Article,
Social Semantic Web Scales in the Cloud
Nodalities, (April 2009)
Abstract
A research team from the University of Koblenz, Germany has won the Billion Triples Challenge 2008 for demonstrating the scalability of the Social Semantic Web with their SemaPlorer system. SemaPlorer allows for searching and browsing of multimedia data using semantic background knowledge. This background knowledge is obtained from distributed sources of linked open data using distributed views and querying based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and its query language SPARQL. Cloud computing services are used to make these large amounts of data available on demand. SemaPlorer proves that semantic technologies can be used for the significant improvement of user experience with social media while at the same time allowing for great flexibility and short development cycles. The underlying technology developed at the Information Systems and Semantic Web (ISWeb) group is being used in multiple European research projects and in commercial environments.
