1. Introducing Semantic Web Technologies:
Harnessing the Power of Information Semantics
An Executive Briefing for
SICoP White Paper Series Module 1
Jie-hong Morrison
Takeaway: Readers will gain a better understanding of semantic technologies, gain exposure to some of the promises of the next generation of the World Wide Web, and see how new approaches to dealing with digital information can be used to solve difficult information-sharing problems.

2. About SICoP SICoP - Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice
Sponsored by KM.Gov, Knowledge Management Working Group of the Federal CIO Council
Upcoming events
Join the list

3. About Module 1 The first publication of SICoP's white paper series
Community collaboration
For agency executives, IT management, and enterprise architects interested in a high level overview of the Semantic Web and its related technologies

4. Why Semantic Web Technologies: Making a Case for the Government
Challenges
Goals
Semantic Interoperability and Better Information Sharing
More Effective Information Management
More Intelligent Search
Smarter Decision-Making
President’s
Management
Agenda
E-Government
Federal
Architecture …
Interdependencies
Complexity
Size of Data Stores

5. Why Semantic Web Technologies: A Story From EPA
“Is my
child safe
from
environmental
toxins?”

6. What Is the Semantic Web
Semantics is “a branch of linguistics that deals with the study of meaning, changes in meaning, and the principles that govern the relationship between sentences or words and their meanings .”
--- Denise Bedford, World Bank, Co-Chair of Taxonomy and Semantics SIG, 2004
Information Semantics “is the semantic representation (meaning) for our systems, our data, our documents, or our agents.”
--- Leo Obrst, MITRE Corporation, 2004
Semantic web is “an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation.”
--- Tim Berners-Lee, Jim,Hendler and Ora Lassila, 2001
(Adapted from Daconta, Obrst and Smith’s Ontology Spectrum)

7. Vision of the Semantic Web
Key Components
Described In Module 1
XML
RDF
OWL
Semantic models
Machine Reasoning

8. Semantic Web Technologies, Semantic Interoperability and Semantic Technologies
are the enabling technologies but can be applied in a non-Web environment
Semantic Web
a delivery
platform
Semantic Interoperability
Represents a subset of the
goals of the Semantic Web
and Semantic Technologies

9. Harness the Power of Information Semantics
Defining features of the Semantic Web:
Machine processing and human consumptions
More explicit semantics
Applications connected by concepts
Network effects and Mass Intelligence
(Semantic Web Subway Map, Berners-Lee, 2003, see Executive Brief for explanation)

10. Next Steps
Module 2: Exploring the Business Value of Semantic Interoperability
Provide new insights into assembling scenarios and business use cases for the use of semantic technologies
Module 3: Implementing the Semantic Web
Provides the steps and implementation recommendations, based on which an agency can gauge its progress and schedule future projects to that take advantage of this new technology.

11. How to Join SICoP Brand Niemann, EPA (niemann.brand@epa.gov)
Rick Morris, Army G6/CIO
Request account