Information Management and Retrieval

Contents

Since mid-1990s the Internet and more specifically the Web have had a tremendous impact on information management. More recently we have witnessed a transition from the unidirectional forms of communication in the Web 1.0 to the more participatory types of interaction in the Web 2.0.

There is now a widespread opinion that the Web will soon undergo a further crucial change to what is often called the Web 3.0 or, more accurately, the Web of Data or Semantic Web. The general idea is to make all sorts of data available on the Web, that can be directly accesses and processed not manually by human beings (as is mainly the case with the current Web), but automatically by software applications. While this transition is only in its initial stage, we can expect that it will deeply affect all types of activities involved in areas like corporate communication, marketing, media management, public administration, healthcare, and so on.

Semantic Technology (i.e., the type of technology involved in the Web of Data) is rooted in the conceptual modeling methods developed in the field of Artificial Intelligence since the late 1960s. By now such methods have reached a high level of maturity and have been extensively standardized by the W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium), thus making practical applications feasible.

This course aims at introducing the participants to the conceptual foundations and applicative potential of Semantic Technology, covering the following topics:

• introduction to Semantic Technology and its applications
• knowledge and its representation in computers
• semantic networks for the representation of conceptual and factual knowledge
• W3C standards for the representation and use of semantic networks
• representation and use of Linked Data
• current applications in various areas of interest (with particular regard to corporate communication, marketing, media management, public administration, and healthcare).

Study materials

• slides by the lecturer, available on the eCourses platform
• relevant textbooks freely available on the web, like for example:
  F. Bauer, M. Kaltenböck, “Linked Open Data: The Essentials”, 2012, http://www.semantic-web.at/LOD-TheEssentials.pdf
  T. Heath, C. Bizer, “Linked Data: Evolving the Web into a Global Data Space”, 2011, http://linkeddatabook.com/editions/1.0/
• further materials freely available on the Web.

Evaluation
The students will be evaluated through:

a final written tests of 2 hours, including conceptual questions and exercises on all topics of the program (at least 80% of the evaluation)

participation in classroom activities in the final part of the course (up to 20% of the evaluation)