Presentation of three project description to the 2008 International Metadata Open Forum, Sydney

1. Applications for
Social Networking
Strategies in an
Agency Context
exploiting social capital to create
richly interlinked knowledge
spaces
John Brisbin, Senior Consultant

2. Structure
• Context
• n2Mate
• M3 Alliance
• CI-KISS

3. • Particular problem for governments
• Considerable loss of efficiency
• Many existing attempts at machine-level solutions

5. • Does anyone have a wheel like mine?
“Who’s doing what” is the central question
Obvious failures: lack of interlinkage
If you can’t find the right standard when
you need it, you’re probably going to
make a new one.

6. For the semantic web to take off, it needs:
• Manageable number of ontologies
• Vocabularies for tagging open data
• Highly re-used
• Densely interlinked
Otherwise
• we get killed by the n-squared mapping
problem....
• we get a very large, very sparse network with
minimal interoperability.

7. •Metadata about metadata
• Who?
o owns it, created it, maintains, uses it, endorses it?
• What?
o domain, context, process - how is it intended to be
used? Does this suit my use case?
• Quality of Service?
o is it accurate? reliable? verifiable? up-to-date? going
to be available when I need it?

8. Why don't ontologies get reused more often?
Too hard to find one
Swoogle Ontorank and
Termrank
We would like a rank
based on frequency of
use as a Semantic Web
document, and we
would like to be able to
assess suitability for our
intended use case!

9. Some angles on the problem…
Foundational Angle:
Create foundational techniques for concept
definition, so you get interoperability for free
Automated Matching Angle:
Improve automated matching techniques
Social Angle:
Encourage more people to use the same ontologies
to describe their data, not create new ones.

10. Structure
• Context
• n2Mate
• M3 Alliance
• CI-KISS

11. sented by
Renato Iannella
n2Mate
Exploiting social capital to create a
standards-rich semantic network

12. David Peterson
BoaB interactive
david@boabinteractive.com.au
Anne Cregan
National ICT Australia
anne.cregan@nicta.com.au
Rob Atkinson
CSIRO Land & Water
rob.atkinson@csiro.au
John Brisbin
BoaB interactive
john@boabinteractive.com.au

13. •Use-case: new researcher
A researcher is
preparing her
research plan on a
section of the Great
Barrier Reef.
Although she is an
experienced marine
scientist, she is new
to the GBR and to her
host research facility.

14. •Use-case: new researcher
1. standard naming conventions for the GBR regions;
2. standard identifications for the particular reefs;
3. standard data sampling techniques appropriate to the Australian tropics;
4. standard data formats, enumerators, and vocabularies in her datasets;
5. standard citations of agencies, programmes, and people referenced in her work;
6. standard metadata fields and vocabularies to describe her research output;
7. standard project management practice in reporting on her project’s progress.

15. • Semantic project depends on interlinkage of
ontologies, vocabularies, and standards.
• Humans are central to that effort.
• How to get humans involved effectively?

16. •Socially-sensitive metadata
Create a useful context or else humans find it
impossible to express knowledge

17. • Recognise existing registers and metadata
collections
• Use existing protocols to construct a register of
registers network
• Construct facility with social networking devices

18. • Popularity Rankings: number of times a standards artefact is
referenced (implemented).
• Authority Badges: mechanism to advertise an authority claim over a
standards artefact.
• Related to (“Friends of a Standard (FOAS)” ): linkages from
standards artefacts to their cohort of implementers.
• Trust ratings: showing satisfaction with the custodian of a standards
artefact.
• Hero worship: most interlinked, most trusted, most useful

19. A model for n2Mate relationships

20. •3: Implementation options
Re-use and leverage existing tools and standards
(self-similarity, fractal integrity)

21. •Key Components
Account and session manager Drupal
Bookmarking and annotation tool gnizr
Storage of instance data Sesame
Semantic interpretation MOAT
Policy layer PLING
Trust & Governance POWDER

22. Bootstrap: Test with existing resources
Watson
Talis
Swoogle
Sindice
Falcons
Ping the Semantic Web

23. Sample interface

24. Structure
• Context
• n2Mate
• M3 Alliance
• CI-KISS

25. M3A: Fitzroy Floods Pilot
Monitoring Modeling & Management

26. M3A: Fitzroy Floods Pilot
Stabilise and visualise shared
knowledge
21 Agencies with complex
juisdictional interlinkages
and cultures
Community of Practice
“Professional Privilege”?

27. 3 steps to grouping behaviour
I want to belong to a group
I want to contribute to my group
I want my group to live

28. Social tools (again)
Exploit social platform techniques:
• Popularity Rankings
o How many SWDs reference this ontology/artefact?
• Authority Badges
o a way to assert an authority claim over an artefact
• Related to
o Who uses this ontology? Which ontologies do my friends or
respected cohorts use?
• Trust & Satisfaction rankings
o how do users feel about this ontology? Do they trust it? Are they
satisfied with its QoS parameters?

29. Automated parsing (Open Calais > Drupal)

30. Rich visualisation (ThinkMap + Freebase)

31. Structure
• Context
• n2Mate
• M3 Alliance
• CI-KISS

32. Concept pilot (excel)

33. Intention to act as social change
platform
• Knowledge
• Integration
• Synthesis
• Service
Keep it Sweet and Simple

34. Researchers, community groups,
conservation agencies

35. Cultural leaders
and keepers
of tradition

36. Visitors and students: the next
generation of Reef Guardians

37. Allow many angles to intersect...
Encourage insights

38. • Over
Grow organically
Connect with new challenges

39. Internal dynamics

40. Needs analysis

41. Needs analysis

42. Thank you!
www.boab.info