Allan Cho and Dean Giustini have recently published an article on Web 3.0 and Health Libraries [PDF]. It’s a good introduction to Web 3.0 and the Semantic Web in their field of librarianship. They discuss some of the definitions of Web 3.0 and their own vision, noting -
“The common theme here is a focus on information organization and retrieval”
Cho and Giustini explain why Web 3.0/Semantic Web will be good for health librarians - because it will improve the accuracy and efficiency of searching. Searching for health information now is difficult - not only because there is a great deal of specificity in searching some of the big databases (MeSH helps some, but not everyone can/will use it) but trying to work out what information is reliable can be very difficult.
The article describes other problems with current search technologies - it is easy to miss important information because of the way searches are constructed and limitations of databases. Findability and trust is important.
Library standards and other projects are also discussed, like RDA and RDF. But one very important point that Cho and Guistini make is that,
“there is a sense that the two groups - library professionals and semantic technologists - do not communicate or see their potential synergies.”
It is important that librarians are participating in discussions about the Semantic Web and RDF, but at the same time, we should be welcoming in those who might be interested in how we do things.
Reference:
Cho, A., Giustini, D. (2008). Web 3.0 and health librarians: an introduction. Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association, 29(1), 13-18.
Tags: BPR3, health libraries
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Several blogs have posted about Web 3.0 recently, most trying to come up with a central set of ideas about what it might be. For some, Web 3.0 = Semantic Web, for others, Semantic Web is just a part of it. My take on it that I wrote in October last year, if there is such a thing as Web 3.0, can be found on the About page of this blog:
- Semantic web: True write once, publish many: hamstrung until now by proprietary software, proliferation of XML schemas, and a lack of end-user tools.
- Metadata: Meaning and context within and between objects, new languages.
- Rich open data: Geotagging, eScience data for everyone
- Content anywhere, especially mobile
- Make your own software: bringing software and tool creation to the masses
- Two opposing ends: on demand anywhere (video, TV, radio, text), lightweight flexible architecture
Politics and governance issues will continue to evolve to bring;
- Ubiquitous Open Access
- Access to Knowledge (A2K) in the developing world
I think it is important to keep in mind the political and governance issues surrounding the web. The technical part of Web 3.0 is not possible without supportive research, funding, and policies. Additionally, if Web 3.0 impacts people’s lives by making communication and managing information easier, it has to include all kinds of knowledge (social, government, entertainment, scholarly) and be accessible by people all over the world regardless of language, socioeconomic and geographical barriers.
While I enjoyed all the good things the supposed Web 2.0 movement offered - community, interaction, etc - I am hoping that Web 3.0 will pay attention to the difficult issues around data, scholarly communication, and dissemination of research. Linked data is an area of research on this topic, but I hope to see more standards, policies and funding in this area.
A study of all the different ideas people have about Web 3.0 was posted by Jonas Bolinder, and fell into four categories -
- Semantic Web
- APIs and Web Services
- Mobile Web and other devices
- Implicit Web (personalisation and recommendation)
There’s a little bit of each of these in my view of Web 3.0
A post on Read/Write Web, Web 3.0 Through the Ages, sums up some of the current thinking around the term, valid or not and concludes -
“…the discussions we have about defining the next web help to solidify our vision of where we’re going — and you can’t get there until you decide where you want to go. “
I agree, and I’m interested to see where the discussions lead next.
Other recent posts on Web 3.0:
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Over on the wiki, we’ve started putting together a very basic outline of what an online course to learn about the Semantic Web and Libraries might look like. My aim is to provide something for the middle-ground of early adopters - those who are enthusiastic about these new technologies and are keen to learn more, but who might not have gotten around to sitting down with a book on RDF yet. I hope it will be a gentle introduction, not overly code-heavy, and with plenty of examples and discussion of practical applications in libraries and research.
Watch us try to build a course from the ground up or get involved and have your say about what your want to learn, or what you might teach!
More details available on the learning program page on the Semantic Library wiki.
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Posted by: Fiona in mobile web
Most of us have one, but other than texting, calls and primitive PDA functions for smartphone users, what can you do with your phone? Is the mobile web going to take off or be used only by those with a large enough screen and 3G connection? Recently, there has been debate about the future of the mobile web, most feel that development of mobile-only sites will fall by the wayside while standards-compliant, flexible sites that can be used on any device will become more popular. I’m betting on the latter.
For a time, I had a subscription to a localised version of i-Mode, which provided mobile-only versions of sites and charged subscription rates to each site. It was a success in Japan, where many users use a mobile much more than a PC, but failed quickly in Australia where users wanted to access sites in a similar way on their mobiles as their PC. Development now is about optimising existing sites for mobile access.
Why the mobile web matters
The mobile web has the potential to bridge part of the digital divide, especially in developing nations. People may be distant from broadband or a computer, but they are increasingly likely to have a mobile phone. As I’ve written previously, mobiles are being used for social organising, health information and other essential communication.
The development of the mobile web is helped by;
- Use of text, to communicate with others users and internet sites
- 3G network development
- The availability of software designed for mobile web browsing, eg - Opera Mini, .mobi, Symbian
- Increasing ownership of mobile-ready devices
The mobile web has the potential to be part of the semantic web, because of the potential for resource discovery. NTT DoCoMo, one of Japan’s largest telecommunication companies gives the example of discovering music [PDF] through Internet radio as a way of building ontologies and preferences.
What libraries are doing with the mobile web
Libraries are developing SMS reference services, mobile-friendly OPACs, and optimising content for mobile phone screens [PPT] . QR-Codes have potential for libraries - barcodes embedded in handouts or posters can send mobile users to further links, audio and information.
Further reading:
Is your site ready?
Mobile web emulators can help you to troubleshoot how your site displays on different devices, and Opera provides a simulator for the mobile version of their browser, Opera Mini. Test your site to see if it is mobile ready.
Guidelines and resources
Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 Basic Guidelines W3C Proposed Recommendation, 2 November 2006
W3C Mobile Web Initiative
Blogs to watch
Got more resources you’d like to share? Add them to the wiki or leave a comment!
(Note: This was previously a page on the blog but I’ve moved and updated it, in case you thought you’d read ths before!)
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Last week there was a flurry of comments around a post by Bret Taylor, We need a Wikipedia for data. Taylor describes a model for a wiki that would aggregate common data in one database that could be cross-searched. Great idea.
One interesting thing about the types of datasets he mentions are that they are all copyrighted - stations own TV schedules, exchanges own market data (the free stuff is usually 20 minutes delayed) and a variety of companies own publishing rights over telephone numbers. This is the data that could be really useful if it was truly free, but given the amount of updating required, I wonder who would do so without a business or legislative imperative.
But that issue is perhaps besides the point. There are many, many incredible datasets out there, everything from Census data to older market information to astronomy. Reading the comments and suggestions on Taylor’s post and Read/Write Web’s post about the topic revealed dozens of sites to find these resources.
I did feel that looking through the list libraries may have missed an opportunity. We have been recommending and linking to various datasets on our websites for years, but there is a huge potential to go beyond this and build something collaboratively and use it as an input for different libraries. Many libraries now take in Open Access Journal records to their catalogues and search engines via DOAJ but there is no reason to not do something similar for Open Data.
Certainly, it is an issue that few of these datasets can talk to eachother - but perhaps the move towards a more standards-based Semantic Web will encourage standardisation and interoperability, at least within, for example, individual government departments so that Census records can be analysed against education records.
One of the sites recommended by Read/Write Web is CKAN, which is backed by the Open Knowledge Foundation that counts someone who has worked in the library sector amongst their leadership. Are these the types of groups more of us should be involved in to have a role in information access on a larger scale?
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