Semantically Enabled Collaboration via Annotation

Ian Lumbhttp://ianlumb.wordpress.com/tag/annotation/

CANHEIT 2007

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Outline

IntroductionAnnozilla

– Examples– Implementation– Standards

Semantic WebDiscussion

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http://dafizilla.sourceforge.net/viewsourcewith/

erin.el: Emacs editing mode for TWiki pageshttp://www.neilvandyke.org/erin-twiki-emacs/

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Annotating with Annozilla

Contextually rich and expressive editorial metadata – Non-invasive – Pre-categorized– Of flexible usage

Empowering but not distracting or overwhelming – Encourages sequential processing

Best suited to static Web pages– Effort required to ensure relevance in

wikisStored locally or remotelyAnnotation goes mainstream!

http://annozilla.mozdev.org/

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

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Annotation Servers

Local ServerRemote Servers

– W3C– DIY

• Linux• Perllib• MySQL

– RDF datastore• Apache

– Annotations script– Access control– Access script– Algae script

http://www.w3.org/1999/02/26-modules/User/Annotations-HOWTO.html

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J. Freemantle, OARS Presentation, December 2006

Annotations with Google Earth

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Definitions

“Annotation is the linking of a new commentary node to someone else's existing node. It is the essence of a collaborative hypertext.”– TBL, W3 Archive, c. 1990

"... the addition of information to existing documents without changing the originals.”– Passin, Explorer’s Guide to the

Semantic Web, 2004

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Definitions

“Annotations are comments, notes, explanations, or other types of external remarks that can be attached to a Web document or a selected part of the document. As they are external, it is possible to annotate any Web document independently, without needing to edit that document. From the technical point of view, annotations are usually seen as [editorial] metadata, as they give additional information about an existing piece of data.”– Amaya 9.52, W3C

http://protege.stanford.edu/

Loca

tion

OutcomeModified DocumentInternal

External

Original Document + Annotation

doc

src

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<?xml version="1.0"?><RDF:RDF xmlns:NS4="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.0/" xmlns:NS3="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/annotation-ns#" xmlns:NS2="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/annotationType#" xmlns:NS1="http://cnx.rice.edu/annotations/localServer#" xmlns:NC="http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#" xmlns:RDF="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">

Dissecting an Annozilla Annotation

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RDF - Resource Description Framework

A framework for describing resources on the web– Makes relationships explicit

Provides a model for data, and a syntax so that independent parties can exchange and use it

Designed to be read and understood by computers– Not designed for being displayed to

peopleWritten in XMLPart of the W3C's Semantic Web ActivityA W3C Recommendation

– http://www.w3.org/RDF/

After http://www.w3schools.com/rdf/rdf_intro.asp

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<NS2:Question RDF:about="urn:annot1541202659" NS4:creator="Ian Lumb" NS3:created="2007-05-26T09:32:50-04:00" NS4:date="2007-05-26T09:32:50-04:00" NS3:context="https://twiki.cns.yorku.ca/twiki/bin/view/Netops/TroubleshootingAbstract#xpointer(string-range(/html[1]/body[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/div[4]/div[1]/p[1], &quot;&quot;, 337, 139))" NS4:language="en"> <NS3:annotates RDF:resource="https://twiki.cns.yorku.ca/twiki/bin/view/Netops/TroubleshootingAbstract"/> <NS3:body RDF:resource="urn:body1541202659"/> </NS2:Question>

Dissecting an Annozilla Annotation (2)

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urn:annot1541202659

NS3:context

subject

predicate

object

Dissecting an Annozilla Annotation (2a)

Ian Lumb

NS4:creator

predicate object

https://twiki.cns.yorku.ca/twiki/bin/view/Netops/TroubleshootingAbstract#xpointer(string-range

(/html[1]/body[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/div[4]/div[1]/p[1], &quot;&quot;, 337, 139))

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XPointer - XML Pointer Language

An extension of XPath – XPath is used by XLink to locate remote link

resourcesRelative addressing

– Allows links to places with no anchorsFlexible and robust

– XPointer/XPath expressions often survive changes in the target document

Can point to substrings in character data and to whole tree fragments

Status– The key specification is a Working Draft in

the W3C’s Recommendation Track

http://www.w3.org/TR/xptr-xpointer/

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<RDF:Description RDF:about="https://twiki.cns.yorku.ca/twiki/bin/view/Netops/TroubleshootingAbstract"> <NS1:annotatedBy RDF:resource="urn:annot1541202659"/></RDF:Description><RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:body1541202659" NS1:bodyText="&lt;html xmlns=&quot;http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml&quot;&gt;&lt;head&gt;&lt;title&gt;&lt;/title&gt;&lt;/head&gt;&lt;body&gt;

This is a good start. Can you do a little more on the incorporation side?&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/body&gt;&lt;/html&gt;" />

Dissecting an Annozilla Annotation (3)

‘describe’

‘relate’

‘compare’

‘infer’The stack of expressive power

After http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/0517-boit-tbl/#[27]

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Summary

Annotation use cases– University IT team’s static and wiki Web

Annotations via Annozilla– Accessible client/server, standards-

based implementationAnnotations as external editorial metadata

– Consistent with Web 2.0 social bookmarking plus some Google technologies

– Inconsistent with office suites, wikis, formal ontologies

Transform data into information into knowledge– Realizing the vision of a Semantic Web

• Web 3.0?

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Future Work

Support ongoing development of Annozilla– Go forth and annotate!

Refactor definition of annotation– Develop single schema for annotation

types/properties• XPointer and OWL each have their own

Semantically base annotationsAutomate annotation ???Consider XPointer-based annotations as an option

– Emerging common XML-based schema for Word processing software

– Google Notebook Applications in other areas

– Teaching and learning

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Collaborators

Keith Aldridge– Professor, York University

Jim Freemantle– Independent Consultant

Jerusha Lederman– Ph.D. Candidate, York University

Questions?

Additional Slides

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http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-xptr-xpointer-20021219/

Numbering of Nodes and Points

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Representing GGP Data via ESML and RDF

Lumb & Aldridge (2005, 2006)

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Representing GGP Data via ESML and RDF with Annotation

Lumb et al. (2007)

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