POLICY :: Next Generation Internet > Semantic Web (archived)

This page was archived when this portal was restructured in early 2007. For up to date information, please visit the following sites:

Digital libraries and content, the Fourth Challenge under ICT research in the Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7, 2007-2013)
IST Research under the Sixth Research Framework Programme (FP6, 2002-2006): Knowledge & Content Technologies

Turning Information Systems into Knowledge Resources

Information overload threatens the usefulness of today's internet and other information services. The semantic web will tame information overload, making the web more user-friendly and helping users transform the flood of information into useful knowledge.

Over the last ten years, the World Wide Web has evolved into an indispensable medium for information, communications and transactions. The downside of this success has been information overload - the explosion of content that makes it increasingly difficult to access and utilise information and services in ways that add value in our daily lives.

the semantic web will bring structure to the web and make it a much more useful and user-friendly resource

Recently the concept of the semantic web has emerged with the aim of making web resources more machine-understandable. By enabling the context (semantics) of information to be identified and interpreted, the semantic web will bring structure to the web and make it a much more useful, and user-friendly, resource. The concept of web services, where online transactional services are loosely coupled through common directories and exchange protocols, is also starting to gain ground.

The addition of semantics is only the first step, however, and will not in itself solve the problem of information overload. As well as being able to generate semantic meta-data, we need to be able to structure, filter, retrieve and maintain it in a meaningful way ? so as to turn ?data? into ?knowledge?. Thus, the longer-term vision is of semantic-based knowledge systems, which ?industrialise? key parts of the knowledge lifecycle.

Multiple Breakthroughs Required

For this to happen we need breakthroughs on several fronts. Global collections of knowledge bases should emerge, at first in information-intensive sectors such as science, infotainment and health. Knowledge acquisition and annotation need to be (semi)-automated, thus removing a serious bottleneck in building knowledge bases. New types of semantic-based search engines need to evolve to take advantage of these developments.

Furthermore, knowledge systems will need to reach new levels of scalability. For example, systems may need to support many agents working together, or information retrieval scenarios where the content is highly personalised to the users? requirements.

Machine learning and inference play an important role in knowledge systems - breakthroughs can be envisaged for limited systems that can learn continuously over long periods of time.

Finally, the quality, value and trustworthiness of content will be a key concern. New generalised trust and confidence models will be needed.

European Research

Under the EU's Fifth Framework Programme (1998-2002), the Semantic Web action line resulted in around 30 projects involving over 250 research and industry organisations.

These projects helped build critical mass in Europe, in particular through supporting the worldwide effort on Semantic Web Advanced Development (SWAD) led by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The SWAD-Europe project is extending this work in Europe, providing targeted research, demonstrations and outreach to ensure semantic web technologies move into the mainstream of networked information systems.

In the current Sixth Framework Programme, the research has both deepened and broadened. The research aims at maximising the automation of the complete knowledge lifecycle and achieving semantic interoperability between web resources and services. Key contributing developments to this research will be:

content-based multimedia analysis;
knowledge representation and reasoning;
information/database methods;
multi-agent frameworks;
adaptive information systems which work under real-life constraints;
machine learning
natural language processing.

Some Projects in Brief

SWAP is developing technology that will allow users to apply their individual views on knowledge and, at the same time, let them share knowledge effectively. more ...

SWWS is linking web services with the semantic web, providing a semantic web-based web service platform for a wide range of e-business applications. more ...