SWED Background
The Semantic Web Environment Directory (SWED) Project is part of a
larger European Union Funded project called SWAD-Europe (Semantic
Web Advanced Development) which aims to "support W3C's (World
Wide Web Consortium) Semantic Web initiative in Europe, providing targeted
research, demonstrations and outreach to ensure Semantic Web technologies
move into the mainstream of networked computing". It is based
at Hewlett Packard
Labs in Bristol and the ILRT
(Institute for Learning and Research Technology) at the University of
Bristol, in the UK.
It is a proof of concept demonstration, aiming to create a web-based
system for building and maintaining Community Information Resources
(portals). The system will overcome many of the limitations and problems
with more traditional and current approaches. The SWED project
specification document provides a detailed review of the original
ideas and motivations behind the project.
While the primary motivation of the SWED project is to create a working
demonstration of Semantic Web technologies, the particular focus on
creating an Environmental Directory was motivated by a number of factors:
- The need was identified during a wider
ranging survey
of wildlife & biodiversity information in the UK
- At present there is no extensive generic environmental directory
for the UK . That is one that provides detailed information
on projects as well as breath of coverage (across subjects and sectors)
and including projects and initiatives as well as organisations.
- Such a directory would be benefit many different groups
of people and organisations from many sectors education, environment
and conservation, local and national government, businesses, scientific
research, media, and not least members of the general pubic with environmental/wildlife
interests.
- The project has the support of a number of key environmental
organisations including The Environment Council, who produced
the Who's Who in the Environment publications in the 1990s
- There are many projects working to integrate various types of environmentally
related data
There are many likely reasons why such a directory does not exist,
these include the high level of cost and resources required to collect
and collate the data and the ongoing costs of maintaining it. These
are especially high where accuracy and up-to-date data are required.
These problems cascade; as there is no definitive and up-to-date source
of information about organisations and projects, anyone creating a list
of links or contacts, generally collates them from scratch and stores
the data themselves - generally as part of a Web site. This means that
as data becomes out of date it cannot be automatically updated. In the
case of Web-based data this information is spread across the Web, and
tends to become increasingly out-of-date and inconsistent.
Aims & Objectives
Given the motivations of the demonstration, the key aims of the project
are:
- To create a compelling and effective demonstration of semantic web
technologies and approaches - as part of the SWAD-Europe project.
- To create an system that provides prototype tools for creating and
maintaining a directory of organisations and detailed information
about them.
- The system should offer solutions to many of the limitations and problems
of traditional and existing approaches - that have been identified as
part of our survey
activity.
Based on these aims, the objectives for the actual prototype is that
that it should demonstrate the following characteristics:
- Sustainability and robustness in terms of economics,
resource, personnel and technology
- Ease of maintenance for both directory publishers
and organisations that are included in the directory
- Ease of implementation (relatively) at low cost,
in terms of financial costs, technical systems and skills required and
time.
- Flexibility and support for the creation of customizable user interfaces.
It will allow developers to change what information is made available,
how information is displayed and how it is organised, the look and feel
of the portal and the ways of searching and navigating the information.
- Be based on open (non-proprietary) technologies
- Extensibility. It will be easy to change existing
and add new types of information to system
- Support for the re-use of information
that already exists (rather than require duplication)
- Support for integration of diverse complementary types and
sources of information.
If you would like more information about the SWED or SWAD-Europe projects
visit our contacts page to find out who
to contact for your particular inquiry.
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