MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research © 2004 IBM Corporation Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life Dennis Quan [email protected]
Dec 24, 2015
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation
Haystack:Bringing Good Metadata to Life
Dennis [email protected]
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation2 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Outline
Exposing the benefits of RDF data integration
Demonstration
Prototyping in the Haystack environment
– Hooking in different RDF sources
– Designing visualizations
– Adenine scripting language
Example: Open Directory browser
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation3 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Show me the metadata
Common questions regarding Semantic Web applications:
– “Is this stuff practical?”
– “Are you just overloading me with more information?”
– “What can I do with this data today?”
– “What is RDF giving me over databases and XML?”
Asked by developers, not just users and observers
Approach: easy prototyping environment for visualizing connections within and among metadata sources
– The “museum” approach versus the “brochure” approach
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation4 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
The Haystack Semantic Web browser
Allows users to create, explore, and organize RDF information spaces
– Web browser-style navigation of Semantic Web resources
– Metadata can be fetched from a variety of sources
– User-selectable presentation templates (“views”)
– Flexible bookmark management system (“collections”)
– Access to Semantic Web Services
Research project originating from MIT CSAIL
Open Source Java project built on top of Eclipse, IBM’s Open Source rich client platform
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation5 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Fictitious example: a rock star’s manager
A day in the life of the manager of the famous-physicist-turned-rock-star, Johnny Doe
Some of the backend services and data have been mocked up, but presentation services are real
– Point of demonstration is to show what can be seen through Haystack, which is acting as a front end
Key concepts to watch for:
– Views
– Lenses
– Collections
– Semantic Web Services
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation6 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
View Ontology Web Language (VOWL)
RDF Schema, DAML+OIL, and/or OWL used to describe ontologies to Semantic Web agents
Similarly, VOWL is used to describe presentation knowledge about ontologies to user agents
– Views: different ways of looking at resources
– Lenses: sets of properties that make sense being shown together
– Operations: mini Semantic Web Services with type information that specify what kinds of resources can be used with them
– VOWL definitions, like OWL definitions, are encoded in RDF
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation7 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Process diagram
Metadata
Presentationrecommendations
Ontologicalspecifications
Applicable servicedescriptions
+Point and
click, hyper-linked UI
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation8 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Incrementality in the user interface
The more Haystack knows about an ontology, the better job it can do presenting objects to the user
– With no knowledge, Haystack shows a property listing
– With rdfs:label and dc:title attributes, Haystack shows human-readable names
– With rdfs:domain, rdfs:range, daml:UniqueProperty, daml:ObjectProperty, and daml:DatatypeProperty, specialized forms can be produced
– With lenses, Haystack shows filtered property listings in All Information and Explore Relationships views
– With custom views defined, Haystack can show a completely custom presentation
These specifications do not have to all come from the same place; different pieces of presentation knowledge can be fused together
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation9 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Getting metadata into the system
Metadata can come from:
– File system
– Web servers
– LSID servers
– Jena stores
– Joseki servers
– Annotea servers
– Web Services
In a number of formats:
– RDF/XML
– Notation3
– Adenine
– RSS and other XML formats (via XSLT)
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation10 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Life Science Identifiers (LSID)
Hyperlinking metaphor and URLs on billboards depends on there being a metadata retrieval mechanism
Life Sciences community coming together around LSID
– urn:lsid:[server name]:[db-specific identifier]
– Retrieval protocol based on SOAP and RDF
– Undergoing standardization by OMG and I3C
– Open Source client/server libraries provided by IBM
– Many public data sources accessible via LSID today—beginnings of a Biological Semantic Web
Not specific to Life Sciences
Support built into Haystack
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation11 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Adenine
Adenine is Haystack’s RDF scripting language
– Syntactically, a cross between Notation3 and Python
– Both a data definition language (RDF) and an imperative scripting language
– Native support for RDF manipulation
– Access to Java classes and methods
Haystack system built like a Lisp machine
– Everything is accessible from the “Adenine console”
Leveraging the Eclipse platform
– Powerful Adenine text editor with outline and syntax highlighting
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation12 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Example: an Open Directory browser
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation13 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Current status of prototype
Open Source, Java/Eclipse-based implementation
Runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X
Easy to hook in new data sources
Stable, but still some usability issues
Provides stable platform for extensions (Eclipse plug-ins)
GuruGrandma Power user
Goal We are here
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation14 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Packaging
VOWL specifications can be:
– Made available for download from a Web site
– Packaged with instance metadata coming from the server
– Put into an Eclipse plug-in
Distributing your own custom Haystack is easy
– Documentation describes process to create a stripped-down, specialized version of your own Semantic Web browser
– Can integrate custom RDF metadata, ontologies, VOWL specifications, and even Java and Eclipse components
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation15 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Real life Haystack application: myGrid provenance
Courtesy of Professor Carole Goble, University of Manchester
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation16 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Key ideas
Demonstrating the value of RDF is easiest when the user can experience the benefits for him or herself
Haystack is an extensible Semantic Web browser:
– Connects to a variety of RDF sources
– Exposes an intuitive, Web browser-like interface
– Incrementally improves experience as more ontological and presentation knowledge is provided
– Built on Eclipse, providing a solid basis for extensions
– Scriptable using Adenine
Haystack addresses important HCI concerns, e.g., personalization and organization, that must be supported in information applications but are often taken for granted
MIT CSAIL/IBM Watson Research
© 2004 IBM Corporation17 Haystack: Bringing Good Metadata to Life May 22, 2004
Thank you for your attention
Dennis Quan, [email protected]
Haystack project home page (new download coming May 24)
– http://haystack.lcs.mit.edu/ Documentation!
– http://haystack.lcs.mit.edu/developers/ IBM LSID home page
– http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/oss/lsid/
Eclipse home page
– http://www.eclipse.org/
myGrid home page
– http://www.mygrid.org.uk/