ITGumbo: spicing IT up

Web 3.0 also popularly known as "Semantic Web" is under construction. The current web (web 2.0) is built by connecting documents with embedded links and listed IRIs. These hyperlinks provide a path for a search engine crawler to find other documents. Thus these embedded links and listed IRIs are the main source of information for a search engine that may then use keyword/tags for page ranking. Building web 3.0 web site is different, it requires that published information must be structured in order to add semantics to the information provided. This semantics is added by augmenting information with metadata tags that are publicly used and understood on the semantic web. This public metadata (normative metadata) will relate the different information sources on the web. RDFa provides a mechanism to include RDF vocabulary metadata tags in HTML for publication. This enables information lookup by web 3.0 applications that index on metadata term tags.

Why does a requirement to accommodate project requirement changes in the later stage of SDLC arise? Is it due to poor project planning, inept requirement analysis, incorrect implementation, reverse engineering or late customer requirements? eXtreme Programming(XP) is an approach that has been introduced to deal with changes in requirements by effective communication, simplicity, feedback and courage. TDD is an eXtreme Programming method.

In this paper "Consensus Data, Ontologies and Services" Prof. Michael N. Huhns has presented examples of what can be achieved with semantic tools. He emphasizes on consensus in order to form a service model that can solve the problem in a given domain. He suggests in order to achieve result what must be specified. Here we will discuss some examples from this paper and address the other part of the problem, how this can be achieved.

A two-day workshop on semantic web research issues was conducted by Microsoft in Redmond, WA from June 21-22. The issues discussed were concerned with data semantics and confidentiality on internet. The details are listed on their web page. In brief they discussed: about creation of data, methods to find data, confidentiality of information and control of information. They also discussed the probability of an open research project to discuss these issues. One of the interesting papers is "Evolving the Web Through Open Data" by Harry Halpin. He is the Chair of the W3C GRDDL Working Group.

WPA2 enabled Wi-Fi hotspot provides authentication and encryption mechanism to secure Wi-Fi network from external intrusion. WEP provides limited security due to manual or static encryption key configuration. Wireless blocking paint or RF paint is another option to build an electromagnetic fortress. Wi-Fi users may find this paint useful as it will block intrusion or leakage of RF waves across the paint layer. While it is a necessary security practice to change the default user name/password and WPA protocol dynamic encryption key thwarts any hacker attempt to decrypt the key; this paint will protect your Wi-Fi network from any unauthentic data recording. EM-SEC is one of the providers of an electromagnetic paint that can be coated on the interior walls to protect the facility from airborne hacker attacks. This paint can be applied to many types of construction materials such as concrete, wood, plastic, etc. Google for other RF paints.

An annual metadata forum conference is scheduled for July 9-11, 2007 in New York. The issues to be addressed are:

1. Data Interoperability - This will address the issue of data interoperability between different service providers. The conference agenda identifies two requirements for data interoperability: data description and data context.

2. Data Standards - The conference will address the issue of requirement for standards that will assist in metadata definition for interoperability.

3. Data Registry - How to find the metadata that can be used? The suggested methods in the agenda are search engine and registries.

4. Terminology - The conference agenda is to discuss the language used for describing subject, properties and terms for these; the connection of this language with the data (object) that is collected and stored.

To summarize: data is required for interoperability, standards are required to define data for interoperability, some mechanism is required to find this metadata and finally metadata terms must be found.

What we have discussed?

Zitgist is a semantic web query service . They recently released Zitgist RDF browser. This browser presents information of a 'thing' in a format that is easier to browse and understand. The metadata element tag and its value are displayed by the query service. This metadata based database built for Zitgist query service can be used for 'open market' application with a normative metadata.

This is a presentation on semantic web technologies and applications. I have extracted the following information puzzle from this presentation. A six year old kid visualizes a device with buttons that can perform the following activities:

1. you can cook with it.

2. it has an ipod in it.

3. it can make you remember things.

4. you can do work with it.

5. it has keys for the house and car.

6. it is used as a control for the TV.

How does technology solve this puzzle?

We have been discussing future technology convergence: RFID + Semantic Web + Mobile Communication. Here we discuss how present and future technologies can solve this puzzle.

Refer to the figure, a semantic application stack for a 'thing' was illustrated. Here all web resources are a 'thing' with an address IRI. The 'thing' properties and ontologies are described with semantic technology protocols XML, RDF and OWL. SPARQL is then used to form logical queries by extracting language grammar terms from the sentence.

This is Semantic Indexing Technology stack:

Semantic Indexing Technology is a method where language grammar terms are extracted from a sentence to form a triple <subject, action, object>. These terms are then searched in the semantic database to find an answer to the natural language query. The Semantic TRIZ^TM is an innovative process where all documents on the World Wide Web are searched for the semantic terms found in any document and a database indexed by these semantic terms is built to answer the queries. The documents have a URI as any web 2.0 document. Goldfire Innovator^TM is an application to search patents documents. Based on the semantic database it can not only answer the natural language queries but also provide trend graphs and data.

Most research & development organizations use empirical data to evaluate their findings. This empirical data is collected in real-life situation analogous to paid-surveys, the participants in the study are either organization employees or public who agrees to participate in the study. Without this type of evaluation the research results cannot be deployed in the real-life situations. Most of the market research reports are also prepared by active participation of public. The participants are informed about what data will be collected and the purpose of data being collected. Recently I read some articles on Highly Dynamic Systems (HDS); HDS are systems that provide the contextual data to dynamic customers. A very simple example is Global Positioning System that provides the map of surroundings at the current position. As technology advances higher utility HDS are being built with integration of RFID, Semantic Web and Mobile Communication. I wrote a summary of the articles I had read, these are influenced by my own thoughts: Private Data Security in Highly Dynamic Systems and Data Usage Control System.

Test Driven Development (TDD) is a software engineering technique where code is written for the test cases. I.e. first write a test case, then write a code conforming to the test case, if required rework the code to ensure that the test case is successful. Is TDD unit testing? In unit testing first a unit is made and then it is tested. Unit can be a specification, design element or a code function. Therefore it can be said that in TDD a test case is a requirement for which a code unit is written and tested. If a test case is written for a specification/feature then in order to test it code will be written, this will involve design, coding and testing. Is TDD analogous to other SDLC models?

In my opinion TDD is a model that has been invented to get around difficult steps of SDLC waterfall model. If a developer fails to convert requirements and specifications to design and further in the next step convert design to code then the final product developed will not meet the management and customer expectations. There may be many reasons of failure: incomplete and ambiguous requirements and specifications, lack of expertise, improper project planning, etc. Usability is therefore a technique that must be applied to every SDLC phase. The objective is to test the completeness of one SDLC phase before entering another phase. TDD is reverse engineering, where first test case/code is written to test the requirement/design and then functional code is written to execute the test case. If SDLC processes generate abstract requirement and specifications or design then TDD is based upon more concrete requirements. Test cases convert abstract requirements/design to concrete facts that can be verified and evaluated. Hence TDD is a methodology that is being used to get around the abstraction problem of the SDLC processes.

How to control & bring order to the growth of semantic web vocabularies?

We raised this issue earlier in the discussion on web 3.0 thing vocabularies. We will address this again here with some findings and suggestions:

• Dave McComb suggested domain specific semantic standards in the white paper "The CIO's Guide to Semantics".
• Mills Davis has discussed business vocabulary as capability of semantic development that will allow search and access across any source of information in the research report "Semantic Wave 2006 - Executive Guide to Billion Dollar Markets".
• W3C working draft on RIF Use cases and Requirements suggests that implicit knowledge in RDF facts must be published along with the metadata to simplify maintenance of data and guard against inconsistencies. It is mentioned that RIF must allow linking of metadata and rules from different sources on the web like HTML links for web pages.
• This draft document also suggests that publishing mapping rules is a method to simplify access of divergent information models. This will allow progressive build up of mappings for Semantic Web.
• Meza-Aleman & et al. have identified three success factors for the semantic web: common machine readable formats, critical mass of users and enabling technologies. They have suggested finding an appropriate vocabulary on the web for common machine readable formats by the following of critical mass of users (popular vocabulary) and reuse this vocabulary. They have also suggested "international standards should also facilitate international communication"

"Teaching UML is Teaching Software Engineering is Teaching Abstraction" - (Engles, Hausmann, Lohmann & Sauer).

This statement is argued here. Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a language to package concept elements such as class, package, datatype, operations, etc. into models. UML presents visual illustration of the system artifacts and their relationships. Abstraction is required to identify the system artifacts for modeling; abstraction is required to separate metalanguage core constructs and concerns into layers; abstraction is required to partition conceptual areas within layers. UML is a method to construct system models from the core of Model Driven Architecture. Abstraction is a method that is required to construct elements of the common core. Abstraction is a general idea that is not based on a physical, practical data. In software engineering SDLC processes abstraction is the method that is used to simplify and generalize the processes before concrete models can be built. Abstraction is used to list the findings from the cognitive knowledge both tacit and explicit knowledge. The steps to abstraction can be described as:

Until now we have discussed the architecture of a semantic web application open market. This is being summarized here with a different example: