Semantic Web @ BBN

1. Semantic Web @ BBN Mike Dean mdean@bbn.com Industry Track 7th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2008) Karlsruhe, Germany 29 October 2008 http://asio.bbn.com/2008/10/iswc2008/bbn-2008-10-29.ppt

2. Outline • History • Current efforts • Looking forward

3. Introduction to BBN • An advanced technology research and development firm, specializing in Information, Computer, and Physical Sciences • Known for technical excellence and challenging conventions to provide new and fundamentally better solutions to complex technical problems • Providing innovative, real-world solutions and satisfying our customers have been the keys to our success for 60 years • Staff of ~700 professionals • 2/3 hold advanced degrees • Principal offices in Cambridge, MA and the Washington, DC area

4. 1980s 1st Electronic Mail Defense Data Network National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) Natural Language Computer Interface Intelligent Agents SimNet Collaboration Planning Technology Cronus Distributed Computing Environment 1970s 1st Person-to-Person Network Email @ Sign for Email Addresses Acoustic analysis of JFK Assassination Tapes Analysis of Nixon Watergate Tapes First Symmetric Multi-processor First TCP for UNIX 1960s 1st Time Sharing Demonstration LOGO Programming Language ARPANET-First Multi-node Packet Switched Network 1990s Secure email for DoD Multi-Gigabit Router DARPA Information Assurance Broadband Wireless Technology Genetic Algorithm Scheduling Tools Collaborative Planning for Desert Storm ATM Switch 40K Word Speech Recognition System Logistics Anchor Desk deployed for Bosnia Safekeyper Certificate Management Certification Authority Workstation (CAW) 2000s Call Director Natural Language Routing Semantic Web – OWL, SWRL, OWL-S Asio tools forNet-Centric Data Sharing and Enterprise Web Services Microthunder Urban Environment Surveillance System Cognitive Agent Architecture - Cougaar Boomerang Acoustic Shooter Detection System Quantum Cryptographic Network 1950s Acoustic Design for UN General Assembly Hall AI Pattern Recognition Program History of Innovation

5. Core Technical Expertise • Data Mining and Knowledge Management • Semantic Web, Advanced Database Technologies, Audio Indexing, Information extraction from speech and text • Information Security • Computer and network system architecture, information operations, cyber situation awareness, red teaming • Speech Recognition and Natural Language Processing • Real-time, large vocabulary, speaker-independent continuous speech recognition, Advanced speech-to-text systems, Audio monitoring and audio indexing, Speech-to-speech translation, Optical character recognition • Intelligent Systems • Genetic algorithms, Agent architectures, Cognitive systems • Advanced Networking • Wireless, ad hoc networks, High performance routers and encryptors, Satellite technology and security, Low power networks • Infrastructure Security • Large scale intelligent sensor networks, Unmanned surveillance • Physical Systems • Acoustic and seismic sensing and analysis systems and technologies • Real-Time Embedded Computing • High performance operational systems, Signal processing and analysis

6. DAML • BBN was the Integration and Transition Contractor for the DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML) program, 2000-2005 • Coordinated the efforts of 25 research teams • Led the Joint US/EU ad hoc Agent Markup Language Committee, participated in W3C RDF Core and Web Ontology Working Groups • Developed a number of tools, data sets, and applications • Maintained daml.org and SemWebCentral.org

7. SemWebCentral.org • Open source software repository based on GForge • 145 projects, 854 users • Still maintained at BBN • Hardware and software upgrade in progress

8. R&D • DAML was the first and last large US Semantic Web research program • The DARPA Director thought we were “done” once OWL became a W3C Recommendation • Smaller R&D efforts in other agencies • Several DARPA “seedling” projects • Our focus has shifted to applications using the Semantic Web (explicitly or not) • Government and commercial

9. Data Integration • Many of our applications focus on some aspect of data integration • Diverse databases, web services • Co-reference resolution among incomplete data sets • Which of 500 references to John Smith refer to the same person? • Combining structured and unstructured information (RDF encoding of natural language processing output) • Translation between ontologies using SWRL plays a key role in many of solutions

10. SOAP/ REST WS RDBMS AsioTM 1 Query: SPARQL Snoggle 6 Query Result Set Query Decomposition 2 Semantic Query Decomposition (SQD) Backwards Rule Chaining 5 Generation ofSub Queries 3 Automapper Semantic Bridge Database Semantic Bridge Web Service Semantic Bridge SPARQL Endpoint 4 Data Access Parliament

11. Open Source • Snoggle • SWRL editor for ontology translation • Parliament • Memory-mapped embedded triple store • Descended from DAML DB • More details in my SSWS 2008 talk • Will soon be released as open source on SemWebCentral

12. Geospatial Semantics • Geospatial Semantic Web R&D program at NGA • Geospatial ontologies (including trade study) • Geospatial indexing of knowledge bases • Semantic annotation of georegistered imagery • Active participation in • Spatial Ontology Community of Practice (SOCoP) • Terra Cognita workshop series • US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF)

13. Going Forward • Growing business area • “Digital Whitewater” (information deluge) • Video annotation • Active and streaming content • Hope for resurgence in US Semantic Web R&D with the new administration

14. More Information • asio.bbn.com • snoggle.projects.semwebcentral.org • parliament.projects.semwebcentral.org