The Semantic Web
BMO Internet Security
Final Project Paper
University of Toronto
SCS 2115
Professor: Dr. Ken K. Wong
By: Kevin Fernando
13/06/2010
The semantic web is a vision created and promoted by Tim-Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web Consortium. In his article the Semantic Web in Scientific American (2001) Berners-Lee explains that The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation What Berners-Lee means by this is that in its current state, internet technology is not designed in a way in which computers and machines can interact with each other most efficiently. The primary reason for this disconnect is lies in the difference between information produced primarily for human consumption and that produced mainly for machines. Currently most web technologies are created for human interpretation and merely use machines to store and transfer this information. For example in a search engine, the use of key words and database descriptions allow machines to cross reference the search syntax provided by the ender user and locate the best matching result based on this syntax. However the issue here is that while the machine can read the syntax (the raw structure) of the terms presented it does not know the semantics or the meaning of the phrase/words entered. So if the user was looking for “cheap cars in Toronto” listings with “economical vehicles In the GTA” may be by passed by the search engine. Therefore, Berners-Lee’s vision with the Semantic Web is to provide a language that expresses both data and rules for reasoning about the data and that allows rules from any existing knowledge-representation system to be exported onto the Web.
One of the best applications of the benefits of the Semantic web is through the example of two users seeking medical attention for their mother. In this example the users dispatch their personal Semantic
Final Project Paper
University of Toronto
SCS 2115
Professor: Dr. Ken K. Wong
By: Kevin Fernando
13/06/2010
The semantic web is a vision created and promoted by Tim-Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web Consortium. In his article the Semantic Web in Scientific American (2001) Berners-Lee explains that The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation What Berners-Lee means by this is that in its current state, internet technology is not designed in a way in which computers and machines can interact with each other most efficiently. The primary reason for this disconnect is lies in the difference between information produced primarily for human consumption and that produced mainly for machines. Currently most web technologies are created for human interpretation and merely use machines to store and transfer this information. For example in a search engine, the use of key words and database descriptions allow machines to cross reference the search syntax provided by the ender user and locate the best matching result based on this syntax. However the issue here is that while the machine can read the syntax (the raw structure) of the terms presented it does not know the semantics or the meaning of the phrase/words entered. So if the user was looking for “cheap cars in Toronto” listings with “economical vehicles In the GTA” may be by passed by the search engine. Therefore, Berners-Lee’s vision with the Semantic Web is to provide a language that expresses both data and rules for reasoning about the data and that allows rules from any existing knowledge-representation system to be exported onto the Web.
One of the best applications of the benefits of the Semantic web is through the example of two users seeking medical attention for their mother. In this example the users dispatch their personal Semantic