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The impact of the semantic web on

MuseumsGalleriesEducation

What is a ........... ?• Museum

– is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.

• Gallery– An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual

art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection.

• Educational institute– Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the

mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another.

– Etymologically, the word education is derived from educare (Latin) "bring up", which is related to educere "bring out", "bring forth what is within", "bring out potential" and ducere, "to lead".[1]

Breaking it down

• All are broadly covered by– “the process by which society

deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another”

Even Simpler view

• Accumulate and transmit knowledge, skills and values

Accumulation

• This is the area where you guys are amazing

• You have accumulated massive amounts of knowledge

• You are the true experts with real skills in your fields

• You have well established values

Transmit

• This is the area where you are failing – From semantic viewpoint

• Unless you fix the way you transmit you could end up contributing to the dumbing down of the next generation

• Surely you guys are the bedrock on which society should be building!– Yes if you would share what you know in

the way we need it

Mona Lisa

• My 11 year old son who is really interested in art, recently had to find out about the Mona Lisa for an art class

• What did he do– Googled “Mona Lisa”

What did he find

The Louvre

• Surely this is the epicentre of knowledge• Why did it not come back as the first

result– Google’s fault?

• Normally, but not this time• Neither Bing or Yahoo have the Louvre on page 1

– The Louvre has focussed on enhancing the experience of the website visitor and made it enormously difficult for any other system to gain access to their accumulated knowledge.

– Wikipedia• Is easily indexed• Is published in RDF Via DBPedia

Result

• The accumulated knowledge, skills and values are NOT transmitted in a DISCOVERABLE way– Search engines are not able to properly

read the data– Never mind from a semanticweb

viewpoint– Effectively created a walled garden

• Systems return what they can read

Change in approach needed

• Make what you know DISCOVERABLE• Reflect the way in which people are

accumulating knowledge, skills and value and transmit to match them

• There are practical problems but they are also solutions– Start with the easy stuff and publish

whatever you can easily in RDF

• Leverage your position– Search engines ARE biased in your favour

Impacts

• Those that do open up will regain ground lost to non authoritative sources

• Opening up will bring a wealth of opportunities

• The semantic web is bringing a whole new generation of web applications

• Those that don't open up and transmit information in a semantic manner will be left out of the loop becoming part of the display

Real Impact

• Our kids will grow up thinking that monalisamania dot com is a better source of information than the Louvre– Remember Sharing is Caring – Publishing RDF is like taking the lid off a

bottle before giving it to a baby

Contacts

Fintan Galvin Managing Directorfintan@iO1.biz Direct: +4420 8816 7690Mobile: +447738 506781http://www.iO1.biz

iO1 LtdThe Old Bakery44b Commercial Way WokingSurreyGU21 6HWMain: 0844 567 2317