Knowledge acquisition: Past, present and future

an article by Brian R. Gaines (University of Calgary and University of Victoria, Canada) published in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies Volume 71 Issue 2 (February 2013)

Abstract

As we celebrate the 50th knowledge acquisition conference this year it is appropriate to review progress in knowledge acquisition techniques not only over the quarter century since the conference series began but backwards through the millennia to the beginnings of knowledge capture and forwards through the foreseeable future to speculate on reasonable expectations, appropriate targets and potential surprises in the next quarter century.

Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future, and time future contained in time past. What might have been is an abstraction remaining a perpetual possibility only in world of speculation.
T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Figures and tables from this article

Worth looking at just for the images!! Stunning stuff.

---

Management and discovery research of semantic web service based on concept lattice

an article by Tielei Ouyang, Xiaowei He and Xiaoqiang Jiang (affiliation(s) not provided) published in International Journal of Granular Computing, Rough Sets and Intelligent Systems Volume 2 Number 3 (2012)

Abstract

With the development and application of web service technology, how to make semantic web service mechanism have the ability of high recall and precision has become a research focus in this field, and how to match efficiently and find the services meeting users’ request are the basis of service composition.

By analysing the characteristics of semantic web service, this paper presents semantic service concept lattice formulation based on semantic web service and also uses classified information to carry out the classification management of service, and provides the construction, update, and search algorithms of semantic web service lattice. The relevant experiment results show that the efficiency of service search and maintenance are both improved greatly by this model.

Hazel’s comment:
The authors are asking for both high recall and high precision. These rarely go together and if these people have indeed found a model with allows for this then it should be brought into use!

---

Toward an adaptive semantic search mechanism for the “Web of Things”

an article by Benoit Christophe, Vincent Verdot and Vincent Toubiana (Bell Labs Research, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, France) published in International Journal of Semantic Computing Volume 5 Issue 4 (2011)

Abstract

With the proliferation of connected devices and the widespread adoption of the Web, ubiquitous computing success has recently been brought into the fashion of an emergent paradigm called the “Web of Things”, where Web-enabled objects are offered through interconnected smart spaces. While some predict a near future with billions of Web-enabled objects, the success of this vision now depends on the creation of efficient processes and the availability of tools enabling users or applications to find connected objects matching a set of requirements (and expectations).

We present an on-going work that aims to develop a search process dedicated to the “Web of Things” and that relies on three contributions.

Firstly, the creation and use of semantic profiles for connected objects.
Secondly, the establishment of similarities between semantic profiles of different connected objects to gather them into clusters.
Thirdly, the computation of a score associating a “context of search” to an incoming request and enabling the selection of the most appropriate search algorithms, involving either probabilistic or precise reasoning.

---

Semantic copyright management for internet-wide knowledge sharing and reuse

an article by Roberto García González and Rosa Gil in Online Information Review Volume 32 Issue 5

Abstract
Purpose
To extract the full potential from Internet-wide knowledge sharing and reuse, the underlying copyright issues must be taken into account and managed using digital rights management (DRM) tools. The paper aims to focus on the issues involved.
Design/methodology/approach
Traditional DRM and open licensing initiatives lack the required computerised support and flexibility to scale to Internet-wide copyright management. The authors approach is based on a semantic Web ontology that conceptualises the copyright domain.
Findings
The Copyright Ontology facilitates interoperation while providing a rich framework that accommodates copyright law and copes with custom licensing schemes.
Research limitations/implications
The ontology is based on the description logic variant of the Web Ontology Language. Despite its scalability, this variant has some limitations on expression that will be overcome with the help of semantic web rules in future versions of the ontology.
Practical implications
The ontology provides the building blocks for flexible machine-understandable licenses and facilitates implementation because existing semantic web tools can be easily reused. Moreover, existing initiatives can be mapped to the ontology to make it an interoperability hub.
Originality/value
The paper contributes a novel approach to DRM, based on semantic web technologies, that takes into account the underlying copyright legal framework. This is possible thanks to the greater expressiveness of semantic web knowledge representation tools.

---

Two new semantic engines: Cognition and Eeggi

via CNet's Webware by Rafe Needleman on 18 September

At the most basic level, semantic engines tell you what's synonymous with what. At the advanced end of the spectrum, they know how grammatically similar phrases like "take a seat," "take a stand," and "take a lollipop," mean completely different things. These engines can be used by search products to greatly improve results. Now, it seems, that raw semantic technology is about to become mainstream.

Read more

Hazel's comment:
If you are as interested in the use of language and the possibilities that the semantic Web can bring to information management as I am (that's very, by the way) then you'll enjoy reading Rafe's article.