Publication
The Gnowsis-Using Semantic Web Technologies to build a Semantic Desktop
Leo Sauermann
Mastersthesis, Technical University of Vienna, 2003.
Abstract
Personal computers are gaining a more and more central role in our daily life.
They are used to view images or DVDs, to listen to music, to communicate with
others via email or instant messaging, and to organise our everyday life via
calendars and contacts. Most of these tasks are done by standalone applications.
This makes is almost impossible to link pieces of information across application
borders.
The Semantic Web, which is currently under development by others, will be an
extension of the current web in which resources can be described with metadata
and information is given well-defined meaning. By transferring Semantic Web
technologies to a desktop computer, this work shall enable users to access
resources in fast and convenient. Information is represented and accessed in a
uniform way, independent from the software application that generated it. This
functionality we will call the Semantic Desktop. The aim of this work is to build
the gnowsis server, the first implementation of a Semantic Desktop.
Therefore, we integrated data from different standard applications, transformed
into the general Resource Description Framework (RDF) language. Additional data
can be stored in a native RDF database. This allows the user to define needed links
between resources such as a photo and contact information of a person. Links were
stored and then used to navigate from one resource to another, across application
borders. Through the use of URI identifiers and RDF, it was possible to extend this
system to include different available resources and relations, taken from several
standard applications.
Using the gnowsis prototype, which is a result of this work, applications have
access to all important information stored in a single computer. Users are able to
classify and structure their information in any way they want by creating
bidirectional links between resources. A prototype information management tool
GnoGno based on a wiki / weblog was built to explore this possibility.