Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

pcplantdb - [pcplantdb] Semantic Web Agreement Group, SWAG

pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: pcplantdb

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>
  • To: Permaculture Plant Database <pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [pcplantdb] Semantic Web Agreement Group, SWAG
  • Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 01:08:20 -0500


<http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci519292,00.html>

Semantic Web Agreement Group

The Semantic Web Agreement Group (SWAG) is an organization of interested parties working together to further the development of the Semantic Web (SW)[*1], a concept that might lead to a Web that was self-described in a way that would make it easier for programs to work with it. (Semantic refers to the meaning of something.) Tim Berners-Lee [*2], whose Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) [*4] virtually created the World Wide Web, is also the man behind the Semantic Web. Berners-Lee describes the Semantic Web as "a web of data that can be processed directly or indirectly by machines". SW is a new vision of the Web in which document components describe and comprehend relationships between various aspects of Web content, enabling machines to process data in a more intelligent and autonomous way. Because the Semantic Web would be dependent upon effective data sharing, SWAG is working towards building the support system, such as a standardized glossary to ensure that terms will be processed identically by all computer systems.

Computer systems already rely on a standardized vocabulary to communicate; this ensures that instructions (such as load, for example) are interpreted consistently. The Semantic Web would make Web documents and document components much more meaningful to the machines that process them. Markup languages have steadily progressed towards more intelligent versions. Extensible Markup Language (XML) [*4], for example, has much more ability to perform tasks autonomously than HTML. New adaptations, such as DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML) [*5] are being developed as potential vehicles that could make it possible for the Semantic Web to function as a comprehensive universal database.
Read more about it at:
> SWAG has its own Web site.
http://swag.semanticweb.org/
> The World Wide Web Consortium offers presentations, discussion
documents, and developer links.
http://www.w3.org/2000/01/sw/

[*1] Semantic Web
The Semantic Web is an idea of World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee that the Web as a whole can be made more intelligent and perhaps even intuitive about how to serve a user's needs. Berners-Lee observes that although search engines index much of the Web's content, they have little ability to select the pages that a user really wants or needs. He foresees a number of ways in which developers and authors, singly or in collaborations, can use self-descriptions and other techniques so that context-understanding programs can selectively find what users want.
>> Find white papers, products and vendors related to Semantic Web.
http://www.bitpipe.com/data/search?cp=bpres&cr=bpres&qg=VENDOR&qt=Semantic+Web&src=wis
[*2] Tim Berners-Lee
http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci548260,00.html
[*3] Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci214004,00.html
[*4] Extensible Markep Language (XML)
http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci213404,00.html
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a flexible way to create common information formats and share both the format and the data on the World Wide Web, intranets, and elsewhere. For example, computer makers might agree on a standard or common way to describe the information about a computer product (processor speed, memory size, and so forth) and then describe the product information format with XML. Such a standard way of describing data would enable a user to send an intelligent agent (a program) to each computer maker's Web site, gather data, and then make a valid comparison. XML can be used by any individual or group of individuals or companies that wants to share information in a consistent way.
XML, a formal recommendation from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is similar to the language of today's Web pages, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Both XML and HTML contain markup symbols to describe the contents of a page or file. HTML, however, describes the content of a Web page (mainly text and graphic images) only in terms of how it is to be displayed and interacted with. For example, the letter "p" placed within markup tags starts a new paragraph. XML describes the content in terms of what data is being described. For example, the word "phonenum" placed within markup tags could indicate that the data that followed was a phone number. This means that an XML file can be processed purely as data by a program or it can be stored with similar data on another computer or, like an HTML file, that it can be displayed. For example, depending on how the application in the receiving computer wanted to handle the phone number, it could be stored, displayed, or dialed.
XML is "extensible" because, unlike HTML, the markup symbols are unlimited and self-defining. XML is actually a simpler and easier-to-use subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), the standard for how to create a document structure. It is expected that HTML and XML will be used together in many Web applications. XML markup, for example, may appear within an HTML page.
Early applications of XML include Microsoft's Channel Definition Format (CDF), which describes a channel, a portion of a Web site that has been downloaded to your hard disk and is then is updated periodically as information changes. A specific CDF file contains data that specifies an initial Web page and how frequently it is updated. Another early application is ChartWare, which uses XML as a way to describe medical charts so that they can be shared by doctors. Applications related to banking, e-commerce ordering, personal preference profiles, purchase orders, litigation documents, part lists, and many others are anticipated.
>> The W3C provides more information about XML.
http://www.w3.org/XML/
>> Another good source is Robin Cover's The SGML/XML Web Page .
http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/sgml-xml.html
>> Here is IBM's Introduction to XML , an online tutorial.
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/education/xmlintro/xmlintro.html
[*5] DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML)
http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci518761,00.html

DAML (DARPA Agent Markup Language) is a markup language for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) that is based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML). DAML is designed to have a greater capacity than XML for describing objects and the relationships between objects, to express semantics, and to create a higher level of interoperability among Web sites. As the central research and development agency for the U. S. Department of Defense, DARPA was instrumental in the creation of the Internet and many of its technologies. DARPA is developing DAML as a technology with intelligence built into the language through the behaviors of agents, programs that can dynamically identify and comprehend sources of information, and interact with other agents in an autonomous fashion.
DAML agents can be embedded in code and maintain awareness of their environment, are user-directed, but have the capacity to behave autonomously. They also have the capacity to "learn" from experience, so that they improve their behavior over time. DAML uses a number of different types of agents (such as information agents, event monitoring agents, and secure agents) for different purposes. DAML's semantic knowledge and autonomous behavior is expected to make it capable of processing large volumes of data much as a human being would process it. DAML includes a type of query language with a specialized ability to find and process relevant information - for example, finding related information on separate Web sites and processing it into a comprehensive report.
Read more about it:
>> There is a Web site devoted to DAML.
http://www.daml.org
>> Find out more about DARPA at its Web site.
http://www.darpa.mil/




  • [pcplantdb] Semantic Web Agreement Group, SWAG, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 12/30/2005

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page