The semantic web

“I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all
the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and
computers.
A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it
does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be
handled by machines talking to machines.
The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.”

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web 1999

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web
The semantic web

Mostly flat information

Some databases but

content very functional

Little engagement or
interactivity
The semantic web

Greater interactivity

Growth of social media /

social networking

Online communities
created / social capital
The semantic web

Joining up of information

Data portability

Browsers and search

engines become more
‘intelligent’
The semantic web

Works but is clunky, not that efficient, technically limited

The semantic web

Smoother experience, looks better, still lacks cohesion

The semantic web

Greater scope for exploration, limitless potential, smart

The semantic web
The semantic web

OK, so we’ve seen how the web is evolving.

Let’s get into semantics.

Firstly, we’ll look at the traditional web model…

The semantic web

Let’s introduce Professor

Gibson.

With the traditional web

model she has the
following…
The semantic web

A faculty page
The semantic web

A faculty page

A research page
The semantic web

A faculty page

A research page

A blog
The semantic web

A faculty page

A research page

A blog

and a staff listing page

The semantic web

The content of these

sites is fine but there are
no linkages between the
data.

So visitors find it
difficult to get all the
information they need
quickly and easily.
The semantic web

That’s where the

Semantic web comes in…
The semantic web

Using code we can create

relationships between
websites, people and
events…

These can then be

understood by the browser
and interpreted in a helpful
way.
The semantic web

So we can link Professor

Gibson’s faculty page to
her research.
The semantic web

So we can link Professor

Gibson’s faculty page to
her research.

Then link data in her blog

to both of these.
The semantic web

So we can link Professor

Gibson’s faculty page to
her research.

Then link data in her blog

to both of these.

And link profile data to

her staff listing.
The semantic web

And her staff listing could

show some of the other
academics she works with.
The semantic web

And her staff listing could

show some of the other
academics she works with.

With her research page

showing her links with
worldwide research
collaborators.
The semantic web

Who also know one of

her colleagues.
The semantic web

Who also know one of

her colleagues.

Who comment on
Professor Gibson’s blog
regularly.
The semantic web

With all this data being

able to be displayed
simply it provides a much
richer user experience and
offers information that
previously might not have
been exposed.
The semantic web

Well that’s exciting stuff. But how do we go about

getting onboard with semantics?

Glad you asked. There are a few different ways we’ll

look at in more detail now…
The semantic web

Firstly we could create

Our documents using
RDF:

Resource
Description
Framework
The semantic web

Here special meta-data

code is added to pages
that describe the
relationships between
that data.

These are called triples.

The semantic web

RDF is very powerful but

up to now hasn’t been
widely deployed as it
can be a very complex
process to create the
relationships and
browser support has been
limited.
The semantic web

Having said this, better

tools now exist to
create RDF documents
which we will explore in
the next section.
The semantic web

An easier way of getting

involved is to use
Microformats.

These are simple pieces

of code that allow the
browser to interpret the
data intelligently.
The semantic web

Here’s a couple of real

world examples from
some of our pages…
The semantic web

On the communications
team website the address
Has been coded as a
microformat.
The semantic web

On the communications
team website the address
has been coded as a
microformat.
The semantic web

On the communications
team website the address
has been coded as a
microformat.

This allows the visitor to

automatically add the
contact details to Outlook.
The semantic web

On the communications
team website the address
has been coded as a
microformat.

This allows the visitor to

automatically add the
contact details to Outlook.
The semantic web

Now let’s take a look at

the HR contacts page.

Again we’ve used the

address microformat.
The semantic web

Now let’s take a look at

the HR contacts page.

Again we’ve used the

address microformat.

This allows visitors to get

a Google map of the
location with a single click.
The semantic web

Now let’s take a look at

the HR contacts page.

Again we’ve used the

address microformat.

This allows visitors to get

a Google map of the
location with a single click.