About
In a nutshell, the mission of Knowledge Web was to strengthen the European industry and service providers in one of the most important areas of computer technology at the time: Semantic Web-enabled e-work and e-commerce. We concentrated our efforts on the outreach of this technology to industry. Naturally, this included education and research efforts to ensure the durability of impact and support for industry. The project ran from 2004 to 2007 and was supported by the European Union Information Society initiative Framework VI grant no. FP6-507482.
Categories of Objectives
- Outreach to Industry
- Outreach to Education
- Coordination of Research
We at KMi were significantly involved in the second area of interest—the outreach to education. The goal was to establish a Virtual Institute for Semantic Web Education (VISWE), which would act as the principal focus for educational activities on the Semantic Web. In working towards this end, we built on the experience of several leading European university groups in designing and delivering courses in this area to provide up-to-date learning materials, curricula, and, ultimately, new degree programs. At the same time, we enhanced the delivery of course materials by making use of novel Semantic Web technologies in combination with more traditional e-learning environments. VISWE was unparalleled elsewhere in the world and provided a competitive advantage to European research and industry.
Within the project, we built a showcase illustrating the value of applying Semantic Web technologies to support learning on the web. This work built on a number of already-existing KMi technologies, including Magpie, ScholOnto, and BuddySpace, as well as on our experience in supporting the successful distributed computing project climateprediction.net.
Moreover, we were also in charge of the main educational activities of the Network of Excellence, and in particular, Prof. Enrico Motta was the Director of the annual European Summer School on Ontological Engineering and the Semantic Web (SSSW), the premier educational event in the area of the Semantic Web.
Semantic Tools
The success of the internet radically transformed the way people worked, studied, shopped, and communicated. But the next-generation web, which was being developed, had the potential to perform many more tasks for users, thanks to intelligent software capable of interpreting meaning to better understand their needs. For instance, future search engines were expected to no longer merely look for keywords and pick out all the websites that contained them; instead, they would be able to interpret the meaning of the questions they were given, using a new generation of ‘semantic mark-up’ language that was being developed by researchers worldwide. More significantly, it also made possible the development of ‘smart agents’ that could collaborate with one another on behalf of users.
ASPL/Magpie Semantic Engine
Magpie (or Advanced Semantic Platform for Learning, ASPL – as it was known in KnowledgeWeb) was an experimental Semantic Web ‘filter’ developed at The Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute. It functioned as a streamlined toolbar that sat within a web browser and helped users find and further elaborate on topics of interest. In the context of climateprediction.net, it was a fair bet that users had some interest in climate prediction, but Magpie had broader applicability as well. Magpie automatically highlighted key items of interest within any web page a user visited, and for each highlighted term, it provided a set of ‘services’ (e.g., explanations, examples, further links) when the user right-clicked on the item.
Evaluation of the Magpie/ASPL Demonstrator
If users wanted to try out the Magpie/ASPL demonstrator (version 1), they needed to first download the actual Magpie/ASPL software and then download and fill in the evaluation questionnaire. In addition, they could use the ASPL Readme file, which briefly summarized the key aspects of using ASPL.
Team
Dr. Martin Dzbor
(Knowledge Media Institute)
Dr. Arthur Stutt
(Knowledge Media Institute)
Prof. Enrico Motta
(Knowledge Media Institute)
Michele Pasin
(Knowledge Media Institute)
Publications
Achieving Higher-level Learning Through Adaptable Semantic Web Applications
(Martin Dzbor, Enrico Motta & Arthur Stutt; Int.J.Knowledge & Learning, Vol.1, No.1/2)
Semantic Webs for Learning: A Vision and Its Realisation
(Arthur Stutt & Enrico Motta; EKAW 2004)
Opening Up Magpie via Semantic Services
(Martin Dzbor, Enrico Motta & John Domingue; ISWC 2004)
Magpie: Browsing and Navigating on the Semantic Web
(John Domingue, Martin Dzbor & Enrico Motta; IUI 2004)
Semantic Layering with Magpie
(John Domingue, Martin Dzbor & Enrico Motta)
