http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/ en Copyright 2009 Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:59:06 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss We have just refreshed Subj3ct.com with Beta 2. We have tried to incorporate the feedback we have had as well as adding some things we think are useful. The highlights are: * Support for OpenID for signing in * Ability to create and publish identifiers and indicator pages from with the Subj3ct portal * A changes feed that can be used to aggregate whats happening in Subj3ct * Embeddable snippets (RDFa, SKOS etc) on each subject record page that can be used to tag a page with a given subject. * The start of a user community that currently supports user search * Ability to process SKOS feeds * Ability to register feeds without creating an account (this allows users to reference existing SKOS vocabularies that they don't own) * Updated statistics on the home page and quick links to most recent subjects and some random subjects. * Bug fixes and performance improvements We now have 3180 identifiers in 23 feeds and we and others are adding to this all the time. More stuff to come... http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/2009/07/subj3ctcom_beta_2_released.html http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/2009/07/subj3ctcom_beta_2_released.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:59:06 +0000 Implementing Topic Maps solutions for a variety of people we see many ontologies (information models, domain models, schemas) being used. Out of this we have tried to understand how different approaches are useful for different kinds of customers. One approach, where the customer is a focused specialist group or small company/department who 'know their stuff' really benefit from having a rich ontology as it says more about what they are doing. These are also the people who want to encode knowledge as something explicit and then use that knowledge as part of the information displayed to users of the system. At the other end of the scale large organisations tend intially to benefit from a less is more approach. This is typically becuase getting 'political' agreement on what the business does and where the focus should be is much harder at the large scale. It is this second example I want to pick up on here. The most basic, useful ontology that we see in use consists of just three types; Content, Concept and Person. Concepts can be connected to other concepts as 'broader/narrower' and also 'as related'. Content 'is about' concepts, and 'related to' person. Person can be connected to concepts in a few ways that are often tweaked for the domain. e.g. expert in. This ontology is not the ultimate base model for explaining everything, but more about being able to usefully cover enough about a domain to promote the things that are important in an information management system. (Things such as faceted search, concept centric, bi-directional linking, multiple names and identifiers. All the findability niceness of Topic Maps.) This model works well because it has recognised that people and content are two fundamental pillars of the way we work with information. Making the users/ people part of the model is critical to be able to deliver targeted contextualised content. This is the kind of content and knowledge people want to see and have access to. So now we are moving Topic Maps concepts and approaches from the enterprise to the web and in particular the web3 context how can these ontology lessons inform us about how web3 works and the impact it will have? Well, the biggest observation is that while web1.0 provides content, web2.0 provides people and content there is an obvious gap and therefor need for the third pillar which is concepts. Having concepts on the web will enable people to group and organise the content around the subjects that are important to them. Having concepts on the web will provide binding points around which content can be produced and grouped, it will facilitate social networking groups to be organised around concepts. Overall having concepts on the web will provide a new and vast dimension to the experience of using this content management system we call the web. http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/2009/06/a_small_useful_ontology_and_wh.html http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/2009/06/a_small_useful_ontology_and_wh.html Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:00:00 +0000 Subj3ct. Subj3ct is a Subject Identity Resolution Service, it provides both a portal for humans to use and an API for developers and applications. We store subject identifiers, equivalent identifiers and also links to web resources that contain structured or unstructured information about a subject. The resolution service is intended to provide services to: a) people looking to re-use common identifiers in order to improve interchange b) application developers who are building the next generation of web applications, where dynamically finding and merging linked data is key We are starting out in gathering mode, trying to get collections of identifiers registered so that we have a useful set of subjects. Once we have this we will be creating new features and writing more on how to use the service in building Web 3.0 applications. In the meantime, we would really appreciate it if people can register subject feeds and just generally provide feedback on the portal and API. Everything can be found at https://subj3ct.com Finally, thanks for all the support and encouragement we have received in putting this exciting service together. The Subj3ct Team ]]> http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/2009/05/httpsubj3ctcom_released.html http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/2009/05/httpsubj3ctcom_released.html Service Thu, 14 May 2009 10:54:33 +0000 here is a white paper that provides a vision and introduction to web3. The summary below provides an introduction... In the past 20 years, the Web has developed from a niche technology to a mass-media providing new forms of communication and interaction between people. Web 1.0 was a technical platform - a common set of protocols and formats that allowed machines to communicate and present information from a remote server to a local user. Web 2.0 used the technical platform of Web 1.0 to build more interactive web sites where users contribute and share content and become creators and owners of content rather than passive consumers. Web 2.0 has reached the limits of what can be achieved on the technical platform of Web 1.0; new technologies must be put in place to provide a fundamentally new technical infrastructure, or platform, to enable the next generation of innovative web applications. Key to this Web 3.0 platform is a set of protocols and formats that allow the communication of subjects and people's perceptions of those subjects between computers, and that enable new applications to be built that allow users to create, share and integrate information and knowledge seamlessly... ]]> http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/2009/03/introduction_and_vision_for_we.html http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/2009/03/introduction_and_vision_for_we.html Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:02:58 +0000 here. We'll be blogging more about the Subject Identity Resolution Service over the coming weeks.]]> http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/2009/03/a_vision_for_a_topic_maps_worl.html http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/2009/03/a_vision_for_a_topic_maps_worl.html Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:14:16 +0000 Welcome to the Networked Planet web3 blog. This blog is dedicated to all things web3. For us at Networked Planet web3 is all about the publishing online of structured semantic data in a way that can be discovered and usefully processed by both humans and machines. This is not the semantic web, but a web of joined up structured information. Semantic Technologies such as RDF and Topic Maps are great standards for the representation of statements about a subject, what we really are looking forward to are protocols and conventions that allow fragments of information to be published and connected. As Networked Planet we have been doing a lot with the ISO13250 Topic Maps standard. This standard and our products have been used in many applications to improve the way in which information is organised and accessed. Our next goal is to take many of the ideas and concepts that have been so successful within enterprises into a more global space. Over the coming months we will be releasing services, presentations, white papers and products that support the goal of a Web of linked data. http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/2009/03/welcome_to_the_networked_plane_1.html http://www.networkedplanet.com/web3blog/2009/03/welcome_to_the_networked_plane_1.html Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:02:44 +0000