A hands on overview of the semantic web

Alex Genadinik
Shamod Lacoul
Semantic Web Overview
mage Source: http://www.e-clipsblog.co.uk/wp-content/semantic-web.jpg

• What is the Semantic Web?
• Why use the Semantic Web?
• RDF for data representation
• RDFS - data schemas (models)
• SPARQL - RDF query language
• RDFa
• Linked Open Data
• OWL - Web Ontology Language
Outline

Which Semantic Web?
• Taxonomy
• Linked Data
• Ontology
• Open Web
• Reasoning
• NLP
• Ontologies
• Sem Web for Biz
• Smart Web
• Smarter Applications
• Improved Search
• Machine Learning (A.I)

Web vs. Semantic Web
Web --> links documents to documents
Semantic Web --> links data to data.

Semantic Web Advantages
Universal data representation (using RDF)
Reusable data models (using RDF, RDFS, and OWL)
W3C Standard query language (SPARQL)
Information validation and classification (reasoners)

Use Cases for Semantic Data
Common Data Model
• RDF is a universal data format
• RDF data can be mapped to and from relational, XML and
object models
• Even better, execute SPARQL queries remotely to retrieve
just the subset of data you need

Uses of XML in RDF
• RDF/XML is one type of RDF serialization
• XSD datatypes
• Namespaces
mage Source: http://www.spycomponents.com/images/xml_at_work.gif

Vocabulary: Namespace
Namespace - a concept borrowed from XML
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
prefix -> rdf:
namespace URI -> http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type>
is the same as
rdf:type

Vocabulary: URI
Universal Resource Identifier - a unique ID
http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Sessions#SemWeb
Namespace - http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Sessions#

Fragment Identifier - SemWeb

What is RDF?
A Universal Data Model consisting
of statements:
subject - predicate - object
the set of RDF statements form a graph
Informal example:
ns1:myHouse ns2:hasColor pantone:chartreuse
pantone:chartreuse pantone:redComponent "13"^^xsd:int
pantone:chartreuse pantone:greenComponent "214"^^xsd:int

This particular SVCC session (let's call it "SemWeb")
has the title "A Hands-On Introduction to the Semantic Web"
and the description "The Semantic Web is in its infancy ..."
<http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/sessions#SemWeb>
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type>
<http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/rdfs#Sessions>
has the
<http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title>
of
"A Hands-On Introduction to the Semantic Web"^^xsd:string
and the
<http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description>
of
"The Semantic Web is in its infancy ..."^^xsd:string
An RDF Example

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
xmlns:svcc="http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/rdfs#"
xml:base="http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/sesssions">
<rdf:Description
rdf:ID="http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/sesssions#SemWeb">
<rdf:type rdf:resource="svcc:Session" />
<dc:title>A Hands-On Introduction to the Semantic Web</dc:title>
<dc:description>The Semantic Web is in its infancy ...</dc:description>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
RDF/XML

Other forms of RDF Serialization
N3, TURTLE, N-Triple, etc.
@prefix dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .
@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix svcc: <http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/rdfs#> .
<http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/sesssions#SemWeb>
a svcc:Session ;
dc:description "The Semantic Web is in its infancy ..." ;
dc:title "A Hands-On Introduction to the Semantic Web" ;

RDF (Graph-based) != XML (Tree-based).
RDF graphs represent information
XML trees represent data
RDF/XML serializes RDF
RDF vs. XML

• RDF statements are stored in RDF Repositories
o Also called triple stores
• Data can be accessed via:
o SPARQL queries
o API calls
o Text searches
RDF storage

What is RDFS?
a representation for defining schemas for RDF

RDF Schema
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"
xml:base="http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/rdfs">
<rdfs:Class rdf:ID="Session" />
<rdfs:Class rdf:ID="Speaker">
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person" />
</rdfs:Class>
<rdf:Property rdf:ID="presenter">
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource="#Session" />
<rdfs:range rdf:resource="#Speaker" />
<rdfs:label>Presenter</rdfs:label>
</rdf:Property>
</rdf:RDF>

RDFS: Classes
and Properties
Property Name
rdf:type
rdfs:subClassOf
rdfs:subPropertyOf
rdfs:domain
rdfs:range
rdfs:label
rdfs:comment
rdfs:member
rdf:first
rdf:rest
rdfs:seeAlso
rdfs:isDefinedBy
rdf:value
rdf:subject
rdf:object
rdf:predicateSource: http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-schema/
Class Name
rdf:List
rdfs:ContainerMembershipProperty
rdfs:Container
rdf:Alt
rdf:Seq
rdf:Bag
rdf:Statement
rdfs:Datatype
rdf:Property
rdfs:Class
rdf:XMLLiteral
rdfs:Resource

SPARQL
• a W3C standard query language to fetch data from
distributed Semantic Web data models (mainly, RDF and
OWL)
• a concept similar to SQL for Database
• can query a triple-store (local RDF repository) or data on the
Web (at a URL)

SPARQL - a query language for RDF
PREFIX svcc:<http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/rdfs#>
PREFIX dc:<http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX rdfs:<http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX rdf:<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
SELECT DISTINCT ?title ?presenter ?description
WHERE
{
?session rdf:type svcc:Session .
?session dc:title ?title .
?session svcc:presenter ?presenter .
?session dc:description ?description .
}

PREFIX dc:<http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX rdfs:<http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX rdf:<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX fn: <http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions#>
SELECT ?title ?presenter ?description
WHERE
{
?session dc:title ?title .
?session svcc:presenter ?presenter .
FILTER (fn:string-length(?description) < 100)
}

PREFIX dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
CONSTRUCT { ?session svcc:abstract ?description }
WHERE
{
}
LIMIT 2

PREFIX svcc: <http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/rdfs#>
PREFIX speaker: <http://www.siliconvalley-
codecamp.com/speakers#>
ASK
{
?x svcc:presenter speaker:Shamod_Lacoul
}

Other SPARQL operations
Operation
DESCRIBE
SPARQL/UPDATE - a query language to fulfill CRUD operations
INSERT & DELETE
WHERE operations
OPTIONAL
UNION
ORDER BY
DISTINCT
REDUCED
OFFSET
LIMIT
Reference Clause
FROM
FROM NAMED

Linking Open Data (RDF)
• 4.7 billion RDF triples
• 142 million RDF links (as of May 2009)
• LOD examples
o DBPedia, Freebase
o BBC, MusicBrainz, Flickr
o SIOC, FOAF
Copyright © 2009 Hewett Research, LLC

Questions about SPARQL or RDFa?
See http://www.hewettresearch.com/svcc2009/
for related materials.
Coming next:
• OWL - Web Ontology Language
• SWRL - Semantic Web Rule Language

Web Ontology Language (OWL)
An extension to RDF/RDFS to enable complex
knowledge representations
a language for defining and instantiating
ontologies
An OWL ontology may include descriptions of
classes, properties and their instances.
Based on Open-World Assumption - what is not
known is not "untrue", just "unknown".

Flavors of OWL ontologies
OWL Lite - supports classification in hierarchies and simple
constraints
OWL DL - correspondence with Description Logics
OWL Full - maximum expressiveness
OWL 2 - (W3C Candidate Recommendation, June 2009)
• OWL 2 EL - has computational guarantees
• OWL 2 QL - maps to database technologies
• OWL 2 RL - computationally efficient

OWL: Classes
and Properties
Classes
owl:Class
rdfs:subClassOf
Properties
owl:ObjectProperty
owl:DatatypeProperty
rdfs:subPropertyOf
rdfs:domain
rdfs:range
Property Charactersitic
owl:TransitiveProperty
owl:FunctionalProperty
owl:inverseOf
owl:InverseFunctionalPropertyProperty Restrictions
owl:allValuesFrom
owl:someValuesFrom
owl:cardinality
owl:hasValue
Equivalence
owl:equivalentClass
owl:equivalentProperty
owl:sameAs
Complex Classes
owl:intersectionOf
owl:unionOf
owl:complementOf
NOTE: A subset of OWL Classes and Properties
Source: http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-guide/

Compare other models to SemWeb Models
Database XML RDF OWL
Expressiveness medium low medium high
Accessibility low medium high high
Inferencing low low medium high
Flexibility low medium medium medium

Advantages of RDF and OWL
Expressiveness (explicit metadata)
Inherently Distributed
Easier data interchange
Reasoning and Inferencing capabilities.

Reasoning / Inferencing
Both refer to ways of inferring more information than is in the
asserted data model
• Reasoning does two things:
o Validates information:
 domain & range of properties
 valid subclasses & instances
o Classifies instances based on their properties
o Uses logic - usually first-order predicate logic
• Inferencing uses explicit rules
o typically domain-specific rules
o SWRL and RIF are the W3C standard rule languages

OWL example / demo
See http://www.hewettresearch.com/svcc2009/
for related materials.
Coming next:
• SWRL - Semantic Web Rule Language
• Useful tools, companies and links

Semantic Web Tools
Jena (O)
Sesame (O)
AllegroGraph (OC)
Virtuoso (C)
Protege (O)
TopQuadrant (OC)
Java libraries for RDF/OWL
RDF Repositories (Triplestores)
Semantic Web Editor
O - Open Source
C - Closed Source
OC - Open & Closed
OWLIM (OC)

Popular Public Ontologies
FOAF NCBO
Dublin Core
GoodRelations
MusicBrainz

Helpful References and Books
• http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/BestPractices/Tutorials
• http://www.w3.org/TR/rdfa-syntax/
• http://jena.sourceforge.net/documentation.html
• http://protege.stanford.edu/publications/ontology_developmen
• http://www.devx.com/semantic/Door/34578
• http://semanticweb.com
• http://semanticuniverse.com/
• http://www.mkbergman.com/

A hands on overview of the semantic web

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