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Using semantic web technologies to implement flexible information management systems

University of British Columbia

Two main phenomena have recently become prominent in respect to information management. First, there has been a rapid increase in the number and variety of sources of information on the World Wide Web and in the role of users as content providers. In parallel, there has been an evolution of web technologies to support the creation, storage, and sharing of information. These developments have led to new paradigms such as cloud computing, crowdsourcing, and social collaboration. The second phenomenon is the increasing need of organizations to effectively and efficiently benefit from massive data — termed “big data” (a term also linked recently to cloud computing and to social network data). These two phenomena both indicate new needs and new technological opportunities. Traditionally, information management has been based on storing data in structured databases, where the structure reflects some expected uses, and managed with (at least some) central control (even for distributed data). These assumptions, however, do not fit the new paradigms, where flexible information management is needed to support different views of multiple users, unknown future uses, no central control, and new unexpected sources. This thesis explores an approach to information management intended to provide the flexibility to support multiple, varied, and emerging sources where uses of information may not be known in advance. The approach employs three principles. First, data should be stored independent of any pre-conceived “containers” that reflect anticipated uses (classes, tables). Second, reconciliation of meaning of data can be done by abstraction of the properties the data represent. Third, classification can be created as needed depending on the application, based on some usefulness considerations. The thesis has two objectives. First, suggest how to apply these principles in the implementation of a flexible information management system. Second, demonstrate how semantic web technologies can be used to implement this approach. These technologies include triplestores (storing data in resource description framework), related query languages (SPARQL), and formal ontologies (Web Ontology Language). The thesis describes a prototype implementation, demonstrates it on a case study, and discusses its advantages compared to traditional database systems.

Text

2012-08-22

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/43018

Business Administration

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/