorial/rss.vsp">product functionality tutorials</a>, and screencasts (<a href="http://support.openlinksw.com/viewlets/uda_viewlets_rss.vsp">UDA </a>, <a href="http://support.openlinksw.com/viewlets/virtuoso_viewlets_rss.vsp">Virtuoso</a>, and <a href="http://support.openlinksw.com/viewlets/utilities_viewlets_rss.vsp">ODBC Benchmark & Troubleshooting Utilities</a>) etc. </div>
Web Services Impact on Business Model Scalability
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-12#686
2005-02-12T22:16:22Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2005/tc2005028_8000_tc203.htm">Business Week</a> has a special report on <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=web+services&method=2&gwp=13">Web services</a>... <br>.......</p> <p>That's a big difference. It means their business model can scale, and the bigger they get, the more profitable they become because they're building on that initial research and development investment." [via <a href="http://www.emergic.org/">E M E R G I C . o r g</a>]</p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">On the issue of scale I would like to add (to the excerpt above) that fact that we will ultimately come to realize that Web Services facilitate computer cycle based value proposition consumption. This is exponentially greater that human interaction based value proposition consumption -- the fundamental difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 IMHO.</p> <p dir="ltr">It would be interesting to track the growth of companies in line with their adoption of Web Services based initiatives. I expect that when such a graph is produced in the future it will validate my point.</p>
Avoid Reinventing Wheels: Look Up for XML Schemata and Web Services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-11#684
2005-02-11T22:00:04Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<font size="2"> <p>By Uche Ogbuji, IBM developerWorks</p> <p>The world of XML and Web services is huge, and growing. developerWorks does much to map it out for you, but when you're looking for a schema or a public Web service to meet some pressing need, it's useful to have handy several key resources. This tip shows you how to comb through the enormous variety of Internet resources to find schemata and Web services using common search criteria. The best known source for finding public SOAP Web services is XMethods. It has a comprehensive list of SOAP services that you can sort by several criteria. It also provides a demo client so you can try out the services right from the index site. You can also keep track of the listings on XMethods programmatically using UDDI, RSS, and other means.sites that provide directories of Web services include RemoteMethods.com and Web Service List. A chronicle of interesting Web services is Web service of the Day.</p> <p>One resource that straddles the Web services/Semantic Web is WSindex.org, a directory of Web services, XML, SOAP, UDDI, WSDL, and Semantic Web resources. This site is a hierarchical and searchable directory. </p> <p></font><a href="http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-tiplkws.html"><u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-tiplkws.html</u></font></a></p>
Bill Gates Memo: Building Software That Is Interoperable By Design
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-04#678
2005-02-04T23:58:28Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<font size="2"> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>By Bill Gates, Microsoft Executive Mail</p> <p>Microsoft's product interoperability strategy: "First, we continue to support customers' needs for software that works well with what they have today. Second, we are working with the industry to define a new generation of software and Web services based on eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which enables software to efficiently share information and opens the door to a greater degree of 'interoperability by design' across many different kinds of software. Our goal is to harness all the power inherent in modern (and not so modern) business software, and enable them to work together so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We want to further eliminate friction among heterogeneous architectures and applications without compromising their distinctive underlying capabilities... The XML-based architecture for Web services, known as WS-* ('WS-Star'), is being developed in close collaboration with dozens of other companies in the industry including IBM, Sun, Oracle and BEA. This standard set of protocols significantly reduces the cost and complexity of connecting disparate systems, and it enables interoperability not just within the four walls of an organization, but also across the globe."</p> <p></font><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2005/02-03interoperability.asp"><u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2005/02-03interoperability.asp</u></font></a></p></blockquote> <p align="left" dir="ltr">Amen Bill! As long as this doesn't covertly imply "Windows Specificity" by way of "Interoperability" becoming a "Windows Unique Selling Point"! </p> <p align="left" dir="ltr">As per usual, the devil will be in the implementation details of your company's products. </p>
Traffic Analysis: Google vs Answers.com vs Ask.com
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-04#677
2005-02-04T23:31:47Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>The net effect of <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?s=web+services&gwp=8">Web Services</a> and Web Data (soon to be Semantic Content) is the ability obtain and analyze <a href="http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=6m&size=large&y=t&url=answers.com#top">this kind of data</a> .</p> <p><a href="http://answers.com/">Answers.com</a> was launched a month ago, and its stock is practically on fire! Does this graph tell you anything about subject searches vs keyword searches? </p> <p><img align="baseline" alt="" border="0" hspace="0" src="http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=640&h=480&r=6m&y=t&u=answers.com/&u=ask.com&u=google.com"></p> <p>The burgeoning <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?s=semantic+web">Semantic Web</a> will disrupt the search market in a big way (and for the better <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?s=imho">IMHO</a>).</p> <p> </p>
Google Ups Web 2.0 Ante with Web Services edition of AdWords
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-28#673
2005-01-28T23:36:17Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>Google has just unveiled a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=373">Web 2.0</a> initiative in the form of a <a href="http://www.google.com/apis/adwords/">Web Services interface for its AdWords service</a>. You can now programmatically interact with Google's keyword based advertising service using <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?dym=0&cid=984588381&method=6">SOAP</a> calls (with service <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?dym=2&cid=396232605&method=6">signature</a> described using <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?s=wsdl">WSDL</a>).</p> <p>An immediate implication is that you can generate Google AdWords based adds using any development environment (<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/sqlprocedures.html">Virtuoso's SQL Stored Procedure Language</a>, any .NET bound language, Java, C/C++, PHP, Ruby, Perl, Python, TCL etc.) that supports SOAP, WSDL, and I would presume <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?s=ws-security">WS-Security</a>.</p> <p>An even more interesting offshoot of this initiative from Google, is the fact that it could bring a degree of clarity to the issue of multi-protocol and multi-purpose servers (what I call <a href=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_server">Universal Servers</a> e.g. <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">OpenLink Virtuoso</a>). For instance, you could manage AdWords campaigns across product portfolios using Triggers (the SQL database kind) or Notification Services.</p>
Using Role-Based Security with Web Services Enhancements 2.0
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-27#672
2005-01-27T14:52:19Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<font size="2"> </font><p><font size="2">By Ingo Rammer, Microsoft MSDN Library.</font></p><font size="2"> </font><p><font size="2">In this article the author shows how you can create and use a custom security token manager with the Web Services Enhancements 2.0 for Microsoft .NET to check for X.509 certificates, map them to roles and populate context information with custom principal and identity objects.</font></p><font size="2"> </font><p><font size="2">He shows how easy it is to use WS-Policy from within Visual Studio .NET to add declarative checking of role membership to your applications. The advantage of this approach based on WS-Security when compared to classic HTTP based security is that it doesn't rely on transport-level integrity or security but instead works solely with the SOAP message. This provides you with end-to-end security capabilities over multiple hops and protocols.</font></p><font size="2"> </font><p><a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnwse/html/wserolebasedsec.asp"><u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnwse/html/wserolebasedsec.asp</font></u></a></p><font size="2"> </font><p><font size="2">See also WS-Security references: </font><a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/ws-security.html"><u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/ws-security.html</font></u></a></p>
W3C Recommends Quicker XML Transmission
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-27#671
2005-01-27T14:51:22Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<font size="2"> <p>By Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com</p> <p>The World Wide Web consortium, the standards body in charge of developing XML, said Tuesday that it has issued three recommendations designed to make handling XML-formatted data more efficient. The specifications have the backing of large industry software providers, including IBM, Microsoft and BEA Systems, which provide the software infrastructure to build and run XML data and Web services applications.</p> <p>The W3C and vendors are looking at a variety of methods of speeding up the performance of XML, which can be slow for certain applications. </p> <p></font><a href="http://news.com.com/2110-1013_3-5551788.html"><u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://news.com.com/2110-1013_3-5551788.html</u></font></a></p><font size="2"> <p>See also the news story: </font><a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2005-01-25-a.html"><u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2005-01-25-a.html</u></font></a></p>
GuruNet --- kicking search up a notch (What is SQL?)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-03#661
2005-01-03T23:03:36Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>Playing around with GuruNet's "<a href="http://www.answers.com/">answers.com</a>" service earlier today reminded me of past positive experiences with similar internet bootstraps (Yahoo!, Altavista, Google et al).</p> <p>I have always believed that self-annotation will ultimately drive the realization of the semantic <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=semantic+web">web</a> vision. GuruNet is an interesting effort that should lead down this path.</p> <p>Here is GuruNet's <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=what+is+sql">answer </a>to the question: <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=what+is+sql">What Is SQL</a>?</p> <p>The <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=web+services">Web Services</a>, <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=xml">XML</a>, and <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=rdf">RDF</a> angles should be pretty obvious (I hope!).</p> <p>BTW - GuruNet does have a sync latency issue re. Wikipedia that it will need to address sooner rather than later.</p>
Making Web 2.0 Business Opportunities a Reality
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-10-15#629
2004-10-16T02:03:00Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><a href="http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:XKanbAVpZ0YJ:www.computer-user.com/articles/daily/8,10,1,1011,04.html+kingsley+web+2.0+computeruser.com&hl=en">Here</a> is an article (by me) about a cost-effect route for expoiting Web 2.0 business opportunities. As was the case in an earlier <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=624">post</a>, this articles shed light on the shape and form of underlying server technology that's essential to making the promise of Web 2.0 a reality.</p> <p> </p>
Is Google Web 2.0's Netscape?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-08-26#611
2004-08-26T21:52:30Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>I put this piece together in response to another <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/CommentView.aspx?guid=5ab1ca87-b0df-4dd0-99b6-7730955620ab">stimulating post</a> by Dare Obasanjo titled "Is Google the Next Microsoft or the Next Netscape?". I changed the title of this post to project the fact that Web 2.0 provides the appropriate context (IMHO) for Dare's point re. "Web Site Stickiness". </p> <p>Stickiness is a defining characteristic of Web 1.0 . It's all about eyeballs (site visitors) which implied ultimately that all early Web business models ended up down the advertising route. </p> <p>I always felt that Web 1.0 was akin to having a crowd of people at your reception area seeking a look at your corporate brochures, and then someone realizes that you could start selling AD space in these brochures in response to the growing crowd size and frequency of congregation. The long-term folly of this approach is now obvious, as many organizations forgot their core value propositions (expressed via product offerings) in the process and wandered blindly down the AD model cul-de-sac, and we all know what happened down there.. </p> <p>Web 2.0 is taking shape (the inflection is in its latter stages), and the defining characteristics of Web 2.0 are: </p> <ol> <li>Fabric of Executable Endpoints <br></li> <li>Semantic Content (the RSS/RDF/Atom/FOAF semantic crumbs emerging from the Blogosphere are great examples of things to come re. XQuery queries over HTTP for instance) Migration from the Web Site (defined by static or dynamic HTML page generation) concept, to that of a "Web Point of Presence" (I don't know if this term will catch on, but the conceptual essence here is factual) that enables an organization to achieve the following: <br></li> <ul> <li>Package/catalog value proposition (product and services) using RSS/RDF/Atom <br></li> <li>Provide SOAP compliant Executable Endpoints (Web Services) for consuming value proposition (as opposed to being distracted by the AD model) <br></li> <li>Provide Web Services for consummating contracts associated with core value proposition Identification of internal efficiencies, new products/services that leverage Semantic Content and Web Services, and tangibly exploit: <br></li> <ul> <li>Composite Web Services construction from legacy monolithic application pools <br></li> <li>Standards based (e.g. BPEL) orchestration and integration of disparate composite services (across the Fabric referred to above) </li></ul></ul></ol> <p>When you factor in all of the above, the real question is whether Google and others are equipped to exploit Web 2.0? To some degree, is the best answer at the current time as they have commenced the transition from "content only" web site to web platform (via the many Web Services initiatives that expose SOAP and REST interfaces to various services), but there is much more to this journey, and that's the devil in the "competitive landscape details". </p> <p>From my obviously biased perspective, I think <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/">Virtuoso</a> and <a href="http://www.midrangeserver.com/two/two042804-story02.html">Yukon+WinFS</a> provide the server models for driving Web 2.0 points of presence (single server instances that implement multiple protocols). Thus, if Google, Yahoo! et al. aren't exploiting these or similar products, then they will be vulnerable over the long term to the competitve challenges that a Web 2.0 landscape will present. </p>
Internet Explorer Frame Injection Vulnerability
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-02#576
2004-07-02T16:54:24Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p dir="ltr">All I want to know is why we have to get this far in order to understand the incoherence of technology vendor monoculture? I still don't even understand why any productivity seeking web user would have IE as their desktop browser (at all, bar the littany of ill served IE only sites, Yuck!).</p> <p dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.mozilla.org">Mozilla,</a> <a href="http://www.mozilla.org">FireFox</a>, <a href="http://www.opera.com">Opera</a> et al. are all viable alternatives. Even better, get with the Web 2.0 program using the emerging pool of <a href="http://www.lights.com/weblogs/rss.html">RSS Readers / Web Browser hybrids </a>(note: unfortunately many sill use IE for browsing by default).</p> <p dir="ltr">What really gets to me is that the fact that once the ill perceived destruction of Netscape was achieved, Microsoft went into predictable mode mode with IE (nothing to kill so why innovate, I mean we only innovate to kill products that potentially re-route users away from the Windows Lock-in / technology cul-de-sac etc..).</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p><a href="http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/archives/20040702_internet_explorer_frame_injection_vulnerability.phtml">Internet Explorer Frame Injection Vulnerability</a> âMark Laurence has discovered a 6 year old vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer, allowing malicious people to spoof the content of websites. The problem is that Internet Explorer doesnât check if a target frame belongs to a website containing a malicious link, which therefore doesnât prevent one browser window from loading content in a named frame in another window. Successful exploitation allows a malicious website to load arbitrary content in an arbitrary frame in another browser window owned by e.g. a trusted site. Secunia has constructed a test, which can be used to check if your browser is affected by this issue. This vulnerability is similar to an old vulnerability fixed by MS98-020 in Internet Explorer version 3 and 4. The vulnerability has been confirmed in a fully patched Internet Explorer 6 running on Microsoft Windows XP. Other versions of Internet Explorer may also be affected. Solution: Disable the following security setting: âNavigate sub-frames across different domainsâ. [Tools/Internet Options/Security tab in an Internet Explorer windows or Internet Options/Security tab from Control Panel.] Do not visit or follow links from untrusted websites.â </p></blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/">Lockergnome's Tech News Watch</a>]</div>
Web E-Mail: The New Hard Disk
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-01#574
2004-07-01T22:38:19Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p><a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/002116.html">Web E-Mail: The New Hard Disk</a> </p> <p>..</p> <p>If this "<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/1262">Internet Operating System</a>" and <a href="http://www.web2con.com/">Web 2.0</a> stuff is really happening, I think I've just found the filesystem we'll all be using--in one form or another.</p></blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/">Jeremy Zawodny's blog</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
Semantic Web brings clarity to the Universal Server concept
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-21#1190
2004-05-21T03:14:42Z
2007-04-23T12:42:13-04:00
<p dir="ltr">As I continue my quest to unravel the thinking and vison behind the "Universal Server" branding of <a href="http://www.openlnksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a>, it always simplifies matters when I come across articles that bring context to this vision. </p> <p dir="ltr">Tim Berners-Lee provided a <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/Talks/0519-tbl-keynote/">keynote at WWW2004</a> earlier this week, and <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/au/192">Paul Ford </a>provided a <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/05/20/www-timbl.html">keynote breakdown</a> from which I have scrapped a poignant excerpt that helps me illuminate Virtuoso's role in the inevitable semantic web.</p> <p dir="ltr">First off, I see the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html">Semantic Web</a> as a core component of Web 2.x (a minor upgrade of <a href="http://www.web2con.com/">Web 2.0</a>), and I see Virtuoso as a definitive Web 2.0 (and beyond) technology, hence the use today of the branding term "Universal Server". A term that I expect to become a common product moniker in the not too distant future.</p> <p dir="ltr">The first challenge that confronts the semantic web is the creation of Semantic content. How will the content be created? Ideally, this should come from data, at the end of the day this is a data contextualization process. The excerpt below from Paul's <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/05/20/www-timbl.html">article</a> highlights the point:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"> <p>Rather than concerning themselves unduly with hewing to existing ontologies, Berners-Lee pushed developers to start using RDF and triples more aggressively. In particular, he wants to see existing databases exported as RDF, with ontologies created ad-hoc to match the structure of that data. Rather than using PHP scripts only to produce HTML, he suggested, create RDF as well. Then, when all of the RDF is aggregated, apply rules and see what happens. "Let's not fall back on handmade markup."</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Data in existing databases does not have to be exported as RDF, especially if sensitivity to change is a specific contextual requirement. Naturally, the assumption is made that most databases don't have the ability to produce RDF so an additonal tool would be required to perform the data exports and transformation, and then a separate HTTP server makes this repurposed RDF data accessible over HTTP.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"> <p dir="ltr">Later in the talk, he described a cascade of Semantic Web connections, postulating that one day, individuals may be able to follow links from a parts catalog to order status, from location to weather to taxes.</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The final excerpt (above) outlines the kinds of interactions that the Semantic Web facilitates. The traversal from a "part catalog" to "order status", or from "location" to "weather" to "taxes", illustrates the roles that services and service orchestration will also play in the Semantic Web era.</p> <p dir="ltr">Thus, we can safely deduce the following about the semantic web:</p> <ol dir="ltr"> <li> <div>It has RDF at its foundation </div> </li> <li> <div>We need to transform existing data into RDF; ideally retaining sensitivity to changes</div> </li> <li> <div>Allows ontologies to be associated with RDF post generation</div> </li> <li> <div>RDF graph navigation will be event driven and orchestrated (the cascading effect)</div> </li> <li> <div>There will be an RDF Query Language (there are several burgeoning ones currently)</div> </li> <li> <div>HTTP will be the prime transport protocol</div> </li> </ol> <p>I would also like to conclude that what we know today, as the monolithic "point of presence" on the web called a "Web Site" (which infers browsing and page serving), is naturally going to morph into a different kind of "point of presence" that is capable of delivering the following from a single process:</p> <ol> <li> <div>Serve up Semantic Data from existing data sources </div> </li> <li> <div>Provide execution endpoints for Web Services</div> </li> <li> <div>Provide an instigation point for events that trigger Service Orchestratio</div> </li> </ol> <p>This is what Virtuoso is all about, and why it is described as a "Universal Server"; a server instance that speaks many protocols, delivering a plethora of functionality (Database, Web Services Platform, Orchestration Engine, and more).</p>
Enterprise Databases get a grip on XML
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-01-06#442
2004-01-06T23:17:07Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> <p><a class="listLinkLrg" title="http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=4FEDB6:1F3948D" href="http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=4FEDB6:1F3948D" target="_new"><strong><font face="Verdana">Databases get a grip on XML</font></strong></a><br /><font size="2"></font><font face="Verdana">From <a href="http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=4FEDB6:1F3948D">Inforworld</a>.</font><br /><br /><font face="Verdana,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif" size="2">The next iteration of the SQL standard was supposed to arrive in 2003. But SQL standardization has always been a glacially slow process, so nobody should be surprised that SQL:2003 ? now known as SQL:200n ? isn?t ready yet. Even so, 2003 was a year in which XML-oriented data management, one of the areas addressed by the forthcoming standard, showed up on more and more developers? radar screens.ÃÂ <a title="http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=4FEDB6:1F3948D" href="http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=4FEDB6:1F3948D" target="_blank">>> READ MORE</a></font></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2">This article rounds up product for 2003 in the critical area of Enterprise Database Technology. It's certainly provides an apt reflection of how Virtuoso compares with offerings from some the larger (but certainly slower to implement) database vendors in this space. As usual Jon Udell's quote pretty much sums this up:</font></p> <blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr"><!--StartFragment --><span class="artText"><em>"While the spotlight shone on the heavyweight contenders, a couple of agile innovators made noteworthy advances in 2003. </em><a class="regularArticleU" href="http://www.infoworld.com/699"><em>OpenLink Software?s Virtuoso 3.0</em></a><em>, which we reviewed in March, stole thunder from all three major players. Like Oracle, it offers a WebDAV-accessible XML repository. Like DB2 Information Integrator, it functions as database middleware that can perform federated ?joins? across SQL and XML sources. And like the forthcoming Yukon, it embeds the .Net CLR (Common Language Runtime), or in the case of Linux, Novell/Ximian?s Mono."</em></span> </p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Albeit still somewhat unknown to the broader industry we have remained true our "innovator" discipline, which still remains our chosen path to market leadership. Thus, its worth a quick Virtuoso release history, and featuresÃÂ recap as we get set to up the ante even further in 2004:</font></p> <p dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/virtuoso.htm">1998 - Virtuoso's initial public beta</a> release with functional emphasis on Virtual Database Engine for ODBC and JDBC Data Sources.</font></p> <p dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/virtuoso1.htm">1999 - Virtuoso's official commercial</a> release, with emphasis stillÃÂ on Virtual Database functionality for ODBC, JDBC accessible SQL Databases.</font></p> <p dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/v2releas.htm">2000 - Virtuoso 2.0</a> adds XML Storage, XPath, XML Schema, XQuery, XSL-T, WebDAV, SOAP, UDDI, HTTP, Replication, Free Text Indexing (*feature update*), POP3, and NNTP support.</font></p> <p dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/v27releas.htm">2002 - Virtuoso 2.7</a> extends Virtualization prowess beyond data access via enhancements to its Web Services protocol stack implementation by enabling SQL Stored Procedures to be published as Web Services. It also debutsÃÂ its Object-Relational engine enhancements that include theÃÂ incorporation of Java and Microsoft .NET Objects into its User Defined Type, User Defined Functions, and Stored ProcedureÃÂ offerings.</font></p> <p dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/virt3beta.htm">2003 - Virtuoso 3.0</a> extends data and application logic virtualization into the Application Server realm (basically a Virtual Application server too!), by adding support for ASP.NET, PHP, Java Server Pages runtime hosting (making applications built using any of these languages deployable using Virtuoso across all supported platforms).</font></p> <p dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Collectively each of these releases have contributed to a very premeditated architecture and vision that will ultimately unveil the inherent power of critical I.S infrastructure virtualizationÃÂ along the following lines; data storage, data access , and application logic via coherent integration of SQL, XML, Web Services, and Persistent Stored Modules (.NET, Java, and other object based component building blocks).</font></p> <p dir="ltr"><font face="Verdana"></font>ÃÂ </p>
Look Out, Outlook: RSS Ahead in 2004
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-12-02#432
2003-12-02T23:10:02Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p dir="ltr">An <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1399365,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594">interesting piece by Steve Gillmor</a>, especially as we entering the 2004 prediction season. Here are some of his predictions (Web 2.0 content related details in my parlance):</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>RSS information routers will emerge in 2004 with the following characteristics: </p> <p>? Persistent storage of XHTML full-text/graphics/audio/video of RSS feeds <br />? XPATH search across local and Net stores <br />? Self-forming and reordering subscriptions lists based on the aggregated priorities of user-chosen domain experts <br />? Use of IM notification for post notification to aggregate affinity groups and active conversations <br />? Integration of Hydra-like collaborative tools for multi-author conference transcripts <br />? Videoconferencing routing and broadcast/recording tools <br />? Integration of speech recognition and real-time indexing to allow quoting of linear audio and video streams <br />? Mesh networked peer-to-peer synchronization engine for item propagation across shared spaces on multiple clients, including phones; iPods; and eventually Longhorn PDAs (circa 2006). </p> <p>Armed with these tools, new industries will emerge in rapid succession: </p> <p>? Metadata-driven directories that dynamically create RSS feeds based on affinity <br />? Virtual conferences <br />? IM/RSS presence networks for rich collaboration and e-mail replacement <br />? Content-generation tools based on small, routable XHTML objects <br />? A DRM network with enough creative and hardware support to blunt the Microsoft/RIAA DRM threat to peer-to-peer port hijacking. </p></blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.eweek.com/">eWeek.com - Steve Gillmor's Collaboration and Messaging Topic Center</a>]</div>
Microsoft Killing the Web ?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-11-13#431
2003-11-13T21:26:34Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This is a really interesting collection of </SPAN><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><EM>Blogobillia</EM></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">!</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">It starts here with one of many excerpts from <A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">Scoble's blog</A>:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><A href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/scriptingArchive/2003/11/12#When:9:47:09AM">Dave Winer</A>, <A href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/11/11.html#a844">Jon Udell</A>, and now <A href="http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/200311/msg00500.html">Gerald Bauer </A>says that Microsoft is killing the Web. Or trying to.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The guys above are pretty seasoned individuals (they save me a lot of writing too amongst other things).<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Now here is a response from Microsoft?s Blog evangelist supremo Scoble to their comments and genuine concerns.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">OK, let's assume that's true.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Microsoft has 55,000 employees. $50 billion or so in the bank.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Yet what has gotten me to use the Web less and less lately? RSS 2.0.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Seriously. I rarely use the browser anymore (except to post my weblog since I use Radio UserLand).<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">See the irony there? Dave Winer (who at minimum popularized RSS 2.0) has done more to get me to move away from the Web than a huge international corporation that's supposedly focused on killing the Web.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Now, let's look at what's really going on here. We're going back to being a great platform company. We're trying to provide a platform that lets developers build new applications that are impossible to build on other platforms. At the PDC you saw some of that. New kinds of forms. New kinds of games. New kinds of business apps. New kinds of experiences.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">But, we also are looking for ways to make the Web better too. Now, we haven't talked about what we're doing with the browser. I hear that'll come later. Astute Longhorn testers have already seen that we snuck a pop-up ad blocker into the browser without telling anyone about it. Whoa. That means we're gonna turn off MSN's capabilities of selling popup ads.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I hear there's more coming too. But, why should we do it all? Wasn't the point of the past four years to get Microsoft to stop trying to do it all? The DOJ and now the European Union are still after us cause we tried to do it all. Instead, let's just go back and be a great platform company.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We just gave you a great foundation for a killer new kind of application. One that goes FAR beyond HTML. And, even if you stick with Mozilla, your experiences on Longhorn will get better. For instance, fonts are being rendered in the GPU now on Longhorn. Your Web pages will look better and behave better on Longhorn than they will on any other platform. Period.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">And wait until Mozilla's and other developers start exploiting things like WinFS to give you new features that display Internet-based information in whole new ways.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">If Microsoft really wants to create a better platform shouldn?t this be truly futuristic? If so, then it should issue the first major salvo by dropping the restrictions on <A href="http://research.microsoft.com/Collaboration/University/Europe/RFP/Rotor/">Rotor</A>? <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We are moving into the distributed component based computing age where runtime environments (.NET CLR, Mono, J2EE, and others) act a Component Execution Junction boxes (instead of the Monolithic Operating Systems of today) in a continuum of services orchestrated by messages in response to events emanating from value consumption requests (what we call application behviour today) from a myriad of value consumers (application users). <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">There is no need for covert and protracted protection of an obsolete Windows Operating System (the underlying fear that keeps Rotor shackled in my opinion), since its obsolescence is in full motion as Longhorn clearly demonstrates. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Imagine a <U>fusion of sorts across Microsoft .NET, Mono, and Rotor</U>, with a single portable runtime as the end product (slotting nicely into its place in the imminent distributed component and services era). All the benefits of programming language independence in true glory - the ECMA-CLI is all about programming language independence. Now that would be unequivocally revolutionary, and Microsoft would actually be doing what I think it has been desperately trying to achieve for a long time; the delivery of really cool technology that seriously impact us all in a positive way without the usual World Domination Concerns. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Anyway, back to the current reality where we have covert attempts to lock us all into Windows getting more and more transparent per technology release cycle. The very antithesis of what I espoused in the last paragraph (or dream). I believe that Scoble's instincts lie in this realm too, and you never know this evangelist may turn Messiah :-) </SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Here's the final excerpt from Scoble?s post:<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">There's a whole lot of more useful stuff coming. Both for the Web and for newer Internet-centric rich-client approaches. Personally, it's about time. I'm already using the Web less and less thanks to things like RSS 2.0.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I'm watching 636 sites every day. Try to do THAT in your Web browser.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">So, yes, blame it on me. I'm trying to kill the Web. Isn't it time to move on? Didn't we move on from the Apple II? Didn't we move on from DOS? Didn't we move on from Windows 3.11? Can't you see a day when we move on from the Web and get something even more fantastic? I can. Dave Winer can. Why not you? [via <A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</A>]<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">If you kill the Web en route to getting us a Portable Execution Junction box from Microsoft, I think you would have served mankind pretty damned well. We won't have to gripe about Web 1.0 (Browser Driven Web) because we would be well into Web 2.0 and beyond (which doesn?t define the Web experience predominantly via browsing).<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P> </P>
Virtuoso 3.2 Web Services Platform Features Enhancements
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-11-05#413
2003-11-05T15:07:08Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We released Virtuoso 3.2 last week with significant enhancements to Web Services Platform functionality that includes:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span></p>
A Virtuoso of a Server
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-23#395
2003-10-23T21:57:48Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<font size="2"> <p><a href="http://www.nwfusion.com/index.html">NETWORK WORLD</a> NEWSLETTER: MARK GIBBS ON WEB APPLICATIONS </p> <p><font size="2">Today's focus: A Virtuoso of a server</font></p> <p>By <a href="http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/gibbs.html">Mark Gibbs</a></p> <p>One of the bigger drags of Web applications development is that building a system of even modest complexity is a lot like herding cats - you need a database, an applications server, an XML engine, etc., etc. And as they all come from different vendors you are faced with solving the constellation of integration issues that inevitably arise.</p> <p>If you are lucky, your integration results in a smoothly functioning system. If not, you have a lot of spare parts flying in loose formation with the risk of a crash and burn at any moment.</p> <p>An alternative is to look for all of these features and services in a single package but you'll find few choices in this arena.</p> <p>One that is available and looks very promising is OpenLink's Virtuoso (see links below).</p> <p>Virtuoso is described as a cross platform (runs on Windows, all Unix flavors, Linux, and Mac OS X) universal server that provides databases, XML services, a Web application server and supporting services all in a single package.</p> <p>OpenLink's list of supported standards is impressive and includes .Net, Mono, J2EE, XML Web Services (Simple Object Application Protocol, Web Services Description Language, WS-Security, Universal Description, Discovery and Integration), XML, XPath, XQuery, XSL-T, WebDav, HTTP, SMTP, LDAP, POP3, SQL-92, ODBC, JDBC and OLE-DB.</p> <p>Virtuoso provides an HTTP-compliant Web Server; native XML document creation, storage and management; a Web services platform for creation, hosting and consumption of Web services; content replication and synchronization services; free text index server, mail delivery and storage and an NNTP server.</p> <p>Another interesting feature is that with Virtuoso you can create Web services from existing SQL Stored Procedures, Java classes,</p> <p>C++ classes, and 'C' functions as well as create dynamic XML</p> <p>documents from ODBC and JDBC data sources.</p> <p>This is an enormous product and implies a serious commitment on the part of adopters due to its scope and range of services.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p><em>Virtuoso is enormous by virtue of its architectural ambitions, but actual disk requirements are</em></p></blockquote></font>
Jeff Bezos Comments about Web Services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-25#373
2003-09-25T18:48:00Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The following excerpt from a recent <a href="http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_39/b3851607.htm">BusinessWeek interview with Jeff Bezos</a> demonstrates how important the "Executable Web" aspect of Web 2.0 (next generation Web comprising two complimentary tracks: Executable Web of Web Services and Syndicated Web or XML based content such as <a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss">RSS</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a>, <a href="http://www.opml.org/">OPML</a>, <a href="http://internetalchemy.org/ocs/">OCS</a>, <a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/">FOAF</a> etc.). <blockquote>Q: Amazon.com now runs sites and on-line operations for retailers such as Target and Toys 'R' Us. What's the future for that services business? A: It's a rapidly growing part of our business. And that goes from [large] companies that are customers of that all the way down to individuals using our Web services to tap into the fundamental platform that is Amazon.com. They can build their own applications very effectively. It's almost closer to an ecosystem. Q: So Amazon is becoming a kind of software platform a bit like Microsoft (MSFT )? A: People are building stuff that surprises us. That's what's so interesting about this. We've built this big base of technology to serve ourselves, and now we're opening it up and letting people access it. They're taking these fundamental pieces and building completely new things that not only would we have never gotten around to but in some cases maybe never even have thought of. There are thousands of developers who are building applications using Amazon Web services. The sky's the limit on their creativity. Q: What arises from all those efforts? A: People will be able to build very powerful applications by hooking together a whole bunch of Web services from a whole bunch of different companies. Q: What benefit is Amazon.com getting from this? A: It's too early to say. It's certainly not a major source of revenue for us. But when people use our Web services, they give us credit for that. That turns out to be very helpful. </blockquote> A few years ago the race was on to simply have a Web Site, then this requirement evolved into a requirement for a database driven site. Today we are seeing the final stages of the Web 2.0 inflection which will inevitably change the focus toward the need for a Point of Presence on the Web for exposing or invoking Web Services and/or Syndicating or Subscribing to XML based content.
eBay Finally get Web Services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-05#248
2003-09-05T21:32:16Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<P dir=ltr>In response to this post:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P>EBay has a new developer evangelist (Jeffrey McManus) and <A href="http://mcmanus.typepad.com/">today he started a weblog</A>. [via <A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</A>]</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P dir=ltr>I found out that eBay are no longer Web Services laggards relative to Google and Amazon. </P> <P dir=ltr><STRONG>What is the eBay API?</STRONG></P><!-- ** CONTENT ** --> <P>The Application Programming Interface (API) is the heart of the <STRONG><A href="http://developer.ebay.com/DevProgram/developer/api.asp">Developers Program</A></STRONG>. Normally, users buy and sell items using the eBay online interface, interacting with eBay directly. But with the eBay API, you communicate directly with the eBay database in XML format. By using the API, your application can provide a custom interface, functionality and specialized operations not otherwise afforded by the eBay interface. </P> <P>Using the API, you can create programs that: <!--StartFragment --></P> <UL> <LI>Submit items for listing on eBay</LI> <LI>Get the current list of eBay categories</LI> <LI>View information about items listed on eBay</LI> <LI>Get high bidder information for items you are selling</LI> <LI>Retrieve lists of items a particular user is currently selling through eBay</LI> <LI>Retrieve lists of items a particular user has bid on</LI> <LI>Display eBay listings on other sites</LI> <LI>Leave feedback about other users at the conclusion of a commerce transaction</LI></UL> <P>Because the API is not dependent on the eBay user interface, it allows you to create stable, custom functionality and interfaces that best meet your business needs. </P> <P>The definition of Web Services has just gotten simpler:<BR>Web Services define technology that let's you buy and sell from eBay or Amazon without browsing either site.</P> <P>Cool!</P>
<a href="http://services.devx.com/feeds.cfm">DevX RSS Feeds</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-21#243
2003-08-21T23:17:04Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Ah! DevX have got it re. <a href="http://services.devx.com/feeds.cfm">RSS!</a> They have responded positively to the obvious disruptive effects of RSS on the Web 1.0 portal model. Good stuff! Welcome to Web 2.0's RSS Syndication Model. Now all they need is RSS Auto Discovery, and an OPML and.or OCS file and things really get rolling (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Virtuoso 3.2</a> will give to them out of the box! Or should I say post-installation :-) ) They also have a good article/page that lists a collection of <a href="http://www.devx.com/DevX/Article/16190">RSS Readers, Aggregrators, and related technologies</a> .
RSS: INJAN (It's not just about news)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-21#241
2003-08-21T15:41:25Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">When Virtuoso first unleashed support for XML (in-built XSL, Native XML Storage, Validating XML Parser, XPath, and XQuery) the core message was the delivery of a single server solution that would address the challenges of creating XML data.</span></p><p xmlns="o"></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">In the year 2000 the question of the shape and form of XML data was unclear to many, and reading the article below basically took me back in time to when we released <a href="http://www.it-director.com/article.php?articleid=916">Virtuoso 2.0</a> (we are now at <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">release 3.0</a> commercially with a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/virt32_wwdc1.htm">3.2 beta </a>dropping any minute).</span></p><p xmlns="o"></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">RSS is a great XML application, and it does a great job of demonstrating how XML --the new data access foundation layer-- will galvanize the next generation Web (I refer to this as Web 2.0.). </span></p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> <p><a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com:3030/blojsom-hp/blog/technologies/blogging/metadata/?permalink=1214847A10C1966396472E816A7A4243.textile">RSS: INJAN (It's not just about news)</a> </p> <p><span class="caps">RSS</span> is not just about news, according to <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/message/5764">Ian Davis on rss-dev</a>.<br />He presents a nice list of alternatives, which I reproduce here (and to which I�d add, of course, bibliography management)</p> <ul> <li>Sitemaps: one of the S�s in <span class="caps">RSS</span> stands for summary. A sitemap is a summary of the content on a site, the items are pages or content areas. This is clearly a non-chronological ordering of items. Is a hierarchy of <span class="caps">RSS</span> sitemaps implied here � how would the linking between them work? How hard would it be to hack a web browser to pick up the <span class="caps">RSS</span> sitemap and display it in a sidebar when you visit the site?</li> <li>Small ads: also known as classifieds. These expire so there�s some kind of dynamic going on here but the ordering of items isn�t necessarily chronological. How to describe the location of the seller, or the condition of the item or even the price. Not every ad is selling something � perhaps it�s to rent out a room.</li> <li>Personals: similar model to the small ads. No prices though (I hope). Comes with a ready made vocabulary of terms that could be converted to an <span class="caps">RDF</span> schema. Probably should do that just for the hell of it anyway � gsoh</li> <li>Weather reports: how about a week�s worth of weather in an <span class="caps">RSS</span> channel. If an item is dated in the future, should an aggregator display it before time? Alternate representations include maps of temperature and pressure etc.</li> <li>Auctions: again, related to small ads, but these are much more time limited since there is a hard cutoff after which the auction is closed. The sequence of bids could be interesting � would it make sense to thread them like a discussion so you can see the tactics?</li> <li>TV listings: this is definitely chronological but with a twist � the items have durations. They also have other metadata such as cast lists, classification ratings, widescreen, stereo, program type. Some types have additional information such as director and production year.</li> <li>Top ten listings: top ten singles, books, dvds, richest people, ugliest, rear of the year etc. Not chronological, but has definate order. May update from day to day or even more often.</li> <li>Sales reporting: imagine if every department of a company reported their sales figures via <span class="caps">RSS</span>. Then the divisions aggregate the departmental figures and republish to the regional offices, who aggregate and add value up the chain. The chairman of the company subscribes to one super-aggregate feed.</li> <li>Membership lists / buddy lists: could I publish my buddy list from Jabber or other instant messengers? Maybe as an interchange format or perhaps could be used to look for shared contacts. Lots of potential overlap with <span class="caps">FOAF</span> here.</li> <li>Mailing lists: or in fact any messaging system such as usenet. There are some efforts at doing this already (e.g. yahoogroups) but we need more information � threads; references; headers; links into archives.</li> <li>Price lists / inventory: the items here are products or services. No particular ordering but it�d be nice to be able to subscribe to a catalog of products and prices from a company. The aggregator should be able to pick out price rises or bargains given enough history.</li> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com:3030/blojsom-hp/blog/">Semantic Blogging Demonstrator</a>] </div></ul></span></blockquote> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Thus, if we can comprehend RSS (the blog article below does a great job) we should be able to see the fundamental challenges that are before any organization seeking to exploit the potential of the imminent Web 2.0 inflection; how will you cost-effectively create XML data from existing data sources? Without upgrading or switching database engines, operating systems, programming languages? Put differently how can you exploit this phenomenon without losing your ever dwindling technology choices (believe me choices are dwindling fast but most are oblivious to this fact).</span></p><p xmlns="o"></p> <p> </p> <a href="index.vspx?tag=xml" rel="tag" style="display:none;">xml</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=rss" rel="tag" style="display:none;">rss</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=syndication" rel="tag" style="display:none;">syndication</a>
Macro Economic Climate and Web Services Investments
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-06#236
2003-08-06T21:45:10Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<font size="2"> <p>* The sluggish U.S. economy has impacted the investments by many companies in Web services projects, but it has not killed these projects, according to a survey by Gartner.</p> <p></font><a href="http://www.bijonline.com/News.asp?NewsID=979"><u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.bijonline.com/News.asp?NewsID=979</u></font></a></p>
Microcontent Trends
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-23#313
2003-07-23T20:28:03Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>Joi Ito, in a <a href="http://joi.ito.com/archives/2003/07/22/thoughts_on_microcontent_metadata_and_trends.html">must-read rant about microcontent trends</a> says "Microsoft will continue to dominate the desktop, but it will become less relevant as consumer electronics companies embrace open standards and use Internet web services and applications to make consumer electronics devices rich with content."</p> <p>Um, Joi, did you have some bad sushi before you wrote this?</p> <p>Let me explain why you're wrong.</p> <p>First of all, Microsoft is investing a LOT in "non PC devices." So, even if you're right that the desktop will become less important (hint: you're not), I don't think you can count Microsoft out, or say it'll become less relevant.</p> <p>Second of all, TONS of people are getting camera phones. What's the first thing they do? Post them on a web site, right? OK. So far, camera phones + server means that the desktop is outta the picture, right? But, where do people view those camera phone pictures? I'll tell you where I look at Chris Pirillo's moblog, for instance: on my Tablet PC.</p> <p>So, how again did the new device that came along decrease the relevance of the desktop?</p> <p>Now, I predict Joi's answer will be that Japanese kids don't use PCs and they just use cell phones for everything. Well, sorry. Viewing a photo off of one of those new Nikon multi-mega-pixel pro cameras on a small cell phone screen just isn't my idea of fun. And trying to type ASCII characters into a weblog on a cell phone's keypad ain't my idea of fun either (and, yes, I've played with the latest in phones -- a co-worker just brought a bunch back from Tokyo). The fact that some kid somewhere is doing that, doesn't prove a thing.</p> <p>But, I've been corrupted. I can predict the future a bit since I've seen a ton of secret stuff inside Microsoft. I certainly don't think the desktop becomes less relevant. In fact, to a whole raft of users, the desktop (or, the Tablet top, if you will) will be more important in 2005, not less.</p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</a>] <div></div></div>
Web Services--A Manager's Guide.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-16#204
2003-07-16T17:28:51Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321185773/rds-20/002-2080753-6561607">Web Services--A Manager's Guide.</a> Last month I <a href="http://www.rds.com/doug/weblogs/webServicesStrategies/2003/06/20.html">suggested</a> that someone do a comparative review of this new book by Anne Thomas Manes and <a href="http://www.rds.com/books/">my latest book</a>. Last week, I had the opportunity to meet Anne and get a copy of her book. Rather than wait, here are my own--admittedly biased--comparisons. <p>"A Manager's Guide," as the title suggests, is the perfect pragmatic guide for managing a current web-services project. If you want to know what works <i>today</i>, right down to the specific products from individual vendors, Anne's book is the one to buy. .NET versus Java? Which J2EE platform or UDDI registry server? The current state of the basic protocols: SOAP, WSDL, UDDI? You'll find the answers in one place. As with my book, there are no code fragments or XML listings. It's for managers, not programmers. But this book is the one to buy for your tactical requirements. <p>"Loosely Coupled," on the other hand, takes a more strategic view, and in a sense picks up where Anne's book leaves off. I don't explain any of the protocols. In fact I rarely mention them by name. I assume (a) you'll learn about them somewhere else (such as from Anne's book), and (b) they'll change quickly anyway. Anne has a 30-page chapter on "Advanced Web-Services Standards," which is where my book kicks in. As the subtitle suggests, I look more deeply at the missing pieces of web services: transactions, security, reliable asynchronous messaging, orchestration and choreography, QoS, contracts and other business issues, infrastructure, and the big one: industry-specific semantics. <p>Both books cover the fundamental concepts of web services such as service-oriented architectures. Anne, however, sees web services as being fundamentally about application integration, which clearly is the sweet spot today. I look at the issues surrounding inter-organizational loosely coupled web services, taking a longer-term and more strategic view. If you're thrust into managing a web-services project, need to ramp-up quickly, select vendors and products, and be able to communicate with your developers, buy Anne's book. If you need to develop a long-term web-services strategy for your organization, buy mine. In other words: buy them both. I think you'll like the combination. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.rds.com/doug/weblogs/webServicesStrategies/">Doug Kaye: Web Services Strategies</a>] <div></div></div>
Tim O'Reilly about network aware software
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-07#201
2003-07-07T20:51:35Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><a href="http://blog.bitflux.ch/p1077.html">Tim O'Reilly about network aware software</a> </p> <p>Tim O'Reilly wrote some thoughts about network aware software. Good sumup and nice ideas, why not only blogs should be net-aware (and where even blogs can be improved ;) ) </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <div align="left">"<i>For the desktop, my personal vision is to see existing software instrumented to become increasingly web aware. It seems that Apple are doing a good job with this. (What does web aware mean for me? Being able to grok URIs, speaking WebDAV, and using open standard data formats.)</i>" -- <strong>Edd Dumbill</strong> </div> <div align="left"></div> <div align="left">[via <a href="http://blog.bitflux.ch/">Bitflux Blog</a>]</div></blockquote> <div align="left">I agree, but you do have to add Open Data Access formats (such as ODBC and to some degree JDBC) to this mix otherwise the you will need to create data for Open Standard Data Formats from sratch (tough for any enterprise irrespective of size).</div> <div align="left"></div> <div align="left">Tim O'Reilly added the following items to Edd's list:</div> <div align="left"> <ul> <li> <p>Rendezvous-like functionality for automatic discovery of and potential synchronization with other instances of the application on other computers. Apple is showing the power of this idea with iChat and iTunes, but it really could be applied in so many other places. For example, if every PIM supported this functionality, we could have the equivalent of "phonester" where you could automatically ask peers for contact information. Of course, that leads to guideline 2. </p></li></ul></div> <p>Another application is discovery of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/info/docs/uda50/mt/features.html#features">ODBC data sources</a>, and database servers. Rendezvous can also simply security and administration of data sources accessible by either one of these standards data access mechanisms. It can also apply to XML databases and data sources exposed by <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">XML Databases</a>.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <ul> <li>If you assume ad-hoc networking, you have to automatically define levels of access. I've always thought that the old Unix ugo (user, group, other) three-level permission system was simple and elegant, and if you replace the somewhat arbitrary "group" with "on my buddy list", you get something quite powerful. Which leads me to... <p></p> <p></p></li> <ul> <li>Buddy lists ought to be supported as a standard feature of many apps, and in a consistent way. What's more, our address books really ought to make it easy to indicate who is in a "buddy list" and support numerous overlapping lists for different purposes. <br></li></ul> <li>Every application ought to expose some version of its data as an XML feed via some well-defined and standard access mechanism. It strikes me that one of the really big wins that fueled the early web was a simple naming scheme: you could go to a site called www.foo.com, and you'd find a web server there. While it wasn't required, it made web addresses eminently guessable. We missed the opportunity for xml.foo.com to mean "this is where you get the data feed" but it's probably still possible to come up with a simple, consistent naming scheme. And of course, if we can do it for web sites, we also need to think about how to do it for local applications, since... </li></ul> <p>The very point I continue to make about Internet Points of Presence beingactual data acces points, in short these end points should be served by database serverprocesses. This is the very basis of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a>, the inevitability of this realization remains the undepinings of this product. There are other products out there that have some sense of this vision too, but there is a little snag (at least so far in my research efforts), and that is the tendency to create dedicated independent server per protocol (an ultimate integration, administration, and maintenance nightmare).</p> <ul> <li>We ought to be able to have the expectation that all applications, whether local or remote (web) will be set up for two-way interactions. That is, they can be either a source or sink of online data. So, for example, the natural complement to amazon's web services data feeds is data input (for example, the ability to comment on a book on your local blog, and syndicate the review via RSS to amazon's detail page for the book.) And that leads to: <p></p> <p></p></li> <li>We really need to understand who owns what, and come up with mechanisms that protect the legitimate rights of individuals and businesses to their own data, while creating the "liquidity" and free movement of data that will fuel the next great revolution in computer functionality. (I'm doing a panel on this subject at next week's Open Source Convention, entitled "<a href="http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2003/view/e_sess/4526">We Need a Bill of Rights for Web Services</a>.") <p></p> <p></p></li> <li>We need easy gateways between different application domains. I was recently in Finland at a Nokia retreat, and we used camera-enabled cell phones to create a mobile photoblog. That was great. But even more exciting was the ease with which I could send a photo from the phone not just to another phone but also to an email address. This is the functionality that enabled the blog gateway, but it also made it trivial to send photos home to my family and friends. Similarly, I often blog things that I hear on mailing lists, and read many web sites via screen-scraping enabled email lists. It would be nice to have cross-application gateways be a routine part of software, rather than something that has to be hacked on after the fact.</li></ul> <div align="left">The wish list is pretty much a clear articulation of key items that should matter most to decision makers (CTOs and CIOs) ; in particular those that continue to wrestle with the identification and isolation of relevantcomponentsfor their enterprisearchitectures. </div>
Doc Searls is covering the Corporate Weblogging thing.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-26#190
2003-06-26T21:45:36Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<P dir=ltr>Corporate blogging is about data transformation from raw form to contextual form (knowledge aka competitive advantage). The ability to consume, distill, synthesize, and disseminate, is how corporations ultimately attain success or failure. Corporate blogging done the right way is just one of many IT based initiatives at the disposal of those corporations that comprehend the potential impact on their bottom and top lines.</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P>Ahh, <A href="http://doc.weblogs.com/2003/06/24#hearingVoices">Doc Searls is covering the Corporate Weblogging thing</A>.</P> <P>Personally, I think corporate weblogging is a non-event. For instance? Am I a corporate weblogger? I don't think so. I don't have Microsoft's executive blessing for this.</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P dir=ltr>The blessing isn't the point. Corporations have always blogged (or attempted to, they just never called it blogging, or simply lacked cohesive technology to make the concept gel). Every second of the day in any corporation data come in, and goes out (after numerous transformations across a plethora of contexts).</P> <P dir=ltr>Every corporation knows that it has to create, persist, and disseminate knowledge, and like the Internet, Web, XML, Web Services, and now Blogging, technology is simply catching up in a somewhat standardized form.</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P>Funny, I was talking with my boss's boss today. Vic Gundotra (General Manager of Platform Evangelism). I asked him "so, from a Microsoft's exec point of view, what would you like me to do on my weblog?"</P> <P>He answered: "I don't want to tell you what to do, because anything I tell you will only screw it up and make it boring."</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P dir=ltr>Oh, you mean like <A href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/blogs/ericr/">Eric Rudder's weblog</A>? Now I'm in trouble... ;-) </P> <P dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">[via <A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</A>]</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Your boss was right on every count :-)</P>
OpenLink Software Announces Virtuoso 3.2
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-25#187
2003-06-25T21:35:54Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><A href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/virt32_wwdc1.htm">OpenLink Software Announces Virtuoso 3.2 </a></span></p> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This <A href="http://wwdc2003.openlinksw.com/"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT face=Arial size=2>Blog Site</font></span></a> is actually powered by <A href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> 3.2 (has been doing so prior to the announcement). Hmm. product utilization preceding press release? Why not?</span><B><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3></font></span></b></p> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><B><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">OpenLink adds Weblog client and server functionality to <BR>Virtual Database Engine for SQL, XML, and Web Services</span></b><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <BR><BR><B>Burlington, MA. June 25, 2003</b> - OpenLink Software, Inc., a leading provider of universal data access and enterprise information integration middleware, announces Virtuoso 3.2 the latest edition of its cross platform Virtual Database for SQL, XML, and Web Services for Mac® OS X. <BR><BR>The new release incorporates full client and server support for the Blogger, Moveable Type, and MetaWeblog APIs, providing users with choice over location, format, data storage, development environment, and host operating system, for personal, community, and corporate Weblogs. The new release also facilitates the transparent integration of Weblog data with other enterprise data sources. </span></p> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><A href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/virt32_wwdc1.htm"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT face=Arial size=2>Full Press Release</font></span></a></span></p></blockquote> <P dir=ltr><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Putting together the community site took 5 minutes and it basically involved the following steps:</span></p> <P dir=ltr><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">1. Standard installation from installer program (Mac OS X in this case, but Windows, Linux, and UNIX supported)</span></p> <P dir=ltr><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">2. Creation of WebDAV user account for WebDAV repository (where all the gems reside)</span></p> <P dir=ltr><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">3. Clicking on the "Generate Web Site" button situated in the Weblog menu tree with the Virtuoso HTML based Admin UI</span></p> <P dir=ltr><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">4. Filled up my channel and blogrolls by asking Virtuoso to use its <U>very old web</u> content aggregation functionality </span></p> <P dir=ltr><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">5. Setup my upstreams (so that I post once and propagate to my numerous blog sites on a conditional basis)</span></p> <P dir=ltr><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">6. Create a Virtuoso HTTP Virtual Domain for the community/personal Blog </span></p> <P dir=ltr><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">7. Start blogging using any Blog Client that supports; Blogger API, MetaWeblog, or Moveable Type</span></p> <P dir=ltr><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">No more no less. Most importantly I have a choice of programming languages (VSP, VSX, PHP, ASP.NET, JSP, Perl, Python), operating systems, and databases that constitute the shape and form of my blog home. </span></p> <P dir=ltr><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">See the<A href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/faqs.htm"> Virtuoso FAQ </a>for how this all comes together.</span></p>
Amazon.com RSS Feeds
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-25#181
2003-06-25T13:27:02Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<P><A href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_06_22.html#005997">Amazon RSS Feeds</A></P> <P>RSS feeds are everywhere, and they are changing the Web landscape fast. The Web is shifting from distributed freeform database, to distributed semi-structured database. </P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><A href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_06_22.html#005997">Amazon.com RSS Feeds</A> They never got around to it, so we set up <A href="http://www.lockergnome.com/amazon/" target=_blank>160+ separate RSS channels</A> for darn near every type of product on Amazon.com for you. If you have any feedback for this new (free) service, please let us know immediately! We're looking to make it an outstanding and permanent part to your <A href="http://chris.pirillo.com/MySubscriptions.opml" target=_blank>collection</A>. Enjoy! (Chris) [via <A href="http://update.lockergnome.com/">Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes</A>]</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Your Web Site is gradually becoming a database (what?). Yes, your Web Site needs to be driven by database software that can rapidly create RSS feeds for your organizations non XML and XML data sources. Your web site needs to provide direct data access to users, bots, Web Services.</P> <P>Here is my <A href="http://kidehen.com:8890/blogdb/">blog database </A>for instance, you can query the XML data in this database using XQuery, XPath, and Web Services (if I decide to publish any of my XML Query Templates as Web Services). </P> <P>Note the teaser here, each XML document is zero bytes! This is becuase these are live <A href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Virtuoso SQL-XML </A>documents that are producing a variety of XML documents on the fly, which means that they retain a high degree of sensitivity to changes in the underlying databases supplying the data. I could have chosen to make these persistent XML docs with interval based synchronization with the backen data sources (but I chose not to for maximum effect).</P> <P>As you can see SQL and XML (Relational and Hierarchical Models) engines can co-exist in a single server, ditto Object-Relational (which might be hidden from view but could be used in the SQL that serves the SQL-XML docs), ditto Full Text (see the search feature of this blog) and finally, ditto directed graph model for accessing my RDF data.(more on this as the RDF data pool increases).</P> <DIV></DIV>
How Amazon Opens Up And Cleans Up
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-24#179
2003-06-24T13:14:17Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030624/0155223.shtml">How Amazon Opens Up And Cleans Up</a> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Just yesterday we had an article about how Amazon's technology was becoming their <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20030623/0132207.shtml">biggest product</a>, but that could soon change as people continue to innovate around <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2003/tc20030624_9735_tc113.htm">Amazon's web services offering</a>, letting just about anyone access Amazon's vast database, and built interesting and useful applications on it. When they originally launched this offering a number of developers thought it was cool, but weren't sure what could actually be done with it. However, given some time, data, and an open API, creative developers are always going to come up with interesting solutions. I don't know if any of these are really a "killer app" yet, but Amazon now has a vision of being the "e-commerce platform" for the world. There's something appealing about that notion. If, anytime you wanted to sell something on your website, you could easily hook into Amazon's catalog, transaction processing, and fulfillment process, there are some interesting possibilities. Right now, it's just simple things, such as creating a way to automatically match up the top song titles being played on the radio with those CDs at Amazon. In the future, though, you could see how an even bigger and more powerful Amazon could become something of a central "bucket of e-commerce" which many other sites pull from in creative ways. So, then, the question becomes how big is this opportunity, really? As I said, it's an appealing idea, but how many people actually buy through these sorts of applications vs. those who just go to Amazon and buy it themselves. The "killer app" built on top of Amazon would need to have really compelling reasons to buy directly through it - and I don't think anyone's gotten that far yet. [via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</p></blockquote> <p>There is nothing wrong with embracing Open Standards. Amazon is demonstrating</p>
Amazon's Software Emerges As Valuable Product
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-23#176
2003-06-23T14:37:35Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<P><A href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030623/0132207.shtml">Amazon's Software Emerges As Valuable Product</A></P> <P>Amazon has pretty much got it right! <BR>The perennial question re. Web Services has how does one define Web Services in simple terms. My response has always been:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><EM>The ability to interact with a Web Point of Presence without visual navigation. A good example being the ability to send the "amazon.com" site a message in order to order a book instead of physically navigating to the site.</EM> </P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P dir=ltr>This has been my definition since 2001 long before Amazon implemented it's Web Services APIs. </P> <P dir=ltr>In recent times I came a cross this post in the general blogsphere at <A href="http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=club&op=forum&c=10&t=9581&xref=21496">Ecademy</A>(sheer coincedence I might add. I wasn't looking for it, but that's what this emerging semantic web experience is all about):</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P dir=ltr>I thought I'd kick off that old chestnut - "What is a web service?" - again with the definition according to the <A href="http://www.w3.org/" target=_blank>W3C</A>. They should know ... shouldn't they ...<BR><BR><I>A Web service is a software system identified by a URI, whose public interfaces and bindings are defined and described using XML. Its definition can be discovered by other software systems. These systems may then interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its definition, using XML based messages conveyed by Internet protocols.</I><BR><BR><A href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-ws-arch-20021114/#whatisws" target=_blank>http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-ws-arch-20021114/#whatisws</A></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P dir=ltr>Accurate, but kind of obscure for the none technical reader. </P> <P dir=ltr>Sofware companies always seek to reach the land of critical mass (this is the single destination of every software vendor), and critical mass implies the creation of an ecosystem served by the software vendor (Microsoft is king of critical mass and this is the secret of their success!). </P> <P dir=ltr>Amazon as an eCommerce pioneer has pretty much figure this out (their patent pounding sometime compromises this reality, I certainly don't like this part of their behavior), and they have correctly used <A href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/aws/landing.html/102-5810298-5560950">Web Services </A>as the vehicle. </P> <P dir=ltr>Google has pretty much figured this out too, and before Amazon I might add. </P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P dir=ltr><A href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030623/0132207.shtml">Amazon's Software Emerges As Valuable Product</A> I'm surprised that it's taken people this long to realize that the most valuable part of Amazon.com's business might not be their stores, but <A href="http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/6134899.htm">their ability to run stores for others</A>. Amazon.com still has, by far, some of the best technology out there for running an e-commerce site. In the early days of e-commerce, any good online shopping innovation was quickly copied, but more recently it seems that no one has been able to keep up with Amazon's advancements. It's not clear if this is due to Amazon's patent-crazy nature, or if most others have simply given up the fight. Either way, Amazon is doing their best to capitalize on their technology lead, and it seems that there's no shortage of willing customers. [via <A href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</A>] </P></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV dir=ltr>I don't quite understand what eBay is waiting for, especially as the visual web is in decline as we move towards an executable web in which the brand is only as good as the critical mass generated Web Services consumers, and not the eyeballs collated from home page hits.</DIV> <P dir=ltr>See this <A href="http://www.ftrain.com/google_takes_all.html">futuristic piece </A> (How Google beat Amazon and eBay to the Semantic Web) that sheds some speculative light on how this could play out.</P> <P> </P> <DIV align=right> <DIV></DIV></DIV>
Get Ready for Yukon
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-18#138
2003-06-18T05:19:22Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p><a href="http://www.ftponline.com/dotnetmag/2003_06/magazine/columns/sqlconnection/default.asp">Get Ready for Yukon</a> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>The next release of SQL Server promises increased developer productivity and reduced DBA workload. </p> <p>by Roger Jennings June 2003 Issue <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/dotnetmag/">.NET Magazine</a> </p></blockquote> <p>After reading this article I decided to put together a simple comparitive analysis of our existing product and the soon to be released Yukon.</p> <p>Our <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Universal Server</a> product called <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> will compete head on with this future release of SQL Server in many regards (.NET CLR hosting, Native XML Types, SQL-XML, XMLA, Web Services etc.), but I am also keen to see what interesting perspectives Microsoft's implementation brings to the table. Here is a summary comparison, note that some of the hyperlinks in the table below actually take you to live functionality demos (for effect these links point to a Linux server, and you can change the machine part of the url from "demo" to "kingsleydemo" to see the equivalent demos on an XP server).</p> <table width="97%" border="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="42%"><font size="2"></font></td></tr></tbody></table>
Ingres - A Forgotten Database, the untold story
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-17#279
2003-06-17T11:18:57Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<P><A href="http://www.it-director.com/article.php?articleid=10951">Ingres - A Forgottent Database The Untold Story</A></P> <P><EM>Ingres (technically, Advantage Ingres Enterprise) is, arguably, the forgotten database. There used to be five major databases: Oracle, DB2, Sybase, Informix and Ingres. Then along came Microsoft and, if you listened to most press comment (or the lack of it), you would think that there were only two of these left, plus SQL Server</EM>. [From <A href="http://www.it-director.com/article.php?articleid=10951">IT-Director</A>]</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM would certainly like the illusion of a 3 horse race, as this is the only way they can induce Ingres, Informix, and Sybase users to jump ship, and this, even though database migrations are by far the most risk prone and problematic aspects of any IT infrastructure. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Here is the interesting logic from the self-made big three, if you want to take advanatage of new paradigms and technologies such as XML, Web Services, and anything else in the pipeline you have to move all your data out of these databases, and then get all the mission critical applications re-associated with one of these databases, and by the way when you do so it is advisable that you use native interfaces (so that sometime in the future you have no chance whatsoever of repeating this folly at their expense).<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The simple fact of the matter (which the self-made big three do not want you to know) is that you can put ODBC, JDBC, even platform specific data access APIs such as OLE DB and ADO.NET atop any of these databases, and then explore and exploit the benefits of new technologies and paradigms as long as the tool pool supports one of more of these standards.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Unfortunately the no-brainer above appears to be the more difficult of the choices before decision makers. In other words, many would rather dig themselves into a deeper hole (unknowingly i can only presume) that ultimately leads to technology lock-in.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The biggest challenge before any RDBMS based infrastructure today isn't which of the self-made big three to migrate to wholesale, rather, how to make progressive use of the pool of disparate applications, and application databases that proliferate the enterprise. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This is another way of understanding the burgeoning market for Virtual Databases, which in my opiion present the new frontier in database technology.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P> <P> </P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<a href="http://www.sys-con.com/xml/article2a.cfm?id=652&count=18437&tot=14&page=12">piece</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-11#276
2003-06-11T21:13:07Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<P>An interesting <A href="http://www.sys-con.com/xml/article2a.cfm?id=652&count=18437&tot=14&page=12">piece</A> by Michael Carey architect for Liquid Data at BEA re. Enterprise Information Integration from <A href="http://www.sys-con.com/xml">XML Journal</A>.</P> <P>Key quote.</P> <P><EM>Since the dawn of the database era more than three decades ago, enterprises have been amassing an ever-increasing volume of information - both current and historical - about their operations. For the past two of those three decades, the database world has struggled with the problem of somehow integrating information that natively resides in multiple database systems or other information sources (Landers and Rosenberg).</EM> </P> <P>This is the root cause of many of the systems integration challenges facing may IT decsion makers. They want to exploit the new and emerging technologies, but the internal disparity of data and application logic presents many obstacles.</P> <P>Michael had this to say in his introduction.</P> <P><EM>The IT world knows this problem today as the enterprise information integration (EII) problem: enterprise applications need to be able to easily access and combine information about a given business entity from a distributed and highly varied collection of information sources. Relevant sources include various relational database systems (RDBMSs); packaged applications from vendors such as Siebel, PeopleSoft, SAP, and others; "homegrown" proprietary systems; and an increasing number of data sources that are starting to speak XML, such as XML files and Web services</EM>.<BR></P> <P>Virtuoso (which coincedentally has been used to build and host this blog) has been developed to address the challenges presented above; by providing a Virtual Database Engine for disparate data and application logic (all the GEMs on this page have been generated on the fly using it's SQL-XML functionality).</P> <P>Additional article excerpts:<BR><EM>With XQuery, the solution sketched above can be implemented by viewing the enterprise's different data sources all as virtual XML documents and functions. XQuery can stitch the distributed customer information together into a comprehensive, reusable base view.</EM> </P> <P>A critical issue at this point is how sensistive the XML VIEW is to underlying data source changes. Enterprises are dynamic, so static XML VIEWs are going to be suboptimal in many situations. Applications are only as relevant as the underlying data fluidity served up by the data access (this issue is data format agnostic).</P> <P>Virtuoso addresses this problem through its support of Persistent and Transient forms of XML VIEWs (which are derived from SQL, XML, Web Services, or any combination of these).</P> <P>Final excerpt:<BR><EM>The relational data sources can be exposed using simple default XML Schemas, and the other sources - SAP and the credit-checking Web service - can be exposed to XQuery as callable XQuery functions with appropriate signatures.</EM> </P> <P>Unfortunately XML Schemas aren't easy, so making this a requirement for producing XML VIEWs is somewhat problematic (or should I say challenging). Of course this approach has it merits, but it does put a significant knowledge acquisition burden on the end-user or developer. This is why Virtuoso also supports an approach based on SQL extensions for generating XML from SQL that facilitate the production of Well Formed and/or Valid XML documents on the fly from heterogeneous SQL Data Sources (this syntax is identical to the FOR XML RAW | AUTO | EXPLICIT modes of SQL Server). It can also use it's in-built XSL-T engine to further transform other non SQL XML data sources (and then generate an XML Schema for the final product if required and validate against this schema using it's in-build XML Schema validaton engine).</P> <P>This article certainly sheds light on the kinds of problems that EII based technologies such as Virtual Databases are positioned to address.</P> <P>There is a live XQuery demo of Virtuoso at: <A href="http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/xqdemo"><a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/xqdemo">http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/xqdemo</a></A></P>
Inner-Browsing
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-03#356
2003-06-03T17:30:57Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<A href="http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2003/inner-browsing/">Inner-Browsing: Extending Web Browsing the Navigation Paradigm</A> This article introduces a paradigm where navigation and access to information occurs inside a web page - as opposed to the traditional model where a new web page is sent to the web browser when new information is requested. [via <A href="http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/">DevEdge Viewsource</A>] <DIV><EM></EM> </DIV> <DIV><EM>A very good read!</EM></DIV> <DIV><EM>This pretty much set the stage for our new dynamic Web Services demos which demonstrate how SOAP support in Mozilla can be used to reduce round trips of conventional web applications. This capability was IE specific (as per our demos) until Mozilla's addition of SOAP extensions to its Javascript implementation.</EM></DIV>
BEA Systems and Salesforce.com Announce Strategic Alliance to Deliver BEA WebLogic Workshop Java Controls for sforce
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-03#83
2003-06-03T10:36:34Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<A href="http://www.bea.com/framework.jsp?CNT=pr01057.htm&FP=/content/news_events/press_releases/2003">BEA Systems and Salesforce.com Announce Strategic Alliance to Deliver BEA WebLogic Workshop Java Controls for sforce</A> BEA Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAS), the world's leading application infrastructure software company, and salesforce.com, the world leader in delivering software-as-service, today announced a strategic alliance to provide services-oriented application development solutions based on BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 and the BEA WebLogic Enterprise PlatformT. The companies' alliance will help advance sforce - the first client/service application development framework that enables enterprises to rapidly build and deliver business applications using the software-as-service model. <DIV align=right>[via <A href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/news/releases.html">Loosely Coupled news releases live feed</A>] <DIV></DIV></DIV> <P><EM>When will these guys get? You don't implement industry standards in order to become product or vendor dependent. Web Services support should not reduce choice of Application Servers. I guess we need to show them what I mean via our eCRM; it services will be SOAP consumable via a WSDL file and that's it.</EM></P>
Weblog API Multiplexer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-29#65
2003-05-29T16:25:29Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<A href="http://internetalchemy.org/2003/05/weblogAPIMultiplexer.html">Weblog API Multiplexer</A> After reading this article by Ben Hammersley, it stuck me that what the weblog community needs is a Weblog API Multiplexer service. This would be a service that would accept a ping containing some posting info, e.g. the entry's trackback... [via <A href="http://internetalchemy.org/">Internet Alchemy</A>] <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><EM>I smell new Virtuoso Blog features here. This article sheds light on the fundamental value of Web Services, and its intersection with emerging blog section of the SemWeb (Semantic Web), without explicity seeking to do so (based on my reading). </EM></DIV> <DIV><EM></EM> </DIV> <DIV><EM>At the time making this blog entry, it would be nice if I could create a metadata entry that references this article (make a statement about the article in general, and then make a specific statement about "intersection" as used above). Yes, "intersection", what does this mean (as used in my paragraph above)? That where ontologies come into play, the use of "intersection" means something to me (but not the the SemWeb client that pick of the statement from my metadata repository; RDF doc for instance).</EM></DIV> <DIV><EM></EM> </DIV> <DIV><EM>So we need to have standard annotation terms (ontologies) when persisting metadata statements (RDF). </EM></DIV>
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3220">WWW2003 -- day two</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-22#320
2003-05-22T14:13:52Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<A href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3220">WWW2003 -- day two</A> Facts and figures about WWW2003; W3C standards update; progress report on 802.11b-enabled community coverage. <DIV align=right>[via <A href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs</A>]</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE cite=http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-ws-arch-20030514/#id2608426> <P align=center>A Web service is a <STRONG>software system</STRONG> identified by a URI, whose public interfaces and bindings are <STRONG>defined and described using XML</STRONG>. Its definition can be discovered by other software systems. These systems may then interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its definition, using <STRONG>XML based messages</STRONG> conveyed by <STRONG>Internet protocols</STRONG>.</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P class=author align=center><A href="http://www.w3.org/People/Hugo/">Hugo Haas, W3C</A></P> <P class=author align=left><EM>As result of the above Web Services enable browserless consumption of services available at a URI. Good examples being the ability to purchase a book, CD, or any other item from Amazon without browser based interaction with the Amazon site (URI: </EM><A id=tabs__ctl3_overviewDocUrl href="http://soap.amazon.com/schemas2/AmazonWebServices.wsdl" target=_new>http://soap.amazon.com/schemas2/AmazonWebServices.wsdl</A> and UDDI Discovery URI: <A href="http://uddi.microsoft.com/discovery?businesskey=bfb9dc23-adec-4f73-bd5f-5545abaeaa1b">http://uddi.microsoft.com/discovery?businesskey=bfb9dc23-adec-4f73-bd5f-5545abaeaa1b</A>) <EM>. <BR><BR>Further reading:</EM></P> <P class=author align=left><EM>W3C Web Services Architecture Draft: <A href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/">http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/</A><BR>W3C Web Services Glossary: <A href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-gloss/">http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-gloss/</A></EM></P>
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3220">WWW2003 -- day two</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-22#49
2003-05-22T14:13:52Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<A href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3220">WWW2003 -- day two</A> Facts and figures about WWW2003; W3C standards update; progress report on 802.11b-enabled community coverage. <DIV align=right>[via <A href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs</A>]</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE cite=http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-ws-arch-20030514/#id2608426> <P align=center>A Web service is a <STRONG>software system</STRONG> identified by a URI, whose public interfaces and bindings are <STRONG>defined and described using XML</STRONG>. Its definition can be discovered by other software systems. These systems may then interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its definition, using <STRONG>XML based messages</STRONG> conveyed by <STRONG>Internet protocols</STRONG>.</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P class=author align=center><A href="http://www.w3.org/People/Hugo/">Hugo Haas, W3C</A></P> <P class=author align=left><EM>As result of the above Web Services enable browserless consumption of services available at a URI. Good examples being the ability to purchase a book, CD, or any other item from Amazon without browser based interaction with the Amazon site (URI: </EM><A id=tabs__ctl3_overviewDocUrl href="http://soap.amazon.com/schemas2/AmazonWebServices.wsdl" target=_new>http://soap.amazon.com/schemas2/AmazonWebServices.wsdl</A> and UDDI Discovery URI: <A href="http://uddi.microsoft.com/discovery?businesskey=bfb9dc23-adec-4f73-bd5f-5545abaeaa1b">http://uddi.microsoft.com/discovery?businesskey=bfb9dc23-adec-4f73-bd5f-5545abaeaa1b</A>) <EM>. <BR><BR>Further reading:</EM></P> <P class=author align=left><EM>W3C Web Services Architecture Draft: <A href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/">http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/</A><BR>W3C Web Services Glossary: <A href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-gloss/">http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-gloss/</A></EM></P>
<p>IBM TO SHIP DB2 INTEGRATION SOFTWARE</p>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-16#301
2003-05-16T20:34:07Z
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<FONT size=2> <P>IBM TO SHIP DB2 INTEGRATION SOFTWARE</P> <P>Posted May 15, 2003 4:46 PM Pacific Time</P> <P>IBM on Tuesday plans to announce availability of its DB2 Information Integrator software, for integrating and analyzing multiple forms of information, the company acknowledged on Thursday.</P> <P>In beta since February, the software is intended to enable customers to manage centrally data, text, images, photos, video and audio files stored in different databases, according to IBM. XML content and Web services also are supported.</P> <P><EM><STRONG>Interesting Quote:</STRONG></EM></P> <P class=ArticleBody page="1">"If we move to information as a utility for giant data grids, this is key technology for hiding or making unimportant the location and type of data. This software enables the data to be accessed transparently wherever it might be," Jones said. </P> <P class=ArticleBody page="1"><EM><STRONG>Product Pricing</STRONG></EM><BR>DB2 Information Integrator will be available for $20,000 per processor and $15,000 per data source connector.<BR>Detail will also be available on Tuesday. </P> <P class=ArticleBody page="1">The cost for a bulk adapter license is about $75,000. If change capture is involved, the adapter license costs about $150,000. Real-time integration costs are mips-based, with a starting cost of about $300,000. One adapter can be used to translate and make native calls to all environments. <BR><BR><EM>Very interesting pricing! </EM></P> <P class=ArticleBody page="1">For the full story: </FONT><A href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/15/HNdb2integrate_1.html"><U><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/15/HNdb2integrate_1.html">http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/15/HNdb2integrate_1.html</a></U></FONT></A></P>