TopQuadrant © Copyright , TopQuadrant Inc. The information in this presentation is proprietary to TopQuadrant and should not be duplicated, used or disclosed without permission. Semantic Technology in Government Dean Allemang TopQuadrant Inc.

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 1 Semantic Web – quick intro  W3C Ratified standards in 2004  RDF, RDFS, OWL  Standard for describing data, rather than documents  RDF merges data  RDFS and OWL process merged data

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 2 Plain web page – addresses, no maps No link to maps You have to map it yourself

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 3 Automatic link to maps One link per map Can’t make comparisons

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 4 Map all button! Map all! Now you can compare

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 5 What about combinations from multiple sites? ?

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 6 Semantic Web defines infrastructure for merging Piggybank allows info from multiple sites to be merged and placed on a Google map e.g., Red=red line Blue=blue line Magenta=Organic Supermakets

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 7 Government Interest in Semantic Web  Data Integration  multiple databases  siloed systems  Sensor fusion  Knowledge Management  How do I know what I know? ... when what I know is stored so many places?  Modularity of Models  Enterprise Architecture  Integrated system roadmap

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 8 Data Integration

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 9 Data Integration: Target Validation of the Future ?

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 10 NEXIOM  Nasa Exploration Initiatives Ontology Model  ExplorationSystems Mission Directorate  Back to the Moon, on to Mars!

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 11 Multiple sources of mission planning  Risk models  materials  process  computation  organizational ...  All need to be brought together!  CCCI (Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence)  During mission execution  Connect to DARPA practices (DODAF)

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 12 Modular Enterprise Architecture

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 13 F EA RM O F - Federal EA - Enterprise Architecture O - Ontology RM - Reference Model

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 14 US Federal e-gov initiative

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 15 Federal Enterprise Architecture – Reference Model What is a “Reference Model”?  A basic model for something (system, architecture, whatever)  When someone builds their own (system, architecture, whatever) they extend the reference model

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 16 Knowledge Management: NASA Digital Shuttle

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 17 Why integration? NASA - An Illustrative Imagined Scenario 12. The launch occurred. NASA Knowledge sources EO 1. An equipment anomaly delays the Space Shuttle launch 2. An engineer searches databases for similar problems 3. With incomplete answers, he consults other engineers about the faulty equipment 4. Searches were made for the supplier and where it was used elsewhere on the Shuttle 5. The equipment was installed over 20 years ago and all of the required information could not be found. 6. The people that would know had retired and had to be located SDSKSC PRACA 7. Retirees were brought back to work on the problem 8. On their advice, more document searches were conducted. 9. Key documents were found in the archives of a building 10. Important information was communicated to relevant parties 11. A solution was decided JSC PRACAGFE PRACA JEEVES MRCS CVAS CV Disclaimer This scenario is fictitious and is not based on any actual occurrences on the Space Shuttle. It is inspired by the movie entitled “The Space Cowboys”.

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 18 The Digital Shuttle Project Vision  Move away from 2-D drawings to 3-D models  Implement a comprehensive knowledge representation for engineering data structure  Integrate commercial KM, engineering data management systems and engineering tools CAD shape Process Part structure Additional representations metadatasemantics Knowledg e Model (EngrObj) “The models (we want) have semantics, and can be analyzed for conformance to specs and self-adjusted when parameters are changed. All using a very high-level user interface that is comfortable for practitioners. CAD doesn't provide modeling semantics - just shapes. CAD is also difficult to use - typically, designs are entered by CAD operators, creating a potential interstice where knowledge can be dropped“ [Sidney Bailin]

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 19 Future Scenario – Leaking valve is discovered on STS-nnn NASA Knowledge sources EO SDSKSC PRACAJSC PRACAGFE PRACA JEEVES MRCS CVAS CV ano Shuttle Knowledge Hub Shuttle Knowledge Advisor Profiles Space Shuttle Ontology 1. Leaking valve delays Shuttle launch 2. Engineer asks the Knowledge Advisor about the valve that is leaking – has it happened before? System reports previous incidents. 3. Engineer asks who supplied the valve, relevant Engineering Orders (EOs) and Drawing numbers also where the valves are used 4. Engineer determines what needs to be done to replace the valves 5. New EOs are raised and the problem is fixed 6. Shuttle mission is ready for launch

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 20 Tower of Babel Well-known problem in large organizations – lots of people talking, but they don’t understand one another First bright idea – bring in a Thesaurus or Controlled Vocabulary to help them out. Another bright idea: Bring in an Object model to help them

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 21 The tower grows higher … But who resolves the differences between the mediators? COVE

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 22 Example – NASA Taxonomy and HORM NASA Taxonomy Project at JPL – comprehensive enterprise taxonomy of Missions, Competencies, Industries, etc. HORM – Ontology model of Risks, Threats, Mission Features NASA Taxonomy Project at JPL – uses language of Thesaurus – broader, narrower, synonym, etc. HORM – Ontology uses Classes, instances, Properties A complex translation is needed – right?

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 23 OWL to the rescue Broader Narrower Term Use Use For … Mars Climate Orbiter Class subClassOf type Property subProperty … MCO A few connections in the schema …. … and OWL can integrate the rest of the information!

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 24 Reusing thesauri in COVE Now any thesaurus, object model, semantic model, etc. can be used as they were all in a single place

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 25 NASA taxonomy in COVE

TopQuadrant © Copyright TopQuadrant Inc., “Semantic Technologies for the Digital Shuttle”, slide 26 Federated queries  Once the information is unified, a single query can work on the combined information space: