Hypernotation is a new method of publishing structured data on the Web, that results in browsable atomic data with machine-readable and hackable URLs.
To see what it looks like in practice, check out the DBpedia dataset published using Hypernotation. Before you start browsing the data it’s good idea to read through the examples.
The Challenge of Building the Semantic Web
October 20, 2011
The Semantic Web is often described as an extension of the current Web. The idea of what extending the Web should look like can be seen in Linked Data.
In order to better understand the importance of Linked Data, one has to understand the context in which it emerged, i.e. the problem it has been trying to solve.
The Linked Data concept is flawed
August 1, 2011
The second post of the Problems of Linked Data series is about the problems regarding the concept of Linked Data:
In the Linked Data context, a node of the Web of data is redirected to the document containing its description. “Data” (or “datum”, if you’re pedantic) as the basic unit of this new Web of data, represents a new paradigm that needs to take over the role that the “document” had before. However, this idea is not fully elaborated, and documents still exist as data containers. In other words, the data structure is “glued” onto the (2D) document instead of being implemented via (3D) HTTP URIs.
Creating the Web of data is a challenge because an RDF graph and the Web graph are two different types of graphs. Arcs (links) in an RDF graph have names, while hyperlinks on the Web have only direction. Another problem is the fact that in an RDF graph, out of three types of nodes only URI references are identified by an URI. How to follow the idea of Web documents and assign each “data” on the Web of data a URI, when blank nodes and literals have no URI? On the Web of documents, every document has a URI, there are no “blank documents” and “literal documents”.
Stay tuned, more to come soon!
What is exactly Linked Data?
July 27, 2011
Check out the first post of the Problems of Linked Data series. The subject of the post is the identity of Linked Data:
In mid-2009 Paul Miller asked the question Does Linked Data need RDF?. He stated that the idea that Linked Data can only be Linked Data if expressed in RDF is a dogmatism that makes him „deeply uncomfortable“. A big debate questioning (once basic) assumptions of Linked Data began, and there is still no consensus today.
The problem arose because of the imprecise definition of the Linked Data rules that can be interpreted in different ways. The document that defines Linked Data and its rules is a personal note by Tim Berners-Lee and hasn’t been formally approved by the W3C. Even the term “Linked Data” itself is controversial and contributes to the confusion in the sense that the exact concept of “Linked Data” is conflated with the general idea of linking (any) data. Anyway, the third rule for publishing Linked Data has led to the most confusion and debate:
Stay tuned, more to come soon!
Check out the new blog post Problems of the RDF syntax:
An RDF syntax (notation) is a concrete syntax for writing (serializing) RDF triples. There are many different notations, some of which are based on existing formats (XML, (X)HTML, JSON), while others use special formats (Turtle).
The problems of the RDF model, discussed in the previous posts, are inherited by RDF notations. Various special cases require special support in a syntax, which makes it more complex. However, RDF notations contain a number of their own problems, which can be divided into two categories:
- various problems in RDF notations
- the lack of a single dominant notation
The Ultimate Problem of RDF and the Semantic Web
July 19, 2011
Check out the new blog post The Ultimate Problem of RDF and the Semantic Web on milicicvuk.com/blog.
In the previous posts I’ve covered two important problems of the RDF model, related to blank nodes and literals. Here, I’m going to focus on what I think is the key problem of RDF – the problem of the node of an RDF graph.
In the RDF: Concepts and Abstract Syntax, a node is defined as follows:
“The set of nodes of an RDF graph is the set of subjects and objects of triples in the graph.”
It then states that a node can be a URI reference, a literal or a blank node. However, the concept of a node itself is not clearly defined. What is it that is common to all different types of nodes? What requirements does a node need to meet in order to be a node?
Problems of the RDF model
July 14, 2011
Check out the new blog post on my new (personal) blog. It’s the first post of the series on the results of my recent research, regarding the realisation of the Web of data/the Semantic Web. The first part is about the problems of the RDF model and the subject of this post are blank nodes:
Nodes without a name represent a special kind of nodes called blank nodes (bNode). These nodes simply indicate the existence of a thing, without using, or saying anything about, the name of that thing. Therefore, they are referred to as existential variables of an RDF graph.
Due to the absence of a name (URI), manipulating data containing blank nodes is much harder – they make otherwise trivial operations far more complex. They complicate the lives of data consumers, especially if data changes in the future. Blank nodes add a lot of complexity to the standards built upon them, and the implementations consuming them. They are poorly understood and difficult for beginners.
Semantic Web In Action – Faviki
March 13, 2010
David Kuhta wrote a new blog post titled Semantic Web In Action – Faviki. He explains in great detail what Faviki does, how Faviki works, how it can help users and finally how it is used. Here are some arguments on why David recommends Faviki:
- Simplicity – Tagging a bookmark in Faviki becomes especially simple due to to the semantic tag recommendation and search systems and concise user interface.
- Social Media – Integration with Twitter gives you the an easy option to share bookmarks on Twitter and let your followers know where you’re leaving Web placeholders.
- Eliminate Ambiguity – Semantic tagging means the tag you you’ve placed on a bookmark is backed by a clear and comprehensive concept in Wikipedia.
- Eliminate Redundancy – The ability to import bookmarks from Delicious means you don’t have to switch tools or bookmark twice or change tools or bookmark again.
- Power Search – Searching for a keyword on the Faviki homepage essentially amounts to a search of all tagged Web resources on a given Wikipedia entry, as deemed by the collective Faviki community
Highly recommend read, especially for newcomers. Click here to read the post.
New blog posts on Faviki
January 14, 2010
Henry Story wrote a great post titled Faviki: social bookmarking for 2010. He wrote about how Faviki is different from other bookmarking services and explained the benefit users gain from using Wikipedia concepts for tagging. In addition, he discusses the potential of integrating Faviki with Linked data and Wikipedia:
Imagine you tag a page with http://dbpedia.org/resource/Munich (the user does not see this URL of course!). Then by using the growing linked data cloud Faviki or other services will be able to start doing some very interesting inferencing on this data. So since the above resource is known to be a town, a capital, to be in Germany which is in Europe, to have more than half a million inhabitants, to be along a certain river, that contains certain museums, to have different names in a number of other languages, to be related in certain ways to certain famous people (such as the current Pope)… it will be possible to improve the service to allow you to search for things you tagged with some European town (if you can’t remember where you were exactly when you took that photo).
Read the whole post here.
Also, Faviki has been covered on MakeUseOf.com. An insightful post is titled Auto-Tag Delicious Bookmarks and Share Them Easily On Twitter With Faviki. Its author, Mahendra Palsule, explains in great detail how Faviki is used, describing the usage of bookmarklet, tagging process, auto-posting to Delicious and Twitter and the import from Delicious. Here are some arguments on why Mahendra recommends Faviki:
- Faviki uses universal, common tags, that have Wikipedia-defined meanings. Your world of knowledge captured in your bookmarks is universally connected and discoverable to your friends via these semantic tags.
- Tagging is simple – Faviki suggests tags automatically, also allowing you to clarify exactly what you mean.
- You do not need to switch from Delicious. You can import all your bookmarks from Delicious. Bookmarks with semantic-rich information saved in Faviki will automatically be saved in Delicious as well.
- Automatically share your bookmarks via Twitter.
- Multi-language Support: Faviki is the world’s first and only bookmarking service that supports tagging in 15 languages.
Highly recommend read, especially for newcomers. Click here to read the post.
Auto-Tag Delicious Bookmarks and Share Them Easily On Twitter With FavikiAuto-Tag Delicious Bookmarks and Share Them Easily On Twitter With Faviki
Downtime due to the site migration
December 16, 2009
We are moving to the new server on Thursday, starting at 8 am EST. The site will be down for several hours.
We are very sorry for the inconvenience.
Thank you for your understanding,
Faviki team
Faviki Blog 