This module is led by Lynda Hardman, and runs from 4th to 8th October 2010.
NOTE: This web page is dynamic and will change slightly throughout the course. Slides will be made available.
Large amounts of information are available on the Web. More
and more information, however, is becoming available on the
Semantic Web.
How can we use the explicit relations encoded in this
content to improve the user interaction with the information?
How can we make use of these relations to present the
information to the user in an appropriate way?
What are the enabling Semantic Web technologies, what do they
enable and what help can they provide?
| Mon 4 | 10:00 Goals of module, course
introduction (see also inaugural speech at TU/e).
Short video explanation of entities (What is Metaweb?) followed by Semantic Web introduction. Semantic Web introduction and "Good News" slides by Frank van Harmelen Start assignment 1. |
| Tue 5 | Complete assignment 1. 09:30 Wake up video before Semantic search. Article giving an overview of the semantic search survey: An analysis of search-based user interaction on the Semantic Web. Bringing the IPTC News Architecture into the Semantic Web (Raphaël Troncy). Facet browsing in /facet - watch the movie and follow the slides. CHIP and /facet (click on one of the headings All Objects, Style or Artists). Experiencing Events Through User-Generated Media by André Fialho. How the emergence of the semantic web changes our approach to information architecture by Silver Oliver, BBC. Parallax video - exploring freebase data. Understanding Information Seeking Needs (Alia Amin) Comparison search tutorial and prototype (Alia Amin) Start assignment 2. |
| Wed 6 | Finish assignment 2.
Start group work assignment 3. |
| Thu 7 |
Continue work on assignment 3.
10:00 Design and evaluation of an open annotation tool (Michiel Hildebrand). Meaningful presentations, Vox Populi talk and demo. Continue work on assignment 3. Attend USI graduation ceremony and reception then party furiously. |
| Fri 8 |
Wake up, arrive sometime before 11:00 at TU/e, find other group members, then continue work on assignment 3.
13:30 Present work on assignment 3 to all groups. Finalise work on and write report for assignment 3. |
The goal of the assignment is to explore the relationship
between potential questions users may have and how they can find
the information from existing web sites. The example domain is
cultural heritage collections.
Read the instructions for assignments 2 and 3 before carrying out this assignment.
Explore the provided example cultural heritage web sites and write an analysis (a brief description of what you are discussing, along with the advantages and the disadvantages) of the following:
Use the following sites for your analysis:
the Rijksmuseum
collection,
Louvre,
europeana.
Think of some questions about the artworks you would like the answer to from each of
the sites. Write about your experiences in finding the answer.
Try using search facilities on the site. Try exploring the site
through navigation.
Given the information available from these three sites, how
would you want to access all the information?
Write down one or two questions whose answer requires information
from at least two of the sites.
Write down an example of extra information you would want that
is not available from these three sites.
Produce your report in HTML of approximately 2 pages (max. 1000 words). Illustrations are desirable, and can be linked to or included. Publish the report on your web page and email the URL to Lynda.Hardman@cwi.nl before 09:30am Tuesday 5 October 2010.
The goal of this assignment is to explore experimental interfaces facilitated by underlying ontologies.
CHIP, E-Culture demo and europeana.
Before trying the E-Culture demo you should install Firefox 2.0 or later.
In order to become familiar with the material and the
interfaces, think of some questions you would like the answer
to. Use the different facilities from the different systems and
provide comments on which were helpful and how.
Write down two questions whose answer requires linking more than
two pieces of information.
Comment on the best and worst aspects of the very different interfaces of these sites.
The report should be aimed at fellow designers who need to create a new interface for the information available. Argue for which features (functions/interface elements) should be kept. What should be improved, and how. Is there other functionality you would like to see added?
Produce the report in HTML of approximately 3 pages (maximum 1500 words). Illustrations are desirable, and can be linked to or included. Publish the report on your web page and email the URL to Lynda.Hardman@cwi.nl before 11:00am Wednesday 6 October 2010.
You are the representative of a start-up company that develops
semantic web technology. You are asked to
work on a design for a client by the company. Select one of the
following scenarios, or create your own.
(Check with me before starting on the application design stage,
and before spending too much time on it.)
The example domains should not be seen as restrictive.
Museum scenario
A museum would like to make an exhibition appealing to members
of the general public from artefacts in its own and sister
collections. The organizers need to browse the collections, find
artefacts belonging to a number of themes and build a story
around them. Design an application (functionality and example
key interfaces) to support the task of the exhibition organizers
in selecting and collecting artefacts, creating a theme,
building a storyline and relating the artefacts to the
storyline.
News scenario
A news agency wants to provide personalised access to multiple
national and international news feeds to allow subscribers to:
On the basis of your chosen scenario create a user-centric application design. Decide on the desired functionality. Explain the required underlying domain and/or discourse semantics. Be aware that while the semantic relations are necessary for supplying the functionality, the user does not need to be aware, and perhaps should not be aware, of them. How much explicit semantics to expose to the end-user is one of the design decisions you should document.
Part of the application design should contain at least one of
the following, as appropriate:
interface for selecting and
comparing items, be they people, places or objects;
interface for gathering and browsing "interesting" items;
interface for inputting user preferences into system
(e.g. artwork style, favourite artist, countries of interest, politicians, hotel facilities, dietary requirements).
You should see the report as a means of conveying your design to a client. In the report, explain the reasoning behind the design as folows.
Publish your assignments on your web page and email a single URL to Lynda.Hardman@cwi.nl preferably before 09:00am Monday 11 October, but at the latest 09:00am Monday 18 October 2010. Make sure you include the names of the people in your group in the email and in the report.
The Rijksmuseum
collection,
Louvre and
CHIP and /facet
allow exploratory access to (cultural heritage) information.
Semantic search survey by Michiel Hildebrand.
These show interesting interfaces:
These are more oriented to search.
Vox Populi, a system for generating video sequences based on argument structures.
How Will We Interact with the Web of Data? by Tom Heath.
Semantic Web Challenge, in particular the 2008 winner paggr.
Wordnet is an
existing English language thesaurus from
Princeton that has been converted to RDF.
Dublin Core
(DC), VRA
Core are vocabularies for describing resources. VRA Core is
specialised for works of visual culture as well as the images
that document them.
SKOS, Simple
Knowledge Organisation System, is a family of formal languages,
built on RDF and RDFS, designed for the representation of
structured controlled vocabularies, such as thesauri or
classification schemes.
FOAF
(Friend of a Friend) a means of creating links among people on
the Web, also the FOAF project, in particular the explorer.
These are some links that may not be useful now for the course, but are useful resources about relevant topics.
Web Design
Semantic Web
Facet Browsing