A Ubiquitous Permeable Web: requirements for the next generation semantic internet Hamish Cunningham Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield Aberdeen AKT meeting, June (4)

A Ubiquitous Permeable Web The next generation of the web must be: ubiquitous: semantics for every device, every organisation, every individual; permeable: allow contextual data to penetrate and persist; companionable: able to engage with us via multiple natural modalities. This implies cross-disciplinary linkages with amongst others: wearable and ambient computing; man-machine interface; 4 th generation telecoms. 2(4)

Critical Mass for the Semantic Web The SW: machine processable, repurposable data to compliment hypertext But: semantics = % of the Web How to achieve critical mass? Huge scale automatic annotation. Requirements: Huge scale: – freely available to all UK citizens – distributed (over a Grid) – re-purposeable (delivered as Web Services) Portability and robustness via: – simple multi-genre, multi-domain, multi-media HLT methods – +ve and –ve learning – analogs of IPSEs for computer-literate users 3(4)

Support Infrastructure for Language Engineering 4(4) Analogy with recent history of men’s underwear – also supportive infrastructure: The bad old days: Y-fronts: supportive, yes, but tended to be too constrictive The brave new world: boxer shorts: still supportive, but less constraining The purpose of our work (the boxer shorts ideal): freedom within a supportive environment