Semantic Web - The Future of Internet Services

By: Alan Davy
If you are wondering where the Internet is heading, here is something to think about. The following is a scenario that involves the infamous John Doe, and the procedure he must go through to achieve a task using present Internet services, i.e. web sites.

When John Doe is planning to attend a conference outside his own city, he must perform the following tasks on the Internet. He must register for the conference through its web site (service 1). He must search for suitable accommodation local to the conference (service 2) and book through the appropriate web site (service 3). He must search for the best fair for travel to the conference (service 4) and book through the appropriate web site (service 5). These tasks can only be completed by John himself, because he has knowledge of what is involved in going to the conference, and what each service is used for and why. After he has completed all these tasks, he will be ready to attend the conference. In a sense John has completed these services or sub-tasks to achieve a single task, attend the conference.

At present if a computer system were to offer an Internet service to perform all the tasks required by John, a computer programmer would have to create a service based on John's requirements, which would be made up of the other services, in this case through a web site.

Ideally John should be able to input into a computer system the requirements of the task he would like achieve (through a web page, or some software), the computer system should understand what John intends to do and create a composed service to perform this task.

This single service would be composed of the other individual services or tasks John used in the latter example. The only way a computer system can discover and compose these services in such a way as to allow John achieve his task, is if the computer system can understand services the same way a human does, this brings us to the Semantic Web.

The Semantic Web is an emerging initiative to bring meaning to the web. At present Internet services, such as online air ticket booking, accommodation booking, etc. are stand-alone services that a user must interact with to achieve a specific task. These services cannot interact with each other to perform a user's task, which at a higher level they may be part of. These services must be understood by computer systems; in the same way humans understand them. For example, John used a group of services to achieve his task of attending a conference, so with the aid of the semantic web, John should be able to input into a computer system, that he wants to travel to a conference on date X to date Y, in city Z, and stay in accommodation within a certain price range. The computer system should be able to search the semantic web, for the services, and compose them in such a way as to allow the user to perform his/her task. This technology could also be extended into the home, where the T.V., DVD player, fridge, microwave, etc could offer semantic services over a home network, and based on what a user within the house wants to do, these services can be composed to achieve his/her tasks.