Nepomuk – the social semantic desktop

Last month I talked to John Breslin about how web applications may become semantically integrated with your desktop applications. In other words, the ‘semantic web’ isn’t just about improving search, it is also about allowing all the systems you use to interoperate with each other. For example, imagine browsing your RSS feeds and a name of a post author is highlighted on your screen. Your desktop computer then makes connections between that person and your contacts file and your friends in social networking sites.

John and I could have been talking about Nepomuk – the social semantic desktop, which was reviewed by physorg.com this week. This EU-funded project aims to apply the kind of semantic solutions being deployed on the web to your desktop allowing your desktop to more easily process the information it has across different platforms, media types and applications.

The practical result could be that you will be able to access information on your desktop using semantic technology in the same way that you will be able to make connections semantically online.

Juice – the intelligent Firefox plugin

As outlined in my presentation on the semantic web, a few tools are giving us a glimpse of how intelligent applications are changing search tools allowing us to move away from the ‘search term’ engine model of research. I described the Firefox plugin ClearForest Gnosis and Headupas two examples. Another recent launch demonstrates the power of these intelligent search tools that let you access linked content without you having to navigate away from the pages you are viewing. Juice is a Firefox plugin that allows you to access information linked to a term you are interested in. Juice searchers for reference material, movies, news and pictures and presents the content clearly in a separate Firefox column. All you have to do is highlight your term and drag into the column. You can switch Juice on or off easily by using a simple button on your browser bar. I accessed suprisingly relevant content by testing Juice using two potentially tricky terms – ‘Sirius Star’ and ‘Antony Gormley’.
While Gnosis indicates how intelligent search using language processing can work, Juice takes the concept to the next level. For a quick introduction see the Juice webcast:

Juice’s rocking webcast from Linkool Labs on Vimeo.

Neat presentation on semantic search

Following on from my articles on Web 3.0 for journalism.co.uk and the full interview with John Breslin, I came across this short by excellent presentation by Brooke Aker on What is Semantic Search? Although it is geared towards a retail audience it does neatly sum up how individuals like journalists and researchers will be able to (and are able to) use semantic search tools to filter information more effectively.

On the subject of semantic search, I’ve added a whole new module to my course on Advanced Internet Research that will cover semantic web tools. Check out this page for more information about the course. I also do a course for the NUJ in Scotland.