Lost in translation: data integration tools meet the Semantic Web (experiences from the Ondex project)

More information is now being published in machine processable form on the web and, as de-facto distributed knowledge bases are materializing, partly encouraged by the vision of the Semantic Web, the focus is shifting from the publication of this information to its consumption. Platforms for data integration, visualization and analysis that are based on a graph representation of information appear first candidates to be consumers of web-based information that is readily expressible as graphs. The question is whether the adoption of these platforms to information available on the Semantic Web requires some adaptation of their data structures and semantics. Ondex is a network-based data integration, analysis and visualization platform which has been developed in a Life Sciences context. A number of features, including semantic annotation via ontologies and an attention to provenance and evidence, make this an ideal candidate to consume Semantic Web information, as well as a prototype for the application of network analysis tools in this context. By analyzing the Ondex data structure and its usage, we have found a set of discrepancies and errors arising from the semantic mismatch between a procedural approach to network analysis and the implications of a web-based representation of information. We report in the paper on the simple methodology that we have adopted to conduct such analysis, and on issues that we have found which may be relevant for a range of similar platformsComment: Presented at DEIT, Data Engineering and Internet Technology, 2011 IEEE: CFP1113L-CD

Summarizing information from Web sites on distributed power generation and alternative energy development

The World Wide Web (WWW) has become a huge repository of information and knowledge, and an essential channel for information exchange. Many sites and thousands of pages of information on distributed power generation and alternate energy development are being added or modified constantly and the task of finding the most appropriate information is getting difficult. While search engines are capable to return a collection of links according to key terms and some forms of ranking mechanism, it is still necessary to access the Web page and navigate through the site in order to find the information. This paper proposes an interactive summarization framework called iWISE to facilitate the process by providing a summary of the information on the Web site. The proposed approach makes use of graphical visualization, tag clouds and text summarization. A number of cases are presented and compared in this paper with a discussion on future work

Towards Multi-Modal Interactions in Virtual Environments: A Case Study

We present research on visualization and interaction in a realistic model of an existing theatre. This existing ‘Muziek¬centrum’ offers its visitors information about performances by means of a yearly brochure. In addition, it is possible to get information at an information desk in the theatre (during office hours), to get information by phone (by talking to a human or by using IVR). The database of the theater holds the information that is available at the beginning of the ‘theatre season’. Our aim is to make this information more accessible by using multi-modal accessible multi-media web pages. A more general aim is to do research in the area of web-based services, in particu¬lar interactions in virtual environments

Visualization of typed links in linked data

The main subject of the work is the visualization of typed links in Linked Data. The academic subjects relevant to the paper in general are the Semantic Web, the Web of Data and information visualization. The Semantic Web, invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 2001, was announced as an extension to the World Wide Web (Web 2.0). The actual area of investigation concerns the connectivity of information on the World Wide Web. To be able to explore such interconnections, visualizations are critical requirements as well as a major part of processing data in themselves. In the context of the Semantic Web, representation of information interrelations can be achieved using graphs. The aim of the article is to primarily describe the arrangement of Linked Data visualization concepts by establishing their principles in a theoretical approach. Putting design restrictions into context leads to practical guidelines. By describing the creation of two alternative visualizations of a commonly used web application representing Linked Data as network visualization, their compatibility was tested. The application-oriented part treats the design phase, its results, and future requirements of the project that can be derived from this test

Web-based multimodal graphs for visually impaired people

This paper describes the development and evaluation of Web-based multimodal graphs designed for visually impaired and blind people. The information in the graphs is conveyed to visually impaired people through haptic and audio channels. The motivation of this work is to address problems faced by visually impaired people in accessing graphical information on the Internet, particularly the common types of graphs for data visualization. In our work, line graphs, bar charts and pie charts are accessible through a force feedback device, the Logitech WingMan Force Feedback Mouse. Pre-recorded sound files are used to represent graph contents to users. In order to test the usability of the developed Web graphs, an evaluation was conducted with bar charts as the experimental platform. The results showed that the participants could successfully use the haptic and audio features to extract information from the Web graphs

RROVT: A Proposed Visualization Tool for Semantic Web Technologies

Visualization is the graphical or semi-graphical representation of information that aids human comprehension of and reasoning about that information. Visualization tools are critically important for creating, querying, visualizing and validating Semantic Web Data. Semantic Web, an efficient infrastructure that enhances visibility of knowledge on the web, is often used more specifically to refer to the formats and technologies that enable it. These technologies include RDF, RDFS and OWL. However, lack of robust and efficient tools to visualize, analyze and represent these technologies within time and space constraint remains a big challenge. In this study, semantic web technologies and their visualization tools were reviewed. RROVT (RDF, RDFS, OWL Visualization Tool), a tool to evaluate and represent formal description of concepts, terms and relationships of data models within a given knowledge domain as well as manage time and space complexities for publishing contents of the semantic web more efficiently is developed and proposed. Performance of RROVT was investigated on samples of semantic web documents implementing RDF, RDFS and OWL technologies. The proposed tool showed remarkable improvement over the existing tools as it aids a better comprehension of the syntax and semantics of semantic web technologies investigated in this study. Keywords: Semantic Web, Visualization Tool, Semantic Web Technologie