Seed Media Group: Blog
Friday, March 05, 2010 • Events • by Eva Wisten • #
Mapping of Science and Semantic Web
Seed’s Joy Moore attended the NSF/JSMF Workshop on Mapping of Science and Semantic Web at Indiana University on March 4 and 5.
Organized by Katy Börner (Victor H. Yngve Professor of Information Science, SLIS, Indiana University and Director, Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center & Curator of Mapping Science exhibit), Ying Ding (Assistant Professor, Information Science, SLIS, Indiana University), and Peter Fox (Tetherless World Constellation Chair, Professor, Earth and Environmental Science and Computer Science,Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), the workshop brought together 35 leading experts in the semantic web and science mapping from around the world.
Some of the participants had collaborated with each other before, some were meeting for the first time, and all came with a wide variety of personal research successes, obstacles, and views on how emerging technologies hold the potential to dramatically improve the accessiblity to and analysis of scientific information.
Day 1: Understanding the landscape, exploring the issues
The first day started with each of the participants giving a brief overview of their own work, providing context for the discussions to follow. Shortly thereafter, Peter Fox chaired a session with more in depth presentations by three of the attendees.
Jim Hendler gave a comprehensive overview of the emergence of the semantic web and raised some provocative points about where web 3.0 might take us. Whereas web 1.0 gave rise to Amazon.com, web 2.0 brought Facebook, web 3.0 is here and its killer apps, using semantic technology to add value to traditional web apps, are still to be developed – huge opportunities lie ahead.
Next, Frank van Harmelen predicted the end of the scientific paper as we know it, what it means for mapping science, and how semantic web makes it possible. His talk focused on data extraction from scientific papers (only necessary because the data had first been buried in the document format! “A journal paper is a state-funeral for your results”). Should we do away with the paper altogether and just publish “facts” in the form of triples, i.e., nanopublications that collectively form a vast web of knowledge? While this would improve access to targeted, structured bits of information, would the context of the findings (and importantly, the experimental conditions) be obscured? What are the practical, useful tools? His talk clearly outlined the challenge of balancing the need to structure, automate, and scale information with the needs of researchers (both as authors and readers).
Katy Börner ended the session with her presentation on interactive maps of science and technology. Maps can help us navigate different areas of science, find collaborators, identify trends, and serve as useful tools for funding agencies, researchers, industry, publishers, and for society. Not only can these maps help people access what we collectively know, forming bridges, they are also quite beautiful and inspiring – see examples here.
The final session was a group Challenges & Opportunities exercise. What can we do next, and what are the obstacles holding us back?
The day concluded with a group dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant. It was noisy, fun, and a great way for everyone to relax and talk in smaller groups. With good food and wine and a roomful of brilliant, enthusiastic people, it’s no surprise that for the next couple of hours ideas were flying and debates ensued, and it’s safe to say that everyone got the most out of the day.
Coming up next, Day 2: Figuring out what can be implemented in the next five years