Enrico Motta
The Open University, Knowledge Media Institute, Faculty Member
Research Interests:
Abstract. As the Semantic Web is increasingly becoming a reality, the availability of large quantities of structured data brings forward new challenges. In fact, when the content of resources is indexed, not just their status as a text... more
Abstract. As the Semantic Web is increasingly becoming a reality, the availability of large quantities of structured data brings forward new challenges. In fact, when the content of resources is indexed, not just their status as a text document, an image or a video, it becomes important to have solid semantic models which avoid as much as possible the generation of ambiguities with relation to the resources' meaning.
Abstract. When seeking information through mechanisms such as word of mouth, people choose information sources and make trust judgments about these sources based on a range of factors, including the expertise of the source in relevant... more
Abstract. When seeking information through mechanisms such as word of mouth, people choose information sources and make trust judgments about these sources based on a range of factors, including the expertise of the source in relevant fields. In this paper we describe the Hoonoh Ontology, a vocabulary for describing these factors and publishing associated data on the Semantic Web.
Abstract Annotating a document with an interpretation of its contents raises a number of challenges that we are hoping to address via the creation of a supporting environment. We present these challenges and motivate an approach based on... more
Abstract Annotating a document with an interpretation of its contents raises a number of challenges that we are hoping to address via the creation of a supporting environment. We present these challenges and motivate an approach based on the notion of suggestions to support document annotation, hoping these suggestions would act as leads to follow for annotators, therefore reducing some of the difficulties inherent to the task. The environment resulting from this approach, ClaimSpotter, is presented.
PowerAqua is a multi-ontology-based Question Answering (QA) system designed to exploit large scale, heterogeneous semantic data. PowerAqua takes as input a question expressed in natural language and is able to return answers from relevant... more
PowerAqua is a multi-ontology-based Question Answering (QA) system designed to exploit large scale, heterogeneous semantic data. PowerAqua takes as input a question expressed in natural language and is able to return answers from relevant distributed resources.
In earlier project deliverables D8. 2 [5] and D8. 4 [10] we described an initial integration of the Semantic Web applications, PowerMagpie (D8. 2) and PowerAqua (D8. 4), with the OpenKnowledge peer to peer infrastructure.
Abstract. In this short paper, we present an architecture to deploy lightweight Semantic Sensor Networks easily based on widely available Android Devices. This approach essentially relies on deploying a SPARQL endpoint on the device, and... more
Abstract. In this short paper, we present an architecture to deploy lightweight Semantic Sensor Networks easily based on widely available Android Devices. This approach essentially relies on deploying a SPARQL endpoint on the device, and federating queries to multiple devices to build Semantic Sensor Network applications.
Abstract This paper describes AQUA, a question answering system. AQUA combines Natural Language processing (NLP), Ontologies, Logic, and Information Retrieval technologies in a uniform framework. AQUA makes intensive use of an ontology... more
Abstract This paper describes AQUA, a question answering system. AQUA combines Natural Language processing (NLP), Ontologies, Logic, and Information Retrieval technologies in a uniform framework. AQUA makes intensive use of an ontology (which encode knowledge) in several parts of the question answering system.
Abstract. As the Semantic Web is increasingly becoming a reality, the availability of large quantities of structured data brings forward new challenges. In fact, when the content of resources is indexed, not just their status as a text... more
Abstract. As the Semantic Web is increasingly becoming a reality, the availability of large quantities of structured data brings forward new challenges. In fact, when the content of resources is indexed, not just their status as a text document, an image or a video, it becomes important to have solid semantic models which avoid as much as possible the generation of ambiguities with relation to the resources' meaning.
Abstract Discovering who works with whom, on which projects and with which customers is a key task in knowledge management. Although most organizations keep models of organizational structures, these models do not necessarily accurately... more
Abstract Discovering who works with whom, on which projects and with which customers is a key task in knowledge management. Although most organizations keep models of organizational structures, these models do not necessarily accurately reflect the reality on the ground. In this paper we present a text mining method called CORDER which first recognizes named entities (NEs) of various types from Web pages, and then discovers relations from a target NE to other NEs which co-occur with it.
Abstract. Generation of semantic markup can be a complex and timeconsuming task, often proving prohibitive for small-scale web sites or those that are somewhat transient in nature. In this paper we discuss how such sites may be enabled... more
Abstract. Generation of semantic markup can be a complex and timeconsuming task, often proving prohibitive for small-scale web sites or those that are somewhat transient in nature. In this paper we discuss how such sites may be enabled for the semantic web with minimal investment of resources, outline a technical approach based on GRDDL, and describe a case study of using this method to semantic web-enable the AKT Doctoral Symposium web site. Constraining factors of this approach for event description are discussed.
Welcome to AKT-SWS04 the First AKT Sponsored Workshop on Semantic Web Services. The purpose of this one day workshop is to bring together relevant members of the AKT (Advanced Knowledge Technologies) project and the wider research... more
Welcome to AKT-SWS04 the First AKT Sponsored Workshop on Semantic Web Services. The purpose of this one day workshop is to bring together relevant members of the AKT (Advanced Knowledge Technologies) project and the wider research community associated with semantic web services. AKT is a six year UK, EPSRC funded collaborative project between the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Southampton and the Open University.
“Wired… now what?”, was the challenge from Apple's Mark Miller to educationalists as the Internet took off. A new infrastructure was being laid, but even now we still barely know how to use it effectively for learning. We can expect a... more
“Wired… now what?”, was the challenge from Apple's Mark Miller to educationalists as the Internet took off. A new infrastructure was being laid, but even now we still barely know how to use it effectively for learning. We can expect a similar scenario to unfold for the semantic web. Currently, the semantic web community is necessarily preoccupied with infrastructure design (eg, knowledge representation languages for the web, scaling issues, standardising terminologies and agent interoperability).
Abstract: We discuss issues arising from the design, implementation and first use of a prototype infrastructure for distributed collective practice (IDCP), and reflect upon their intersection with some of the themes emerging from the... more
Abstract: We discuss issues arising from the design, implementation and first use of a prototype infrastructure for distributed collective practice (IDCP), and reflect upon their intersection with some of the themes emerging from the Paris 2000 IDCP workshop. The problem of maintaining coherence in a distributed system is of central interest to us.
For a number of years now we have seen the emergence of repositories of research data specified using OWL/RDF as representation languages, and conceptualized according to a variety of ontologies. This class of solutions promises both to... more
For a number of years now we have seen the emergence of repositories of research data specified using OWL/RDF as representation languages, and conceptualized according to a variety of ontologies. This class of solutions promises both to facilitate the integration of research data with other relevant sources of information and also to support more intelligent forms of querying and exploration.
Abstract. We present two small scale user studies of hypermedia information systems: a hypermedia discourse system designed as an environment for researchers to summarize and share key ideas from research papers as a claim network, and a... more
Abstract. We present two small scale user studies of hypermedia information systems: a hypermedia discourse system designed as an environment for researchers to summarize and share key ideas from research papers as a claim network, and a web browser plug-in which annotates terms related to a selected ontology on the fly. The first study investigated whether a claim network created by one user could help others learn about a domain.
Abstract: Embedded approaches to the design of hybrid architectures for knowledge representation and reasoning organize the component inference tools around a designated kernel, which provides the basic problem-solving mode of the... more
Abstract: Embedded approaches to the design of hybrid architectures for knowledge representation and reasoning organize the component inference tools around a designated kernel, which provides the basic problem-solving mode of the architecture. This approach suffers from lack of flexibility as the chosen kernel might not always provide the most appropriate control and problem-solving architecture for the task in hand.
Abstract This document presents the KM evaluation strategy for Dot. Kom. The KM approach taken in Dot. Kom is based on the ENRICH methodology investigating how text mining and information extraction technologies can enhance ENRICH based... more
Abstract This document presents the KM evaluation strategy for Dot. Kom. The KM approach taken in Dot. Kom is based on the ENRICH methodology investigating how text mining and information extraction technologies can enhance ENRICH based knowledge management and organisational learning. The KM evaluation strategy is two fold. Firstly, we will conduct tool based evaluations which are linked to various types of organisational learning theories.
ABSTRACT Nowadays, many distinct communities are researching on technologies for knowledge capturing, modelling, and navigation. Moreover, advances in Internet technology makes it possible to perform most of these tasks on heterogeneous... more
ABSTRACT Nowadays, many distinct communities are researching on technologies for knowledge capturing, modelling, and navigation. Moreover, advances in Internet technology makes it possible to perform most of these tasks on heterogeneous and distributed environments such as the Web. These advances though, have raise the need for knowledge services to accommodate the ever increasing number of Web users.
Observational studies in the literature have highlighted low levels of user satisfaction in relation to the support for ontology visualization and exploration provided by current ontology engineering tools. These issues are particularly... more
Observational studies in the literature have highlighted low levels of user satisfaction in relation to the support for ontology visualization and exploration provided by current ontology engineering tools. These issues are particularly problematic for non-expert users, who rely on effective tool support to abstract from representational details and to be able to make sense of the contents and the structure of ontologies.
In a previous working memo (Motta, 1991a) we have indicated the roles that the Vital knowledge representation language (Vital-KRL) has to fulfill in the Vital workbench, and the constraints imposed on the language specification by other... more
In a previous working memo (Motta, 1991a) we have indicated the roles that the Vital knowledge representation language (Vital-KRL) has to fulfill in the Vital workbench, and the constraints imposed on the language specification by other tools in the project and by the need to comply with emerging international standards. The combination of these roles and constraints produces a set of requirements that need to be satisfied by the Vital-KRL. These are listed below (cf Motta, 1991a):• Powerful data description facilities.
Abstract Ontologies have become one of the key technologies underlying industrial Knowledge Management systems. Such an ontology should provide a common language to facilitate knowledge sharing horizontally, between different parts of an... more
Abstract Ontologies have become one of the key technologies underlying industrial Knowledge Management systems. Such an ontology should provide a common language to facilitate knowledge sharing horizontally, between different parts of an organization, but requires sufficient flexibility to support the building of specialist vertical knowledge systems. We describe the development of an ontology for the aerospace domain, including design decisions made and lessons learned.
A knowledge-based system (KBS) contains (by definition) an explicitly codified body of knowledge, which causally determines its behavior. Hence, at a coarse-grained level of abstraction, KB-Ss can be characterized in terms of two... more
A knowledge-based system (KBS) contains (by definition) an explicitly codified body of knowledge, which causally determines its behavior. Hence, at a coarse-grained level of abstraction, KB-Ss can be characterized in terms of two components:(1) a knowledge base, encoding the knowledge embodied by the system, and (2) a reasoning engine, which is able to query the knowledge base, infer or acquire knowledge from external sources, and add new knowledge to the knowledge base.
In this chapter we introduce and then discuss the broad and rather complex area of human-ontology interaction. After reviewing generic tenets of HCI and their relevance to ontology management, we give an empirical evidence of some HCI... more
In this chapter we introduce and then discuss the broad and rather complex area of human-ontology interaction. After reviewing generic tenets of HCI and their relevance to ontology management, we give an empirical evidence of some HCI challenges for ontology engineering tools and the shortcomings in some existing tools from this viewpoint. We highlight several functional opportunities that seem to be missing in the existing tools, and then look at three areas that may help rectifying the identified gaps.
PowerMagpie is a semantic web browser which makes use of openly available semantic data to support sense making of arbitrary webpages. Unlike its predecessor, Magpie [1], which relied on a single, a-priori (at design time) selected... more
PowerMagpie is a semantic web browser which makes use of openly available semantic data to support sense making of arbitrary webpages. Unlike its predecessor, Magpie [1], which relied on a single, a-priori (at design time) selected ontology, PowerMagpie automatically (at run-time) identifies and uses relevant knowledge provided by multiple online ontologies. The first implementation of PowerMagpie (described in Deliverable D8.
Designing web sites is a complex task. Ad-hoc rapid prototyping easily leads to unsatisfactory results, eg poor maintainability and extensibility. However, existing web design frameworks focus exclusively on data presentation: the... more
Designing web sites is a complex task. Ad-hoc rapid prototyping easily leads to unsatisfactory results, eg poor maintainability and extensibility. However, existing web design frameworks focus exclusively on data presentation: the development of specific functionalities is still achieved through low-level programming. In this paper we address this issue by describing our work on the integration of (semantic) web services into a web design framework, OntoWeaver.
Abstract. As commonly accepted identifiers for data instances in semantic datasets (such as ISBN codes or DOI identifiers) are often not available, discovering links between overlapping datasets on the Web is generally realised through... more
Abstract. As commonly accepted identifiers for data instances in semantic datasets (such as ISBN codes or DOI identifiers) are often not available, discovering links between overlapping datasets on the Web is generally realised through the use of fuzzy similarity measures. Configuring such measures, ie deciding which similarity function to apply to which data properties with which parameters, is often a non-trivial task that depends on the domain, ontological schemas, and formatting conventions in data.
Executive Summary A decade on from the onset of the World Wide Web, its strengths and weaknesses have been clearly demonstrated. There is a generally recognised need to provide a more formal infrastructure for the global exchange of... more
Executive Summary A decade on from the onset of the World Wide Web, its strengths and weaknesses have been clearly demonstrated. There is a generally recognised need to provide a more formal infrastructure for the global exchange of information. As stated in [Frau01];
With more data repositories constantly being published on the Web, choosing appropriate data sources to interlink with newly published datasets becomes a non-trivial problem. It is necessary to choose both the repositories to link to and... more
With more data repositories constantly being published on the Web, choosing appropriate data sources to interlink with newly published datasets becomes a non-trivial problem. It is necessary to choose both the repositories to link to and the relevant subsets of these repositories, which contain potentially matching individuals. In order to do this, detailed information about the content and structure of semantic repositories is often required.
ABSTRACT Ontology summarization is a very useful technique to help users making sense of ontologies quickly. We have developed a summarization approach that linearly combines a number of criteria, drawn from cognitive science, network... more
ABSTRACT Ontology summarization is a very useful technique to help users making sense of ontologies quickly. We have developed a summarization approach that linearly combines a number of criteria, drawn from cognitive science, network topology, and lexical statistics to produce ontology summaries [1]. Motivated by our later findings that the approach, in its current form, binds the criteria so tightly that hinders its flexible and optimal usage in different scenarios, this work presents an objective evaluation of this approach.
Existing benchmarks for semantic data management tools primarily focus on evaluating the capability of tools to process large-scale data. In use case scenarios involving small-scale and mobile devices, the data volumes are typically... more
Existing benchmarks for semantic data management tools primarily focus on evaluating the capability of tools to process large-scale data. In use case scenarios involving small-scale and mobile devices, the data volumes are typically smaller, however, the ability to operate with limited computational resources becomes important. In this paper, we describe the experiments we performed to evaluate components of semantic data infrastructure for devices with limited computational power.
Abstract. In this paper we present an approach to document enrichment, which consists of associating formal knowledge models to archives of documents, to provide intelligent knowledge retrieval and (possibly) additional knowledge... more
Abstract. In this paper we present an approach to document enrichment, which consists of associating formal knowledge models to archives of documents, to provide intelligent knowledge retrieval and (possibly) additional knowledge services, beyond what is available using'standard'information retrieval and search facilities.
In this paper we describe a new software tool OntoWeaver, which uses ontologies to drive the design and development of data-intensive web sites. OntoWeaver overcomes the problems of current approaches by providing a site view ontology, a... more
In this paper we describe a new software tool OntoWeaver, which uses ontologies to drive the design and development of data-intensive web sites. OntoWeaver overcomes the problems of current approaches by providing a site view ontology, a presentation ontology, and a customization framework. Specifically, the site view ontology provides fine-grained modelling support for the creation of complex user interfaces and navigation structures.
Abstract. KC-Viz is a novel tool for visualizing and navigating ontologies, realised as a plug-in of the NeOn Toolkit. KC-Viz provides a comprehensive set of features to support ontology visualization and navigation, including an... more
Abstract. KC-Viz is a novel tool for visualizing and navigating ontologies, realised as a plug-in of the NeOn Toolkit. KC-Viz provides a comprehensive set of features to support ontology visualization and navigation, including an innovative mechanism for generating overviews of very large ontologies, which is based on an empirically validated ontology summarization algorithm. In this paper, we present an overview of the tool, in particular focusing on the features introduced in the latest version (v1. 3.1).
In earlier project deliverables, D8. 2 [1] and D8. 4 [2], we described an initial integration of the OpenKnowledge Semantic Web (SW) applications, PowerAqua [3] and PowerMagpie [4], with the OpenKnowledge (OK) peer to peer infrastructure... more
In earlier project deliverables, D8. 2 [1] and D8. 4 [2], we described an initial integration of the OpenKnowledge Semantic Web (SW) applications, PowerAqua [3] and PowerMagpie [4], with the OpenKnowledge (OK) peer to peer infrastructure [5].
In this paper we describe the first results of our efforts to build a solid framework for a Semantic Web browser, Power Magpie. With Semantic Web browser we envision an extension to a standard Web browser that augment its features with... more
In this paper we describe the first results of our efforts to build a solid framework for a Semantic Web browser, Power Magpie. With Semantic Web browser we envision an extension to a standard Web browser that augment its features with the ability to act on resources described in Web pages and to find resources semantically related to a Web page. Power Magpie differs from other proposed approach because it is not tailored to a predefined set of ontologies.
What does it mean for a student to come to an understanding of a philosophical standpoint and can the explosion of resources now available on the web support this process, or is it inclined instead to create more confusion? We believe... more
What does it mean for a student to come to an understanding of a philosophical standpoint and can the explosion of resources now available on the web support this process, or is it inclined instead to create more confusion? We believe that a possible answer to the problem of finding a means through the morass of information on the web to the philosophical insights it conceals and can be made to reveal lies in the process of narrative pathway generation.
ABSTRACT This paper describes AQUA our question answering over the Web. AQUA was designed to work over heterogeneous sources. This means that AQUA is equipped to work as closed domain and in addition to open-domain question answering. As... more
ABSTRACT This paper describes AQUA our question answering over the Web. AQUA was designed to work over heterogeneous sources. This means that AQUA is equipped to work as closed domain and in addition to open-domain question answering. As a first instance, AQUA tries to answer a question using a Knowledge base. If a query cannot be satisfied over a knowledge base/database. Then, AQUA tries to find an answer on web pages (ie it uses as corpus the internet as resource).
In this paper we describe our orchestration model for IRS-III. IRS-III is a framework and platform for developing WSMO based semantic web services. Orchestration specifies how a complex web service calls subordinate web services. Our... more
In this paper we describe our orchestration model for IRS-III. IRS-III is a framework and platform for developing WSMO based semantic web services. Orchestration specifies how a complex web service calls subordinate web services. Our orchestration model is state-based: control and data flow are defined by and in states respectively; web services and goals are modeled as activities and their execution triggers state changes. The model is illustrated with a simple example.
The Semantic Web can be seen as a large, heterogeneous network of ontologies and semantic documents. Characterizing these ontologies, the way they relate and the way they are organized can help in better understanding how knowledge is... more
The Semantic Web can be seen as a large, heterogeneous network of ontologies and semantic documents. Characterizing these ontologies, the way they relate and the way they are organized can help in better understanding how knowledge is produced and published online. It also provides new ways to explore and exploit this large collection of ontologies.
For individual Web users, understanding and controlling their exchange of personal data is a very complex task as they interact, some-times unknowingly, with hundreds of dierent websites. In this paper, we present a set of tools and an... more
For individual Web users, understanding and controlling their exchange of personal data is a very complex task as they interact, some-times unknowingly, with hundreds of dierent websites. In this paper, we present a set of tools and an experiment dedicated to monitoring a user's Web activity in order to build an observed model of his behavior in terms of the trust given to accessed websites and of the criticality of the data exchanged.
While the publication of linked open data has gained momentum in large organisations, the way for users of these organisations to engage with these data is still unclear. Here, we demonstrate a mobile application called wayOU (where are... more
While the publication of linked open data has gained momentum in large organisations, the way for users of these organisations to engage with these data is still unclear. Here, we demonstrate a mobile application called wayOU (where are you at the Open University) which relies on the data published by The Open University (under data. open. ac. uk) to provide social, location-based services to its students and members of staff.
Abstract The semantic Web extends the current Web with a semantic layer, which semantic-aware agents can use for reasoning. The idea is to enable a greater degree of task automation and user support than is possible with the current Web.... more
Abstract The semantic Web extends the current Web with a semantic layer, which semantic-aware agents can use for reasoning. The idea is to enable a greater degree of task automation and user support than is possible with the current Web. Yet the semantic Web has implications for knowledge publishing and access. An ontology-driven world might lead to the imposition of dominant conceptual viewpoints on formal knowledge production, which might threaten the democratic nature of knowledge publishing on the Web.
Abstract As semantic markup becomes ubiquitous, it will become important to be able to ask queries and obtain answers, using natural language (NL) expressions, rather than the keywordbased retrieval mechanisms used by the current search... more
Abstract As semantic markup becomes ubiquitous, it will become important to be able to ask queries and obtain answers, using natural language (NL) expressions, rather than the keywordbased retrieval mechanisms used by the current search engines. The Semantic Web (SW) opens the way to novel question answering (QA) systems, which can exploit the availability of distributed semantic markup to provide precise, formally derive answers to questions.
Abstract. In this paper we discuss some issues concerning the organization of knowledge for reuse and we critically examine the ideas of knowledge separation and minimal ontological commitments.. Because knowledge structures can play... more
Abstract. In this paper we discuss some issues concerning the organization of knowledge for reuse and we critically examine the ideas of knowledge separation and minimal ontological commitments.. Because knowledge structures can play multiple roles in a domain, it is not necessarily the case that search-control knowledge can be neatly separated from a domain ontology. This is particularly the case when only procedural descriptions of a task are available.
In this paper we highlight the importance of an interpretation of the learning process from a narrative perspective and show how Semantic Web technologies, in particular ontologies, can serve to represent the key dimensions of this... more
In this paper we highlight the importance of an interpretation of the learning process from a narrative perspective and show how Semantic Web technologies, in particular ontologies, can serve to represent the key dimensions of this approach and to support an intelligent navigation of learning resources. Here we introduce our initial work in order to formalize the structure of these “learning narratives” in the domain of philosophy.
With the growing amount of semantic data published on the Web the problem of coreference resolution gains in importance. The linked data initiative provided guidelines for publishing RDF datasets and new datasets are constantly being made... more
With the growing amount of semantic data published on the Web the problem of coreference resolution gains in importance. The linked data initiative provided guidelines for publishing RDF datasets and new datasets are constantly being made available. Such datasets often contain descriptions of the same real-world entities but use different URIs to refer to them. In order to utilize published data on a web scale it is essential to detect such situations and resolve coreferences.