Fwd: Urchin description for W3C SWBP&D WG

Hi Libby,

Here's the information from Dave at the MIND lab on the work they are 
doing with Urchin & Kowari. I think it stands on it's own quite well, 
and can probably be a separate entry on the apps & demos page.

Thanks!
Tom


Begin forwarded message:

> From: Taowei David Wang <tw7@cs.umd.edu>
> Date: 25 August 2004 10:38:56 AM
> To: Tom Adams <tom@tucanatech.com>
> Cc: Jim Hendler <hendler@cs.umd.edu>
> Subject: Re: Urchin description for W3C SWBP&D WG
>
> Hi, Tom,
>
> 	Here's the description you have been waiting for.  The first
> paragraph briefly describes Urchin, and you are welcome to
> supplement/modify it given that you have Urchin's latest descriptions 
> from
> Nature.  The second paragraph describes the Urchin-Kowari project and 
> its
> current capabilities.  We will be making a detailed documentation for
> Urchin-Kowari in the near future, and will send you a link to it when 
> it
> is done.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dave
> ----
>
> Urchin-Kowari
> University of Maryland, MIND Laboratory
> Semantic Web and Agents Project
> http://www.mindswap.org/
>
> Urchin is a customizable RSS aggregator and filter written in Perl.  It
> consists of two main parts: a web-based user interface to query its
> database and an administration unit that allows the control for 
> managing
> channels in the database.  Administrators can add RSS 0.9*, 1.0, and 
> 2.0
> channels to the Urchin, where items are converted into RDF and stored 
> in
> its native mySQL database.  Using the web interface, user can query the
> database using Urchin-specific keywords, plaintext, or the RCQL query
> language.  Urchin can then display the results as several output 
> formats,
> including RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.91 feeds.  This aggregation allows each 
> user
> to create a RSS feed tailored to the individual's interest from the
> available channels in the database.  In addition, Urchin is suitable 
> for
> building a RSS portal service.
>
> The Urchin-Kowari project replaces the mySQL database with the 
> specialized
> RDF triple store Kowari.  This takes advantage of the fact that all 
> data
> in Urchin are RDF statements and Kowari is a specialized RDF database.
> Urchin and Kowari communicate via SOAP, and can be running on different
> machines.  This decoupling of interface and storage allows users the
> freedom to access any available Kowari server on the Web.  In
> Urchin-Kowari, the core Urchin functionalities are preserved as much as
> possible.  The Web interface retains its look, but query syntax has 
> been
> modified.  Raw iTQL queries to the storage replace the RCQL queries.  
> The
> many Urchin keywords are being developed.  Administrative control of 
> the
> channels is also preserved.
>
> The current implementation is written using Urchin 0.90 and Kowari 
> 1.0.5
> (pre-release, dated July 29, 2004).
>
> Urchin-Kowari demo frontend (under development):
> http://bombadil.mindlab.umd.edu/cgi-bin/urchin
>
> Original Urchin info (now v. 0.92):
> http://urchin.sourceforge.net/
>
> Original Kowari info:
> http://kowari.sourceforge.net/
>
> Contact:  Kendall Clark (kendall@monkeyfist.com), Taowei David Wang
> (tw7@cs.umd.edu), Jay Banerjee (dbanerje@umd.edu)
-- 
Tom Adams                  | Tucana Technologies, Inc.
Support Engineer           |   Office: +1 703 871 5312
tom@tucanatech.com         |     Cell: +1 571 594 0847
http://www.tucanatech.com  |      Fax: +1 877 290 6687
------------------------------------------------------

Received on Wednesday, 25 August 2004 14:46:22 UTC