RE: pilot set of SKOS based semantic web services

Hi Doug, great to see this functionality available in the Web. Thanks for
the update.

Alistair.

--
Alistair Miles
Senior Computing Officer
Image Bioinformatics Research Group
Department of Zoology
The Tinbergen Building
University of Oxford
South Parks Road
Oxford
OX1 3PS
United Kingdom
Web: http://purl.org/net/aliman
Email: alistair.miles@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1865 281993

From: public-esw-thes-request@w3.org [mailto:public-esw-thes-request@w3.org]
On Behalf Of Tudhope D S (AT)
Sent: 21 April 2008 15:26
To: public-esw-thes@w3.org; public-swd-wg@w3.org; NKOS-L@OCLC.ORG
Subject: pilot set of SKOS based semantic web services

The STAR project has developed a pilot set of semantic web services, based
upon the SKOS Core data model for thesauri and related knowledge
organization systems. The services provide term look up in vocabularies
known to the system, browsing and semantic concept expansion. Details can be
found at http://hypermedia.research.glam.ac.uk/kos/terminology_services/
 
The service is based on a subset of the SWAD Europe SKOS API with extensions
for concept expansion. The service currently consists of 7 function calls,
which could be integrated into a textual or metadata based search system. 
The services currently provide term look up across the thesauri held in the
system, along with browsing and semantic concept expansion within a chosen
thesaurus. This allows search to be augmented by SKOS-based vocabulary and
semantic resources (assuming the services are used in conjunction with a
search system).
Users may browse a concept space to explore and become familiar with
specialist terminology or as part of a broader application. A query is often
expressed at a different level of generalisation from document content or
metadata, or may employ a slightly different semantic perspective. In
combination with a search system, the services allow queries to be expanded
(automatically or interactively) by synonyms or by expansion over the SKOS
semantic relationships. Expansion is based on a measure of ‘semantic
closeness’.
Anyone interested is welcome to inspect the API or download a client
demonstrator, which is currently configured to operate with a subset of
English Heritage thesauri. We're keen to receive any feedback or
suggestions. It's intended as an pilot demonstrator of core functionality
rather than any final user interface. It should install and run
automatically (after one or two initial questions).
 
A WSDL file and service description are available. The work is ongoing and
we welcome any feedback or interest in collaboration on developing an API to
support a rich range of SKOS use cases. 
 
Doug
 
 
Douglas Tudhope 
Professor, Faculty of Advanced Technology 
University of Glamorgan 
Pontypridd CF37 1DL 
Wales, UK 
Tel +44 (0) 1443-483609 
Fax +44 (0) 1443-482715 
dstudhope@glam.ac.uk 
http://hypermedia.research.glam.ac.uk/people/tudhope/
Editor : The New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia

Received on Tuesday, 22 April 2008 09:10:09 UTC