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A Brief Introduction to the Semantic Web...

...at the BBC

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Who are we?

Matthew Wood Head of Software Engineering and Architecture

Michael Smethurst Information Architect

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What we'll be talking about

• How we got where we are• Why we need the semantic web• Linked data• Linking BBC data• What we're doing

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How we got where we are

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In the beginning was…

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In the beginning was…

• The International Information Infrastructure (III)

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In the beginning was…

• The International Information Infrastructure (III)• A network of machines

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In the beginning was…

• The International Information Infrastructure (III)• A network of machines• Otherwise known as the internet

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On top of which was built...

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On top of which was built...

• ...the World Wide Web (WWW)

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On top of which was built...

• ...the World Wide Web (WWW)• A web of documents

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Now we're moving towards...

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Now we're moving towards...

• ...the Giant Global Graph (GGG)

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Now we're moving towards...

• ...the Giant Global Graph (GGG)• A web of things

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Now we're moving towards...

• ...the Giant Global Graph (GGG)• A web of things

Otherwise known as… • The semantic web• Web 3.0• The web of data

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Why we need the semantic web

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People understand…

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Machines don’t…

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The semantic web helps machines to help people to understand the web

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So how do we add meaning for machines?

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So how do we add meaning for machines?

• Semantic HTML + Microformats + GRDDL

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So how do we add meaning for machines?

• Semantic HTML + Microformats + GRDDL• Semantic HTML + RDFa

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So how do we add meaning for machines?

• Semantic HTML + Microformats + GRDDL• Semantic HTML + RDFa• RDF

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Linked data

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“Linked data is the Semantic Web done right, and the web done right”

Sir Tim Berners-Lee said that

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“Magazines are made of pages, the web is made of links”

I said that

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Design Issues for Linked Data (more TBL)

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Design Issues for Linked Data (more TBL)

• Use URIs as names for things.

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Design Issues for Linked Data (more TBL)

• Use URIs as names for things.• Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names.

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Design Issues for Linked Data (more TBL)

• Use URIs as names for things.• Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names.• When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information.

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Design Issues for Linked Data (more TBL)

• Use URIs as names for things.• Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names.• When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information.• Include links to other URIs. so that they can discover more things.

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WEB

StructuredData

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MUSICBRAINZ

WIKIPEDIA

FLICKR

LAST.FM

WEB

StructuredData

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WEB

StructuredData

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Linking BBC data

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bbc.co.uk is incoherent…

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bbc.co.uk is incoherent……because it’s unconnected

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Saturday Kitchen Episode Page Saturday Kitchen Recipe

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Unless we link our data…

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Unless we link our data…

• global visual language

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Unless we link our data…

• global visual language• common navigation patterns

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Unless we link our data…

• global visual language• common navigation patterns• technology refresh

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Unless we link our data…

• global visual language• common navigation patterns• technology refresh• page assembly layers

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Unless we link our data…

• global visual language• common navigation patterns• technology refresh• page assembly layers• “common platforms”

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Unless we link our data…

• global visual language• common navigation patterns• technology refresh• page assembly layers• “common platforms”

…are all treating the symptoms, not the illness

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BBC

StructuredData

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PROGRAMMES

FOOD

BBC

StructuredData

NEWS

MUSIC

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BBC

StructuredData PROGRAMMES

FOODNEWS

MUSIC

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Audio and Music from 10,000 feet

ProgrammesMusic

Topics

Users Events

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ProgrammesMusic

Topics

Users

Events

News Food

Gardening

The BBC from 10,000 feet

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What we’re doing

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What we’ve done

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• Moved to MusicBrainz as our music metadata supplier

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• Moved to MusicBrainz as our music metadata supplier• Designed and built /programmes according to linked data principles

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• Moved to MusicBrainz as our music metadata supplier• Designed and built /programmes according to linked data principles• Published the Programmes Ontology

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• Moved to MusicBrainz as our music metadata supplier• Designed and built /programmes according to linked data principles• Published the Programmes Ontology• Used the Music Ontology to publish RDF for /music

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• Moved to MusicBrainz as our music metadata supplier• Designed and built /programmes according to linked data principles• Published the Programmes Ontology• Used the Music Ontology to publish RDF for /music• Experimented with pushing programme ontology data over XMPP

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What we’re doing next

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• RDF on /programmes

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• RDF on /programmes• RDFa on /programmes and /music

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• RDF on /programmes• RDFa on /programmes and /music• Using Wikipedia / Dbpedia for topic aggregations on /programmes

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• RDF on /programmes• RDFa on /programmes and /music• Using Wikipedia / Dbpedia for topic aggregations on /programmes• Using MusicBrainz <> Dbpedia linked data equivalency to aggregate

artist information at /music

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• RDF on /programmes• RDFa on /programmes and /music• Using Wikipedia / Dbpedia for topic aggregations on /programmes• Using MusicBrainz <> Dbpedia linked data equivalency to aggregate

artist information at /music• /events as linked data

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• RDF on /programmes• RDFa on /programmes and /music• Using Wikipedia / Dbpedia for topic aggregations on /programmes• Using MusicBrainz <> Dbpedia linked data equivalency to aggregate

artist information at /music• /events as linked data• (Hopefully) working with Identity on /users

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• RDF on /programmes• RDFa on /programmes and /music• Using Wikipedia / Dbpedia for topic aggregations on /programmes• Using MusicBrainz <> Dbpedia linked data equivalency to aggregate

artist information at /music• /events as linked data• (Hopefully) working with Identity on /users• Working with Vision to link food and gardening

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ProgrammesMusic

Topics

Users

Events

News Food

Gardening

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ProgrammesMusic

Topics

Users

Events

News Food

Gardening

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THANKS

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To…

• Yves Raimond• Nicholas Humfrey• Patrick Sinclair• Chris Sizemore• Tom Scott• Sophie Walpole• Sean McVeigh

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Open the box, Open the box,Open the goddam box!