04.07.11
The Smart Web
[Cartoon]
The internet is our servant, but will it become our master? If you are a sci-fi believer, it is only a matter of time. Somehow, somewhere, in the complex wiring of the internet there may be a spark of life and suddenly the internet will become aware and begin digesting the wisdom of the world. (See the Article first published as Capturing Wisdom on the Web on Technorati.)
The sci-fi guys may be right, but first there must be a spark of life and an ability to digest the wisdom of the world. The spark of life is an issue left to religion, but having the ability to digest the wisdom of the world has already begun. The W3C has formalized the capture of knowledge in the language OWL (Ontology Web Language).
An open source project, Protégé, has been developed for building and editing OWL ontologies. Protégé is maintained by a large number of contributors and can be downloaded at http://protege.stanford.edu/.
Protégé is a framework for development. It supports multiple serialized forms so an ontology document can be read over the internet. The product also supports plugins. Some of the standard plugins provide forms to add, update, and delete entries in the ontology. Other standard plugins provide graphical viewing of the ontology. Then there are reasoner-plugins that uncover the inferred assertions from the defined constraints. Other more specialized plugins are available for specific applications.
The value of OWL ontologies is their pure logic. Logical statements include declaratives and axioms of classes, object properties, data properties, and individual class members. These statements are precise and are machine-readable. To help humans read OWL document, there is a sophisticated set of annotations that can be attached to any definition.
Not everyone will find it easy to read ontology documents, but everyone can use them. The documents are verbose and similar in structure to a mathematical proof. (Not the same as jumping into an exciting novel.) But, the information defined in an ontology can be used without understanding the logic that ties it all together. This is being proven by the large number of applications being constructed across multiple industries that have an under-the-hood ontology to provide quality assurance.
Even though most people will not find ontologies very readable, computers do. Computers are based entirely on logic. Digesting an ontology for a computer is like a human having their favorite meal. So as the number of ontologies available on the web continues to grow, the web just gets smarter. Ignoring the potential of a spark of life coming to the internet, this ability to share knowledge is growing and will have a very positive effect upon all of us. Our internet servant will be smarter and serve us better.
Enterprise Architects are well-aware of the continuing evolution of technology. They creatively look for technology convergence that can provide breakthroughs in thinking. We are at one of those convergent junctions today. What is about to happen will give non-professional information technologists control of their use of automation in their business. No longer will they simply peer through windows and see only what applications let them see. They will be able to go inside, see how things work, and control their automation. – Enterprise Architects Masters of the Unseen City
Closing the Business / IT gap.
