AKSW @ Zingst

Posted on July 5, 2011 by AmrapaliZaveri

Last week, from June 26 to 30, all AKSW members were at Zingst for an internal group meeting. With the university villa located right by the sea, it seemed to be a perfect getaway and an awesome location for a group meeting outside Leipzig. Sunday was spent mostly in travelling as it took three train changes and a bus ride to reach Zingst. Monday was spent in smaller group discussions on various ongoing projects. Over the next two days, 13 of the AKSW PhD students presented their achievements, current status and future plans of their PhD projects. Sören, Jens and Axel, the heads of the three sub-groups (ES, MOLE and SIMBA), gave their inputs and suggestions for the students to help them improve, continue and or complete their PhDs. In addition, the current projects were also discussed so as to find possible synergies between them and to discuss further improvements and ideas.

Moreover, swimming in the sea was a pleasant experience as the water was not too cold. However, we were greeted with a lot of jelly fishes, although (thankfully) the ones that don’t sting! While some of us left early on Thursday to attend the OKCon, the others left in the afternoon by the direct train from Rostock to Leipzig. Overall, it was a productive and recreational trip that we plan to do every year to not only keep a track of each students progress and help them improve but also enjoy the sea.

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Planet Federated Social Web Launched

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Sebastian Tramp

Because we all like Planet RDF and the Federated Social Web Community does not have such a service at the moment, we’ve recently launched Planet Federated Social Web as a community service for the W3C Federated Social Web Incubator Group at http://planet-fsw.lod2.eu.

We are working since several years on applications and protocols for distributed social networking based on semantic technologies, so we are excited to contribute to this working group.

Planet FSW is a merge of all the latest Federated Social Web related activities fetched from personal and project blogs as well as from twitter feeds. It is supported by the LOD2 project and driven by Foafpress (a small linked data / FOAF presentation engine which was created by our associated partner / former student Michael Haschke).

Update: Thanks to Evan‘s fast response, Planet FSW is now available at the more official domain planet.federatedsocialweb.org.

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Official DBpedia Live Release

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Jens Lehmann

The AKSW group is pleased to announce the official release of DBpedia Live. The main objective of DBpedia is to extract structured information from Wikipedia, convert it into RDF, and make it freely available on the Web. In a nutshell, DBpedia is the Semantic Web mirror of Wikipedia.

Wikipedia users constantly revise Wikipedia articles with updates happening almost each second. Hence, data stored in the official DBpedia endpoint can quickly become outdated, and Wikipedia articles need to be re-extracted. DBpedia Live enables such a continuous synchronization between DBpedia and Wikipedia. There was a preliminary PHP based DBpedia Live extraction framework available, which was, however, based on an older version of the DBpedia extraction framework and did not contain all necessary features to synchronise properly with Wikipedia.

The DBpedia Live framework has the following new features:

  1. Migration to the new Java/Scala DBpedia framework.
  2. Support of clean abstract extraction.
  3. Automatic reprocessing of all pages affected by a schema mapping change at http://mappings.dbpedia.org.
  4. Automatic reprocessing of pages that are not changed for more than one month. The main objective of that feature is to that any change in the DBpedia framework, e.g. addition/change of an extractor, will eventually affect all pages. It also serves as fallback for technical problems in Wikipedia or the update stream.
  5. Publication of all changesets.
  6. Provision of a tool to enable other DBpedia mirrors to be in synchronization with our DBpedia Live endpoint. The tool continuously downloads changesets and performs changes in a specified triple store accordingly.

Important Links:

For further questions, please use the mailing-list at dbpedia-discussion@lists.sourceforge.net. We thank our partners at the FU Berlin and OpenLink for their support.

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AKSW at TU Dresden PLT

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Jens Lehmann

On June 8, I (Jens) visited the process control engineering research group (PLT) of Leon Urbas at the Dresden University of Technology. We first met on the Leipziger Semantic Web Day where Leon Urbas presented interactive Linked Data applications and decided to have a longer meeting later on. I first gave a talk on the Linked Data Lifecycle (slides as PDF), which is a central element of the vision behind the LOD2 project – a cycle of mutual refinement which can help to overcome some of the problems in using Linked Data. It extends on an earlier vision description by Sören and me.

After the initial presentation, we exchanged ideas for collaboration between our groups. The PLT group has a very strong record in large scale practical applications, mobile devices and usability testing. Since their background is automation engineering, they view semantic technologies as a way to connect large networks of knowledge in a flexible manner. They were particularly interested in some of our research and software tools like LIMES, SAIM and OntoWiki. I enjoyed staying at the group and I am looking forward to further meetings.

Posted in dbpedia, DL-Learner, Events, LATC, LIMES, Linked Geo Data, LOD2, OntoWiki, OntoWiki Mobile | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

AKSW at ESWC Summer School and Conference 2011

Posted on June 9, 2011 by AmrapaliZaveri
This year the STI – International organized an ESWC summer school for Master and PhD students in the area of the Semantic Web to come together to learn about the latest ongoings from some of the leading researchers in the area. Timofey Ermilov and Amrapali Zaveri from AKSW attended the summer school, which was held in Kalamaki, Crete from 22nd May to 28th May. 47 students from several different institutions and countries were at the summer school. It was organized very well with keynote speeches in the morning followed by tutorials and hands-on sessions after lunch. Before every keynote speech, John Domingue, one of the organisers, would tell us why that person had become famous in the Semantic Web community. The keynote speeches were excellent and covered a wide range of topics, which also highlighted some of the important aspects to consider in one’s PhD. The tutorials were specially scheduled to be in the morning as the following hands-on session would be on the same topic such as LarkC, Linked Open Data, Vocabulary Building and Alignment, Linked Services and Front-Ends. The first two evenings were spent by students presenting posters of their Master or PhD projects. Each student was assigned a tutor who would not only pose insightful comments and ask questions but also judge the posters based on design, presentation and novelty. Timofey won the runners up prize for the poster session. Additionally, we were all divided into groups of four students each and were assigned to do a project within two days. This task not only helped improve team skills, communication skills but also technical skills. Overall, it was an excellent opportunity for students to meet other students who are working on closely related projects and interact with experts to get feedback and advice for their projects. Apart from working on improving our socialising skills, something we learnt to be absolutely important on the very first day, we absolutely enjoyed the beautiful location, the beach, the parties and also the excursion to the nearby village, Matala on one of the evenings.

Following the summer school, we attended the ESWC 2011 conference held in Heraklion, Crete from 29th May to 2nd June, where our colleague Jens Lehmann also joined us. The conference was packed with workshops, tutorials and exciting keynote speeches by some of the leading experts such as Jim Hendler who spoke about “Why the Semantic Web will never work” and Chris Welty who spoke about his work with IBM’s Watson. Andraz Tori, one of our LOD2 partners, was also one of the keynote speakers who spoke about Zemanta. These were followed by insightful parallel sessions on the various upcoming topics in the Semantic Web.

Jens played a key role in representing AKSW at the conference. He presented the AutoSPARQL project in the Inductive and Probalistic Approaches session. The slides for the presentation are available here and AutoSPARQL is available here. Timofey gave two talks, namely, OntoWiki Mobile – Knowledge Management in your Pocket and Weaving a Distributed Semantic Social Network for Mobile Users in the Sensor Web and Mobile Web session. Jens was also on the “E-Government Core Vocabularies and federation of national semantic assets repositories: the European Commission approach” people with Jim Hendler, Nikos Loutas, Vassillios Peristeras and Stijn Goedertier. The panel discussed the state of Open Government and current challenges. He also chaired the Linked Open Data I Session. Moreover, our LOD2 project was the official sponsor of the Linked Data Award.

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Indian-Summer School on Linked Data

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Sören Auer

ISSLOD takes place in late summer from Sep 12-18, 2011 in Leipzig with hopefully still a lot of Indian Summer (i.e. Altweibersommer / Бабье лето) sunshine rays.

The Linked Data methodology is a light-weight approach to facilitate the transition from the document Web to the Web of Data and ultimately a Semantic Web. With a wide availability of Linked Data tools and knowledge bases, a steadily growing R&D community, industrial applications, the Linked Data paradigm already became crucial building block of the Web architecture.

ISSLOD is primarily intended for postgraduate (PhD or MSc) students, postdocs, and other young researchers investigating aspects related to the Semantic Data Web. The Summer School will also be open to senior researchers wishing to learn about Semantic Web issues related to their own fields of research.

For further details please visit: http://isslod.lod2.eu

ISSLOD is organized by the EU-FP7 project “LOD2 – Creating Knowledge out of Interlinked Data”. Lecturers comprise distinguished experts from LOD2 member organizations as well as invited speakers, the majority of which will – apart from their lectures – also be present for the duration of the school to interact with students. Interaction with senior researchers and establishing contacts within young researchers is a main focus of the school, which will be supported through social activities and an interactive, amicable atmosphere.

  • ISSLOD Application Deadline: 30 July 2011
  • Notifications: 5 August 2011
  • ISSLOD: 12-18 September 2011

There will be a limited number of student grants available. Details of the registration process will be announced on the Web site, after the application deadline. We will keep the registration fee low (175 EUR) and provide reasonable accomodation packages (less than 40 EUR per night) for students.

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LIMES at IKS Workshop

Posted on June 6, 2011 by AxelNgonga

LIMES will be presented at the IKS workshop in Paris on July 6th. The upcoming version of LIMES (version 0.5) is up to 6 orders of magnitude faster than state-of-the-art software and offers tons of new functionality. More info here. The beta can be tested at http://limes.aksw.org. Stay tuned for more.

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Rückblick auf den LSWT 2011

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Nadine Jaenicke

Letzten Donnerstag veranstaltete das AKSW-Team erneut mit großem Erfolg den 3. Leipziger Semantic Web Tag auf dem Mediencampus in Leipzig. Der LSWT 2011, der wieder über 100 Besucher aus Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft und Verwaltung anzog, bot vielfältige und praxisnahe Einblicke in das diesjährige Veranstaltungsthema „Linked Data für die Massen“. In zahlreichen Vorträgen konnten sich sowohl Fachleute als auch ein allgemein interessiertes Publikum mit den jüngsten technologischen Entwicklungen im Semantic Web auseinandersetzen sowie das breite Anwendungsspektrum von Linked Data kennen lernen.

Auch in den Tags zuvor organisierten Workshops, die sich wie in den letzten Jahren vor allem an Anfänger und Quereinsteiger im Semantic Web Bereich richteten, wurden technische Grundlagen und Einsatzmöglichkeiten des semantischen Webs vermittelt. Am Abend gab es dann im nahegelegenen Biergarten für die Teilnehmer die Gelegenheit zum weiteren Austausch in kleiner Runde.

Besondere Höhepunkte des LSWT 2011 waren die Keynote-Vorträge zweier führender Linked Data Experten aus Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft. Prof. Martin Hepp von der Bundeswehruniversität München führte die Umsetzung eines intelligent verknüpften Datenwebs anhand seiner eigens entwickelten und sehr erfolgreichen Technologie GoodRelations vor. Der Österreicher Andreas Blumauer und Geschäftsführer der Semantic Web Company in Wien zeigte in spannenden und alltagstauglichen Beispielen Funktionen und Nutzen von Linked Data für Unternehmen auf.

In den Pausen luden Aussteller aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz zum Erfahrungsaustausch ein. Die Gelegenheit, mit Firmen der Semantic Web Branche ins Gespräch zu kommen und den Einsatz von Linked Data in der Praxis kennen zu lernen, wurde mit großem Enthusiasmus wahrgenommen. Am Abend fanden sich dann noch rund 40 Gäste zu einem leckeren Dinner und zu persönlichen (Fach-) Gesprächen im Mueckenschlösschen ein.

Weitere Eindrücke vom LSWT hat auch die Journalistin Petra Dahl im Auftrag des BMBFs eingefangen, deren Artikel hier zu finden ist.

Die Präsentationen zu den Vorträgen und Tutorials stehen auf der LSWT 2011 Webseite zur Verfügung.

An dieser Stelle möchten wir auch nochmals besonderen Dank unseren Sponsoren sagen, deren finanzielle Unterstützung den Erfolg der Veranstaltung erst möglich gemacht haben.

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LinkedGeoData Release 2

Posted on April 27, 2011 by ThomasRiechert
The AKSW research group is happy to announce a new release of LinkedGeoData!

The aim of the LinkedGeoData (LGD) project is to make the OpenStreetMap (OSM) datasets easily available as RDF. As such the main target audience is the Semantic Web community, however it may turn out to be useful to a much larger audience. Additionally, we are providing interlinking with DBpedia and GeoNames and integration of class labels from translatewiki and icons from the Brian Quinion Icon Collection.

The result is a rich, open, and integrated dataset which we hope to be useful for research and application development. The datasets can be publicly accessed via downloads, Linked Data, and SPARQL-endpoints. We have also launched an experimental “Live-SPARQL-endpoint” that is synchronized with the minutely updates from OSM whereas the changes to our store are republished as RDF.

The improvements over the somewhat aged previous release in the middle of 2009 can be summarized as:

  • Better data quality thanks to a more flexible mapping system.
  • Spatial query support as supported by OpenLink’s Virtuoso enterprise edition.
  • Two Sparql-endpoints: one containing the data of the most recent LGD release,
  • and one experimental one synchronzied with OpenStreetMap.org!
  • More interlinking
  • Improvements on the LGD-Browser (however this is work in progress)

We would like to thank the whole AKSW group and OpenLink for their support in making this release possible. Furthermore this work is acknowledged by the European Union within the LOD2 project.

Example Links:

Sparql-Queries: See http://linkedgeodata.org/OnlineAccess/SparqlEndpoints
Live-Sync-Status page (work in progress): http://live.linkedgeodata.org/status
Ontology: http://linkedgeodata.org/ontology/
LGD-Browser: http://browser.linkedgeodata.org/
Linked Data Example: http://linkedgeodata.org/triplify/node264695865
Published Changesets: http://downloads.linkedgeodata.org/releases/110406/changesets/
based on: http://planet.openstreetmap.org/minute-replicate/

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OKCon 2011 Presentation and Speaker Preview

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Sebastian Hellmann

OKCon 2011 OKCon 2011 Conference Site
Although the list of keynote speakers and presentations is not set in granite yet, it is crystallizing and the names are already carved on a wooden tablet. We are so exited that we just had to give a sneak preview of this amazing list (alphabetically):

  • Andreas Blumauer (Semantic Web Company)
  • Andreas Meiszner (United Nations University)
  • Chris Bizer (Free University Berlin)
  • Chris Taggart (Openly Local)
  • Glyn Moody (Technology Writer)
  • Jaron Rowan (FCForum)
  • Michel Bauwens (P2P Foundation)
  • Nina Paley (Artist & Filmmaker)
  • Richard Stallman (Free Software Foundation)
  • Till Kreuzer (iRights)
  • Tom Lee (Sunlight Foundation)

Please note that submission is still open until May 1st. You can either submit a presentation or workshop proposal or submit a (5-10 page) paper to the Academic Track. Details can be found on the Call for Participation page.

Hope to see you all on 30th June & 1st July, 2011 in Berlin

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