Data as Ontology Storage, Visualization, Query Martins Zviedris supervisor: prof. Guntis Barzdins

Background

AIMS AND RESULTS

DEFINE SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF A GRAPHICAL QUERY LANGUAGE AIM(1):

ViziQuer full

Is it understandable?

SHOW THAT END USERS CAN READ THE DEVELOPED GRAPHICAL QUERIES AIM(2):

ViziQuer lite

Readability Total 18 queries. Average 2.16 errors in case with tutorial and 2.46 without tutorial. 26 participants in each case.

DEVELOP A TOOL TO INPUT GRAPHICAL QUERIES AIM(3):

ViziQuer Available online

TEST THE GRAPHICAL QUERY LANGUAGE USABILITY IN PRACTICE EXPERIMENTAL USE IN MEDICAL DATA QUERYING; RECORDED OVER 200 TOOL DOWNLOADS AIM(4): RESULT(-):

OTHER RESULTS

Medical project Transformed RDB data to RDF data Tested ViziQuer

Ontology Based Information System (OBIS) Easy to configure Easy to use Lightweight

Ontology repository Schema extraction from existing endpoints Ontology repository for new OBIS based system creation

Related work Query-by-Example – backbone of visual query languages Tabulator – explore RDF data gFacet – table based RDF data query Unique feature – navigate over schema data in RDF data

Conclusions Common users do not understand math and technical terms; Language must be explicit and preferably self commented! ViziQuer lite incorporates query methodology

PUBLICATIONS Total 8 publications, of which 6 indexed by SCOPUS

Notable publications M.Zviedris, G.Barzdins, “ViziQuer: A Tool to Explore and Query SPARQL Endpoints”, The Semantic Web: Research and Applications, LNCS, 2011, Volume 6644/2011, pp (SCOPUS) (Author contribution 90%) (10 citations outside LV) M.Zviedris, R.Liepins, “Readability of diagrammatic query language”, IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing 2014, IEEE, 2014, pp (SCOPUS) (Author contribution 90%)

Other Publications G.Barzdins, E.Liepins, M.Veilande, M.Zviedris, "Ontology Enabled Graphical Database Query Tool for End-Users", Selected papers from DB&IS'2008, Hele-Mai Haav (Eds.), Frontiesrs in Artificial Intelligence and Applicatons series, IOS Press, :105 – 116 (SCOPUS) (Author contribution 40%) G.Barzdins, S.Rikacovs, M.Veilande, M.Zviedris, “Ontological Re-Engeneering of Medical Databases”, Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Section B, Vol. 63 (2009), No. 4/5 (663/664), pp. 153–155 (SCOPUS) (Author contribution 40%) M.Zviedris. Ontology repository for User Interaction. In Mathieu d'Aquin, Alexander Garcia Castro, Christoph Lange, Kim Viljanen edititors, ORES-2010 Workshop on Ontology Repositories and Editiors for the Semantic Web, volume (SCOPUS) (Author contribution 100%) M.Zviedris, A.Romane, G.Barzdins, K.Cerans, “Ontology-Based Information System”, Wooju K., Ying D. and Hong-gee K. (Eds.) The 3rd Joint International Semantic Technology Conference, Revised Selected Papers, LNCS, Volume 8388, pp (SCOPUS) (Author contribution 60%) G.Barzdins, E.Liepins, M.Veilande, M.Zviedris, “Semantic Latvia Approach in the Medical Domain”, Proceedings of the 8th International Baltic Conference (Baltic DB&IS 2008), June 2-5, Tallin, Estonia, Tallinn University of Technology Press, lpp. (Author contribution 40%) G.Barzdins, S.Rikacovs, M.Zviedris, “Graphical Query Language as SPARQL Frontend”, In Grundspenkis, J., Kirikova, M., Manolopoulos, Y., Morzy, T., Novickis, L., Vossen, G. (Eds.), Local Proceedings of 13th East-European Conference (ADBIS 2009), pp. 93–107. Riga Technical University, Riga. (2009) (Author contribution 80%) Total 8 publications, of which 6 indexed by SCOPUS

Discussion

Thanks!

Answers to remarks by opponents Is it sufficient to ask users how well they understand the visual language? The ViziQuer tool was tested by local users and medical domain specialists and was improved based on received feedback. I agree that a more formal testing would be useful.

Answers to remarks by opponents Arī apgalvojums, ka OWL ir populārākā ontoloģiju valoda ir iekļauts bez atsaucēm. Tajā pat laikā plaši tiek lietotas arī valoda KIF un citas. Varbūt, ka lai bāzētu pētījumu uz OWL, būtu nepieciešams analizēt arī citas valodu iespējas? OWL is de facto standard of W3C. Also it has standard of the query language SPARQL. Majority of online semantic data is in OWL/RDF and is available via SPARQL endpoints. It is used as one of open data publishing formats. European Union open data portal provides data via OWL/RDF and SPARQL endpoint.

Answers to remarks by opponents Autors arī pamato vajadzību ieviest papildus teksta veida apzīmējumus grafiskajos elementos (“What are”, „Restrict that” u.c.), lai uzlabotu lasāmību, bet līdz ar to rodas jautājums, vai nenotiek novirzīšanās no grafiskās valodas idejas, semantiku ietverot tekstā, nevis grafiskajos elementos ? Usability tests showed that some constructs benefit from graphical representation, but others not.