1. An Introduction to The
Semantic Web: a knowledge
modelling perspective
© Copyright 2007 STI - INTERNATIONAL www.sti2.org
John Domingue
President STI International

2. Caveat
• Not an historical overview
• Singular perspective of some underlying
motivations and issues related to the Semantic Web
www.sti2.org

3. MOTIVATION &
APPLICATION SCENARIO
www.sti2.org

5. Agenda
• Building K-HAL v1.0
www.sti2.org
– Influences
– Ontology
– Conceptualisation
– Knowledgebase
– Critique
• Building K-HAL v2.0
– Ontologies
– Data
– Getting help
• Building K-HAL v3.0
• Conclusions

6. Spacecraft piloting and navigation only – the reasoning and
knowledge parts
BUILDING K-HAL V1.0
www.sti2.org
5/12/2007 - Vienna

7. INFLUENCES
www.sti2.org

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Cognitive Psychology

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Semantic Network
Collins and Quillian 1967

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Knowledge Level (Allen Newell, 1982)
Knowledge Level
Symbol Level
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Physical Level

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Knowledge Level
Symbol Level
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Physical Level
Knowledge
Goals
Principle of
Rationality
Agent
Observer
Knowledge Level (Allen Newell, 1982)

12. ONTOLOGY
www.sti2.org

13. Informal Ontology Explanation
• Used to structure knowledge
• Facilitates interoperability
• Formal explicit shared
conceptualisation of a domain
• A set of concepts, relationships
and individuals over which
there is an agreed consensus
www.sti2.org

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Ontology Construction

15. CONCEPTUALISATION
www.sti2.org

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Let’s talk to some smart people…

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Conceptualisation

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Conceptualisation
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Re-conceptualisaiton
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Re-conceptualisaiton
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Re-conceptualisaiton
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Re-conceptualisaiton
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Re-conceptualisaiton
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Re-conceptualisaiton
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Re-conceptualisaiton
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Re-conceptualisaiton
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27. Concepts Relations
Engineered Artifact
Celestial Body
www.sti2.org
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K-HAL v 1.0 Ontology (small portion)
Space Ship
Has Component
Rocket
Generates Thrust
Star
Planet Asteroid
Agent
Crew
Human Crew
Onboard AI
Has Name
Has Mass
Has Volume

28. K-HAL V1.0
KNOWLEDGE BASE
www.sti2.org

29. Concepts Relations
Engineered Artifact
Celestial Body
www.sti2.org
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K-HAL v 1.0 Ontology (small portion)
Space Ship
Has Component
Rocket
Generates Thrust
Star
Planet Asteroid
Agent
Crew
Human Crew
Onboard AI
Has Name
Has Mass
Has Volume

30. Concepts Relations
Engineered Artifact
Celestial Body
www.sti2.org
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K-HAL v 1.0 Ontology/KB (small portion)
Space Ship
Has Component
Rocket
Generates Thrust
Star
Planet Asteroid
Agent
Crew
Human Crew
Onboard AI
Has Name
Has Mass
Has Volume
HAL
Dave Boorman
The Sun Jupiter

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Knowledge Base

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CYC
Open CYC v 4.0
239,000 concepts and
2,093,000 facts

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K-HAL v 1.0
Ontology
Knowledge Base
Input/Output
Vision system
Speech Generation
Speech Understanding
User
Reasoner

34. What’s wrong with K-HAL v 1.0?
• ????
www.sti2.org

35. BUILDING K-HAL V2.0
www.sti2.org
5/12/2007 - Vienna

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Underlying Principles
Be Lazy
Be kind and share

37. K-HAL V2.0 ONTOLOGIES
www.sti2.org

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Why work when you can Google?

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DBpedia

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Astronomical Objects

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Astronomical Ontology (portion)

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Space Shuttle Ontology
Aft-Fusulage
Air-Sampling-System
Airlock
Auxilliar-Power-Unit
Avionics-System
Body-Flap
Caution-And-Warning-System
Communication
Crew-Apparel
Crew-Compartment
Crew-Equipment
Crew-Equipment-Stowage
Eletrical-Power-Distribution
Eletrical-Power-System
Emergency-Egress-Slide
Environmental-Control-and-Life-Support-
System
Exercise-Equipment
External-Tank
External-Tank-Hardware
Food-System-and-Dining
Forward-Fuselage
Hold-Down-Post
Housekeeping
Hydaraulic-System
Hydarulic-Power-Units
Inflyght-Crew-Escape-System
Intertank
Landing-Gear-System
Liquid-Hydrogen-Tank
Liquid-Oxygen-Tank
Main-Propulsion-System
Microcassete-Recorder
Midfuselage
Operational-Bioinstrumentation-System
Orbial-Manuevering-System
Orbital-Maneuvering-System
Orbiter-External-Tank-Seperation-System
Orbiter-Flight-Crew-Escape-System
Orbiter-Passive-Contro-Systeml
Orbiter-Purge-Vent-Drain-System
Orbiter-Structure
OrbiterManufacturingandAssembly
Payload-Bay-Doors
Personal-Hygiene-Provision
Photographic-Equipment
Radiation-Equipement
Range-Safety-Siystem
Range-Safety-Siystem-Tank
Reach-Aid
Reaction-Control-System
Restraints-And-Mobility-Aids
RSB-Descent-and-Recovery
Secondary-Emergency-Egress
Shuttle
Shuttle-Orbiter-Medical-System
ShuttleName
Sighiting-Aids
Sleeping-Provision
Solid-Roket-Boosters
Sound-Level-Meter
Space-Shuttle-Coordinate-System
Space-Shuttle-Orbiter-System
Space-Transportation-System
SRB-Ignition
SRB-Rate-Gyro-Assemblies
SRB-Separation
Thermal-Protection-System
Thermal-Protection-System-Orbiter
Thrust-Vector-Control
Vertical-Tail
Water-Spray-Boilers
Wicket-Tabs
Windows
Wing

44. Problems to be resolved (ontology)
• Finding ontologies
• Understanding ontologies
• Connecting ontologies
• Adapting ontologies
• Version control
• Agility
www.sti2.org
– New ontologies, changes in used ontologies …
• …….

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Building and Using Ontologies
Elena Simperl Tutorial 10:45am Tuesday

46. K-HAL V2.0 DATA
www.sti2.org
Be Lazy

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Solar Objects > 400km Radius

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Spacecraft component data

50. Problems to be resolved
• Finding semantic data
• Transforming unstructured data to a semantic
format
• Transforming structured data to a semantic format
• Connecting semantic datasets
• Querying/reasoning over connected semantic data
• Sharing new data
• Agility
www.sti2.org
– New datasets, changes in used datasets…

51. Linked Data Basics
• Fundamentals of Linked Data: main standards &
technology components, motivating application
scenario
www.sti2.org
– Barry Norton Tutorial 10:45am today
• Querying Linked Data: SPARQL 101
– Irini Fundulaki Tutorial 2pm today
• Semantic Web languages and standards: RDF,
RDFS, SPARQL
– Barry Norton & Irini Fundulaki Hands-on: 3:30pm today

52. Publishing and Using Linked Data
• Providing and consuming Linked Data
www.sti2.org
– Maribel Acosta Tutorial 2:30pm Tuesday
• Publishing and consuming Linked Open Data
– Maribel Acosta Hands-on 4pm Tuesday

53. Linked Data and the Unstructured
World
• Linked Data for NLP
www.sti2.org
– Barry Norton Tutorial Wednesday 10:45am
• Using Linked Data and GATE
– Barry Norton & Isabelle Augenstein Wednesday 11:30am

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Getting everybody to help…
*picture suggested by Dan Brickley

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GalaxyZoo

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More Zoos

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Crowdsourcing AI

58. Getting help tutorials and hands-on
• Social Semantic Web and crowdsourcing
www.sti2.org
– Elena Simperl Tutorial Wednesday 2pm
• Using Mechanical Turk to solve Linked Data
problems
– Maribel Acosta Hands-on Wednesday 3pm

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K-HAL v 1.0
Ontology
Knowledge Base
Input/Output
Vision system
Speech Generation
Speech Understanding
User
Reasoner

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K-HAL v 2.0 Architecture
Linked Open
Vocabularies
Linked Open
Data
HAL Ontology
HAL Facts in
RDF Store
Reasoner
Input/Output
Vision system
Speech Generation
Speech Understanding
Crowdsourced
facts
Corporate data

61. What about processes?
BUILDING K-HAL V3.0
www.sti2.org
5/12/2007 - Vienna

62. www.sti2.org

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Virtual Choir

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Choir
Autonomous singers
Available online

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Conductor
Dictates song
Common notation
Selects performances
Edits and mixes
Choir
Autonomous singers
Available online

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Listener
Has a desire
Has preferences
Conductor
Dictates song
Common notation
Selects performances
Edits and mixes
Choir
Autonomous singers
Available online

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68. Conclusions (1/2)
www.sti2.org
In its current state the Semantic Web/Web
of Data facilitates the re-use of ontologies
and data
• Other problems arise associated with
ontology and data quality, adapting/
aligning ontologies and data …
• Good SW/LD practitioners know online
ontologies and datasets as a good
researcher knows the related literature
Be Lazy

69. Conclusions (2/2)
www.sti2.org
Releasing ontologies and data
• Provides a community benefit for
expected and unexpected uses
• Can increase the value of the released
artifacts
• May be obligated depending on context
(e.g. if paid for by public funding)
• Has associated issues related to
training, quality, privacy,
maintenance….
Be kind and
share

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THANKS