Semantic web mining and the representation, analysis, and evolution of web space

Semantic Web Mining aims at combining the two fast-developing research areas Semantic Web and Web Mining. This survey analyzes the convergence of trends from both areas: Growing numbers of researchers work on improving the results of Web Mining by exploiting semantic structures in the Web, and they use Web Mining techniques for building the Semantic Web. Last but not least, these techniques can be used for mining the Semantic Web itself. The second aim of this paper is to use these concepts to circumscribe what Web space is, what it represents and how it can be represented and analyzed. This is used to sketch the role that Semantic Web Mining and the software agents and human agents involved in it can play in the evolution of Web space.

Semantic web mining

Semantic Web Mining aims at combining the two fast-developing research areas Semantic Web and Web Mining. This survey analyzes the convergence of trends from both areas: an increasing number of researchers is working on improving the results of Web Mining by exploiting semantic structures in the Web, and they make use of Web Mining techniques for building the Semantic Web. Last but not least, these techniques can be used for mining the Semantic Web itself. The Semantic Web is the second-generation WWW, enriched by machine-processable information which supports the user in his tasks. Given the enormous size even of today’s Web, it is impossible to manually enrich all of these resources. Therefore, automated schemes for learning the relevant information are increasingly being used. Web Mining aims at discovering insights about the meaning of Web resources and their usage. Given the primarily syntactical nature of the data being mined, the discovery of meaning is impossible based on these data only. Therefore, formalizations of the semantics of Web sites and navigation behavior are becoming more and more common. Furthermore, mining the Semantic Web itself is another upcoming application. We argue that the two areas Web Mining and Semantic Web need each other to fulfill their goals, but that the full potential of this convergence is not yet realized. This paper gives an overview of where the two areas meet today, and sketches ways of how a closer integration could be profitable.

Semantic network analysis of ontologies

A key argument for modeling knowledge in ontologies is the easy re-use and re-engineering of the knowledge. However, beside consistency checking, current ontology engineering tools provide only basic functionalities for analyzing ontologies. Since ontologies can be considered as (labeled, directed) graphs, graph analysis techniques are a suitable answer for this need. Graph analysis has been performed by sociologists for over 60 years, and resulted in the vivid research area of Social Network Analysis (SNA). While social network structures in general currently receive high attention in the Semantic Web community, there are only very few SNA applications up to now, and virtually none for analyzing the structure of ontologies. We illustrate in this paper the benefits of applying SNA to ontologies and the Semantic Web, and discuss which research topics arise on the edge between the two areas. In particular, we discuss how different notions of centrality describe the core content and structure of an ontology. From the rather simple notion of degree centrality over betweenness centrality to the more complex eigenvector centrality based on Hermitian matrices, we illustrate the insights these measures provide on two ontologies, which are different in purpose, scope, and size.

Context Mediation in the Semantic Web: Handling OWL Ontology and Data Disparity through Context Interchange

The COntext INterchange (COIN) strategy is an approach to solving the problem of interoperability of semantically heterogeneous data sources through context mediation. COIN has used its own notation and syntax for representing ontologies. More recently, the OWL Web Ontology Language is becoming established as the W3C recommended ontology language. We propose the use of the COIN strategy to solve context disparity and ontology interoperability problems in the emerging Semantic Web – both at the ontology level and at the data level. In conjunction with this, we propose a version of the COIN ontology model that uses OWL and the emerging rules interchange language, RuleML.

El Wiki: un nou entorn afavoridor del treball en grups d'aprenentatge cooperatius

Aquest projecte presenta una prova pilot que s'ha desenvolupant en la diplomatura de Magisteri de la Facultat de Psicologia Ciències de l’Educació i l’Esport1 Blanquerna de la URL durant el curs 2008/09 en el marc del procés d'implantació dels crèdits ECTS en els futurs graus d'Educació Primària i Educació Infantil. L'experiència forma part dels projectes seleccionats per al disseny, la planificació i l’avaluació de mòduls docents i seminaris dels nous plans d'estudis de grau de la FPCEE. Les assignatures i professorat que han dut a terme l'experimentació són Bases psicopedagògiques de l'educació especial (9 crèdits) i les professores Annabel Fontanet Caparrós i Elisabeth Alomar Kurz; Didàctica de les ciències socials (10,5 crèdits), i el professor Francesc Riera Piferrer, ambdues de tercer curs conjuntament amb el suport del professor Jordi Simón Llovet, de Noves tecnologies aplicades a l'educació. L'objectiu principal del projecte ha estat organitzar i experimentar les assignatures anteriorment esmentades, amb un enfocament metodològic basat en equips d'aprenentatge cooperatius amb el suport TIC. Des del convenciment que el treball cooperatiu és una proposta didàctica molt eficaç per afavorir l'aprenentatge de tots els alumnes en una escola inclusiva, volem que els nostres estudiants -futurs mestres- aprenguin els continguts de les assignatures amb un plantejament de treball cooperatiu estable. L'experiència s'ha portat a terme amb 260 estudiants distribuïts en 52 grups de treball cooperatiu, dels quals 10 comparteixen les dues assignatures d’aquest projecte. Per al seguiment i elaboració del treball, s'ha escollit utilitzar els Wikis com a eina que facilita el treball cooperatiu, i així cada grup ha creat el seu wiki en wikispaces: http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers. Finalment, hem analitzat i valorat el grau de satisfacció dels estudiants i professorat que ha participat tant en el disseny com en la realització de l'experiència, la consecució dels objectius previstos, la valoració de les eines de treball en línia (on-line) com a afavoridores de l'aprenentatge cooperatiu en entorns d'educació presencials i la dedicació personal que ha suposat tant per als estudiants com per al professorat

TU Graz: Course: 707.000 Web Science and Web Technology: Lecture 13: Web Technologies 2 - The Semantic Web

The semantic web represents a current research effort to increase the capability of machines to make sense of content on the web. In this class, Peter Scheir will give a guest lecture on the basic principles underlying the semantic web vision, including RDF, OWL and other standards.

Introduction to the Semantic Web and the Web of Linked Data

Presentation given as part of the EPrints/dotAC training event on 26 Mar 2010.

Semantic Web In Use

Presentation given as part of the EPrints/dotAC training day on 26 Mar 2010.