Ontologies and the Semantic Web: The Story So Far

Ontologies and the Semantic Web: The Story So Far

时间：2010年4月9日 地点：九龙湖校区计算机楼301室

报告简介：

The goal of Semantic Web research is to transform the Web from a linked document repository into a distributed knowledge base and application platform, thus allowing the vast range of available information and services to be more effectively exploited. As a first step in this transformation, ontology languages such as RDF and OWL have been developed; these languages are designed to capture the knowledge that will enable applications to better understand Web accessible resources, and to use them more intelligently. Although fully realising the Semantic Web still seems some way off, OWL has already been very successful, and ontology based systems are becoming increasingly important in meeting the demand for more powerful and flexible information systems. Requirements for such systems include the need to deal with incomplete and semi-structured information, to integrate information from heterogeneous sources, to employ richer and more flexible schemas, and for query answers to reflect both knowledge and data. Provision of such enhanced capabilities must, however, be in addition to, and not instead of, the well-established features of existing database systems, in particular their robust scalability. Achieving this is, of course, extremely challenging. In this talk I will provide a brief overview of OWL's role in the Semantic Web and review recent developments, in particular the OWL 2 standard, a key feature of which has been the addition of profiles -- fragments of OWL carefully designed so as to enjoy desirable computational properties. I will explain how OWL profiles can be exploited in order to provide scalable solutions to ontology based information systems, illustrate some of the problems that can still arise, and discuss recent research aimed at addressing these problems.

报告人简介：

    Ian Horrocks.
    Professor in University of Oxford.
    The General Chair of the 9th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC'10).

计算机网络和信息集成教育部重点实验室（东南大学）