Possibilities and Technical Challenges inInformation and Knowledge Infrastructure

Hideaki Takeda, Prof. Dr. Eng.
Research into Artifacts, Center of Engineering (RACE), The University of Tokyo
National Institute of Informatics (NII)
takeda@nii.ac.jp

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Theme in this talkz

Rapid growth of WWW is changing the traditional information
distribution system in our society quicklyz

Wh t change
Whathhappened?
hd?

z

Whi h diWhichdirectionti we are going?
i ?

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Information distribution systemyin societyyAncient days (w/o written languages): oral culture Very limited distribution and preservation of informationz Ancient days (w written languages): handwritten materials
 Limited distribution and some amount of preservation ofinformation
 Small amount of information pproviders and informationconsumers
z With printing technology after Gutenberg
 Good enough distribution and preservation of information
 Small amount of information providers and large amount of
information consumers
z Internet Era (WWW Era) So much distribution and preservation of information
 Large amount of information providers and consumers
zHideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

25,000,000,000

20,000,000,000

Web Now

15,000,000,000

Page Amount: Over 20 billion pages
 Februaryb2006 (Yahoo!)( h )z Server Amount: Over 80 million servers(80 655 992)
(80,655,992)
 April 2006
(Web Server Survey)z

10,000,000,000

5 000 000 000
5,000,000,000

(万台)
10800

Hostname
Active9720
8640

22006年1月

Top 15 Online
Populations by Country,
Am ong Visitors Age 15+*
March 2006

7560

Unique Visitors (000)Source: com Score WorldMetrix

6480
5400

Unique Visitors

4320

(000)
WorldwideTotal

694,260

United States152,046

1080

China

74,7270Japan52,100Germany
Unitedg
Kingdom

31,81330,190,South Korea

24,645

France23,8843240

図１：Webサーバの台数の変化（NetCraft, http://www.netcraft.com)

Internet users: ca. 0.7 billion ( 14% of over 15 people)
 March 2006
 comScore http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=849

2007.012006.012005.01

2004.01

2003.01

2002.01

2001.01

2000.01

1999.01

1998.01

1997.01

1996.01

2160

z22005年1月

22004年1月

22003年1月

22002年1月

22001年1月

22000年1月

1999年1月

1998年1月

0Canada18,996

Italy

16,834

India

16,713

Brazil13,186

Spain

12,452

Netherlands10,969

Russia10,833Australia
Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

9,735

What is information distribution now?
zFocus on Information and Communication Activities (ICA) not on
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

From “old computing”
pg to “new computing”
pg“The old computing was about what computers could do; thenew computing is about whatne
hat users can dodo. Successful
technologies are those that are in harmony with users’
needs. They must support relationships and activities thatenrich the users’ experiences.”
Ben Shneiderman, Leonardo's Laptop:
p p Human Needs and the New Computing
pgTechnologies, MIT Press, 2002

zParadigm shift is needed Technology-centered approach Human-centered approach

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}ART(Activity and Relationship Table)

COLLECTRELATE

CREATEDONATE(Information)(Communication)(Innovation)(Dissemination)

Self
Family and friends(2-50 intimates)

Colleagues and neighbors(50-5,000 regular encounters)

Citizens and markets(5,000+)Ben Shneiderman,Shneiderman Leonardo
Leonardo'ss Laptop: Human Needs and the
New Computing Technologies, MIT Press, 2002
Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Information ActivitieszA cycle of information exploitation
 CollectGoogle Find and retrieve information
 Create
HTML Editor etc.
 Process (classify, extract, combine, mix, …) information
 Generate new information
WWW Servers
 Donate Publish
bli h andd distributedi ib informationi fiInformation Layer
Collect

CreateDonateHideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Three reasons for WWW
Freedom for joining and inter-linking
 Same as Internetz Economics
 Same as Internetz Easiness Different from Internetz

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Communication ActivitieszA cycle of human relationship exploitation
 Relate
 Find and contact people
 Collaborate
 Work with other people (organized work, teamwork, cooperation, …)
 Present Identify and contribute ourselves to communities

Communication Layer
Collaborate
RelatePresent

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Web as Communication MediaWWW is mainly considered as media for information activities.
z But …
z

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Web as Communication Mediaz

When WWW was created, many researchers created their
homepages“homepages”
 “Homepage”
 Data and information onresearch Self-introductionz Profilez “What’s New”
z Friends
 Group Page
 Data
D t andd informationi fti
 Group members
 “What’s
What s New”
New
…
Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Web as Communication Mediaz

When WWW was created, many researchers created their
homepages“homepages”
 “Homepage”
 Data and information onresearch Self-introductionz Profilez “What’s New”
z Friends
 Group Page
Just for Communication
 Data
D t andd informationi fti
 Group members
 “What’s
What s New”
New…
Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Communication ActivitieszA cycle of human relationship exploitation
 Relate
 Find and contact people
 Collaborate
 Work with other people (organized work, teamwork, cooperation, …)
 Present Identify and contribute ourselves to communities

Communication Layer
Collaborate
RelatePresent

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Information and Communication Activitiesz

Two layers for our activities

Information layer only concerns explicitly represented and processedinformation.
 Communication layer concerns potential information. Potential information
g communication amongg ppeople.
pcan be revealed throughInformation Layer
CollectCreateDonateCommunication Layer
Collaborate
RelatePresent

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Web as Communication Mediaz

When WWW was created, many researchers created their
homepages“homepages”
 “Homepage”
 Data and information onresearch Self-introductionz ProfileWeblog (blog)
z “What’s New”
z Friends
SNS (Social Networking Service) Group Pagewiki
 Data
D t andd informationi fti
 Group members
 “What’s
What s New”
New
…
Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Direction for ICAz

More focus on the communication layer
 Social
i l networkk
 Social Network Analysis
 Network Science Social Network Mining
 Social Network-based Services
 Communities

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Shiftingg from information to knowledge
gz Ontology for knowledge sharing

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Whyy knowledge
g sharingg is needed?
z

WWW explicates needs for common background knowledge amongpeople In fixed information distribution, all people are expected to sharebackground knowledge
 In flexible information distribution such as WWW, it is notguaranteed.
guaranteedzOntology:
An ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization[Gruber]

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Ontology
gy and Agent
gCommunication
Real World

Ontology

Knowledge？ ？

Knowledge

コミュニケーション
Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}Architecture for the Semantic Web

Tim Berners-Lee http://www.w3.org/2002/Talks/09-lcs-sweb-tbl/
Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

The Aim of The Semantic Webz

"The Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in
which information is given well
well-defined
defined meaning
meaning, better
enabling computers and people to work in cooperation."
The Semantic Web,, Scientific American,, Mayy 2001,, Tim Berners-Lee,, James Hendler and Ora Lassilaz

The Semantic Web is a vision: the idea of having data on theweb defined and linked in a way that it can be used bymachines not just for display purposes, but for automation,integration and reuse of data across various applications.
applications
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Challenges
g for Realizingg Semantic Web
Representation of Ontology-based Web
 OWL (Web( b OntologylLanguage))z Definition of Ontologies
 Top-level ontology Domain ontologies
z Manipulation of multiple ontologies
 Even a single target can be represented in different ontologies
 Communities often develop own ontologies
 Mapping or mediating among different ontologies are neededz

Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Community-based
Community
based information distribution and sharing
Information distribution within communitiesz Information
fi distribution
di ib i cross communitiesii Ontology mapping
zOntology Mapping
Ontology/metadata
LLevellInformation Level
Hideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}

Next Information distribution system:
ySummaryy
Information and communication activities
 vs. Information
fi andd communicationi i technologies
h l iz Communication level: Social network and community
 vs. information levelz Ontology level vs. Information levelz Distributed ontologies
 vs. a unified ontology
zHideaki Takeda @ {National Institute of Informatics, The University of Tokyo}