Ebook: Information Sharing on the Semantic Web

Aboutthebook The success of the information society The rapid progress of the “information society” in the past decade has been made possible by the removal of many technical barriers. Producing, storing, and transporting information in large quantities are no longer signi?cant problems. Producing on-line, digitized information is no longer a problem. Ever more of our commercial, scienti?c and personal information exchanges happen on-line in digital form. In the professional domain, near 100% of all o?ce documents areproducedindigitalform(evenifafterwardstheyaredistributedinpaper form), large parts of the scienti?c discourse are now taking place in digital form (with physics, computer science and astronomy taking a leading role). In the public domain, newspapers are available on-line, an increasing number of radio and television stations o?er their material on-line in streaming form and e-government is an important theme for public administration. Even in the personal area, information is rapidly moving on-line: sales of digital cameras are now higher then for analogue cameras, e-mail and on-line chat have become important channels for maintaining social relations and for personal entertainment the digital DVD is rapidly replacing the analogue video tape. Compact disk (itself already digital) is under serious pressure from on-line music in MP3 format from a variety of sources. In short: p- ductionofon-lineinformationisnowthenorminvirtuallyallareasofourlife. Storing such information in the required volumes is also no longer a problem.

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The large-scale and almost ubiquitous availability of information has become as much of a curse as it is a blessing. The more information is available, the harder it is to locate any particular piece of it. And even when it has been successfully found, it is even harder still to usefully combine it with other information we may already possess. This problem occurs at many different levels, ranging from the overcrowded disks of our own PCs to the mass of unstructured information on the World Wide Web.

It is commonly understood that this problem of information sharing can only be solved by giving computers better access to the semantics of the information. While it has been recognized that ontologies play a crucial role in solving the open problems, most approaches rely on the existence of well-established data structures. To overcome these shortcomings, Stuckenschmidt and van Harmelen describe ontology-based approaches for resolving semantic heterogeneity in weakly structured environments, in particular the World Wide Web. Addressing problems like missing conceptual models, unclear system boundaries, and heterogeneous representations, they design a framework for ontology-based information sharing in weakly structured environments like the Semantic Web.

For researchers and students in areas related to the Semantic Web, the authors provide not only a comprehensive overview of the State of the art, but also present in detail recent research in areas like ontology design for information integration, metadata generation and management, and representation and management of distributed ontologies. For professionals in areas such as e-commerce (e.g., the exchange of product knowledge) and knowledge management (e.g., in large and distributed organizations), the book provides decision support on the use of novel technologies, information about potential problems, and guidelines for the successful application of existing technologies.

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The large-scale and almost ubiquitous availability of information has become as much of a curse as it is a blessing. The more information is available, the harder it is to locate any particular piece of it. And even when it has been successfully found, it is even harder still to usefully combine it with other information we may already possess. This problem occurs at many different levels, ranging from the overcrowded disks of our own PCs to the mass of unstructured information on the World Wide Web.

It is commonly understood that this problem of information sharing can only be solved by giving computers better access to the semantics of the information. While it has been recognized that ontologies play a crucial role in solving the open problems, most approaches rely on the existence of well-established data structures. To overcome these shortcomings, Stuckenschmidt and van Harmelen describe ontology-based approaches for resolving semantic heterogeneity in weakly structured environments, in particular the World Wide Web. Addressing problems like missing conceptual models, unclear system boundaries, and heterogeneous representations, they design a framework for ontology-based information sharing in weakly structured environments like the Semantic Web.

For researchers and students in areas related to the Semantic Web, the authors provide not only a comprehensive overview of the State of the art, but also present in detail recent research in areas like ontology design for information integration, metadata generation and management, and representation and management of distributed ontologies. For professionals in areas such as e-commerce (e.g., the exchange of product knowledge) and knowledge management (e.g., in large and distributed organizations), the book provides decision support on the use of novel technologies, information about potential problems, and guidelines for the successful application of existing technologies.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-XX
Semantic integration....Pages 3-23
Ontology-based information sharing....Pages 25-44
Ontology languages for the Semantic Web....Pages 45-61
Ontology creation....Pages 65-83
Metadata generation....Pages 85-115
Retrieval and Integration....Pages 119-141
Sharing statistical information....Pages 143-165
Spatially-related information....Pages 167-183
Integration and retrieval systems....Pages 185-207
Modularization....Pages 211-230
Evolution management....Pages 231-241
Conclusions....Pages 245-254
Back Matter....Pages 261-276

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The large-scale and almost ubiquitous availability of information has become as much of a curse as it is a blessing. The more information is available, the harder it is to locate any particular piece of it. And even when it has been successfully found, it is even harder still to usefully combine it with other information we may already possess. This problem occurs at many different levels, ranging from the overcrowded disks of our own PCs to the mass of unstructured information on the World Wide Web.

It is commonly understood that this problem of information sharing can only be solved by giving computers better access to the semantics of the information. While it has been recognized that ontologies play a crucial role in solving the open problems, most approaches rely on the existence of well-established data structures. To overcome these shortcomings, Stuckenschmidt and van Harmelen describe ontology-based approaches for resolving semantic heterogeneity in weakly structured environments, in particular the World Wide Web. Addressing problems like missing conceptual models, unclear system boundaries, and heterogeneous representations, they design a framework for ontology-based information sharing in weakly structured environments like the Semantic Web.

For researchers and students in areas related to the Semantic Web, the authors provide not only a comprehensive overview of the State of the art, but also present in detail recent research in areas like ontology design for information integration, metadata generation and management, and representation and management of distributed ontologies. For professionals in areas such as e-commerce (e.g., the exchange of product knowledge) and knowledge management (e.g., in large and distributed organizations), the book provides decision support on the use of novel technologies, information about potential problems, and guidelines for the successful application of existing technologies.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-XX
Semantic integration....Pages 3-23
Ontology-based information sharing....Pages 25-44
Ontology languages for the Semantic Web....Pages 45-61
Ontology creation....Pages 65-83
Metadata generation....Pages 85-115
Retrieval and Integration....Pages 119-141
Sharing statistical information....Pages 143-165
Spatially-related information....Pages 167-183
Integration and retrieval systems....Pages 185-207
Modularization....Pages 211-230
Evolution management....Pages 231-241
Conclusions....Pages 245-254
Back Matter....Pages 261-276
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