The Semantic Web: Myth and Reality

The extraordinary human construct that is the World Wide Web is a truly Disruptive Technology. There are now hundreds of millions of users, billions of indexed web resources, it is used in every country on Earth and yet only a tiny percentage of users is “trained” in any way. This remarkable construct is both massively distributed and largely open.

With this amount of content and usage the integration of information across space and time leads to new opportunities. From on-line shopping to collaborative e-Science the web is constantly changing how information is generated, deployed and used.

This talk will examine the extent to which intelligent web services are evolving to cope with diverse sources of information on a global scale. It will examine the particular way in which Artificial Intelligence is being woven into the web and examine the prospects for the so-called Semantic Web. Experience derived from the AKT project – a 6 year multi million pound collaborative project – will be discussed It will review how these and other developments are likely to shape the future and our own lives as researchers.

Speaker Bios

Professor Nigel Shadbolt is Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. He is the Director of the EPSRC Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in Advanced Knowledge Technologies (AKT), which is a multi-million pound, six-year research programme. AKT is developing a variety of tools, techniques and methods to realise the vision of the Semantic Web – a Web in which content can be seamlessly integrated enabling web services to provide an intelligent information infrastructure. Professor Shadbolt has published some 250 articles on various facets of AI, and has written and co-edited four books. Since 1985, Professor Shadbolt has singly or jointly secured and directed 26 research grants worth over £15,500,000.Professor Shadbolt is a Fellow and Deputy President of the British Computer Society and chairs the Society’s Knowledge Services Board. From 2001 to 2004 he was Editor in Chief of IEEE Intelligent Systems and in 2005 he was appointed Emeritus Editor in Chief and sits on the IEEE Computer Society’s Publications Board. Professor Shadbolt has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences and technical chairman of a number of conferences and workshops. He is a member of various national committees including the Human Sciences and Technology Sub-Committee of the UK Defence Scientific Advisory Committee (DSAC). He is a member of the EPSRC’s Strategic Advisory Team.

Date:
Haut-parleurs:
Nigel Shadbolt
Affiliation:
University of Southampton