Re: pdf and the semantic web

Hi Alex,

PDF is also used for display throughout Mac OS X, so there are many  
options for reading and also writing PDFs. Let me also point out SALT  
[1], which is a research project about adding semantic annotations to  
PDF (using XMP as a container for the annotations). More detailed  
research papers about SALT are available here [2] and here [3].

Cheers,
Knud

[1] http://smile.deri.ie/projects/salt
[2] http://data.semanticweb.org/conference/iswc-aswc/2007/tracks/research/papers/197
[3] http://data.semanticweb.org/conference/eswc/2008/paper/209

On 11.02.2009, at 16:24, Adrian Walker wrote:

> Hi Alex --
>
> There are programs other than Acrobat that read and display pdf.
>
> xpdf on Linux is one such.  It's probably open source, so that one  
> could get some tagging hooks into it.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
>                                        -- Adrian
>
> Internet Business Logic
> A Wiki and SOA Endpoint for Executable Open Vocabulary English over  
> SQL and RDF
> Online at www.reengineeringllc.com    Shared use is free
>
> Adrian Walker
> Reengineering
>
> On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 10:43 AM, Alexander Garcia Castro <alexgarciac@gmail.com 
> > wrote:
> I would like to know how applicable could the PDF format be within  
> the context of the Semantic web? The PDF format is closed;  
> annotating PDFs, as in tagging not the file but the information  
> within the file, is not possible by means different from those  
> provided by ADOBE. For instance, if I wanted to tag a word, or an  
> image within, inside, a PDF I would have to do it with my acrobat  
> reader -the latest version; But if I wanted to facilitate such  
> operation via WEB I could only do it if and only if I had the XSLT  
> so I could transform the PDF into XML. This limitation is, IMHO, a  
> huge one within the context of the semantic web where we should be  
> able to define links and use them. Furthermore, being forced to have  
> a third party application just for displaying a file that should be  
> displayed directly by the browser is not a nice feature. If PDF was  
> open it could be rendered by the browser.  Aren't closed formats  
> such as PDF viable within the context of the SW? After all the PDF  
> was a solution within the context of portability and exchange of  
> information; the main problem it was solving was a simple one "I  
> want my document to look on display and once printed,  the same  
> everywhere" and "I want people to be able to read my documents  
> without loosing the format of the document and without having to  
> consider the OS". Isn't the PDF obsolete within this context?
>
> -- 
> Alexander Garcia
> http://www.usefilm.com/photographer/75943.html
>

-------------------------------------------------
Knud Möller, MA
+353 - 91 - 495086
Smile Group: http://smile.deri.ie
Digital Enterprise Research Institute
   National University of Ireland, Galway
Institiúid Taighde na Fiontraíochta Digití
   Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh

Received on Wednesday, 11 February 2009 16:47:30 UTC