SIOC
Encyclopedia
Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities Project (SIOC - pronounced "shock") is a Semantic Web
technology. SIOC provides methods for interconnecting discussion methods such as blog
s, forums and mailing lists to each other. It consists of the SIOC ontology
, an open-standard machine readable format for expressing the information contained both explicitly and implicitly in Internet
discussion methods, of SIOC metadata
producers for a number of popular blogging platforms and content management systems, and of storage and browsing/searching systems for leveraging this SIOC data.
The SIOC vocabulary is based on RDF
and is defined using RDFS
. SIOC documents may use other existing ontologies to enrich the information described. Additional information about the creator of the post can be described using FOAF
Vocabulary and the
representation) can be described using AtomOWL or RSS
1.0 Content module.
The SIOC project was started in 2004 by John Breslin
and Uldis Bojars at DERI
, NUI Galway
. In 2007, SIOC became a W3C Member Submission.
Semantic Web
The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium that promotes common formats for data on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web of unstructured documents into a "web of...
technology. SIOC provides methods for interconnecting discussion methods such as blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s, forums and mailing lists to each other. It consists of the SIOC ontology
Ontology (computer science)
In computer science and information science, an ontology formally represents knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain, and the relationships between those concepts. It can be used to reason about the entities within that domain and may be used to describe the domain.In theory, an ontology is...
, an open-standard machine readable format for expressing the information contained both explicitly and implicitly in Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
discussion methods, of SIOC metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
producers for a number of popular blogging platforms and content management systems, and of storage and browsing/searching systems for leveraging this SIOC data.
The SIOC vocabulary is based on RDF
Resource Description Framework
The Resource Description Framework is a family of World Wide Web Consortium specifications originally designed as a metadata data model...
and is defined using RDFS
RDF Schema
RDF Schema is a set of classes with certain properties using the RDF extensible knowledge representation language, providing basic elements for the description of ontologies, otherwise called RDF vocabularies, intended to structure RDF resources...
. SIOC documents may use other existing ontologies to enrich the information described. Additional information about the creator of the post can be described using FOAF
FOAF (software)
FOAF is a machine-readable ontology describing persons, their activities and their relations to other people and objects. Anyone can use FOAF to describe him or herself...
Vocabulary and the
foaf:maker
property. Rich content of the post (e.g., an HTMLHTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
representation) can be described using AtomOWL or RSS
RSS
-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...
1.0 Content module.
The SIOC project was started in 2004 by John Breslin
John Breslin
John Breslin is an Irish engineer and lecturer at the National University of Ireland, Galway. His research publications have focused on the Social Semantic Web, and he co-authored a book on this topic in 2009....
and Uldis Bojars at DERI
Digital Enterprise Research Institute
The Digital Enterprise Research Institute, DERI, is a research institute at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Its focus is research into the Semantic Web and Web Science. It was established as a Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology in 2003 with funding from Science Foundation...
, NUI Galway
National University of Ireland, Galway
The National University of Ireland, Galway is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland...
. In 2007, SIOC became a W3C Member Submission.
Example
Implementations and applications
Here are some of the concrete implementations and applications that produce and/or use SIOC data.Creating SIOC data
- SIOC APIs
- Weblog, forum and CMS exporters
- Other exporters
Using SIOC data
- SPARQL endpoints, querying SIOC data
- Crawling SIOC data
- Using SIOC for new data
- Fishtank
- BAETLE (Bug And Enhancement Tracking LanguagE)
- RDFa on Rails
- IkeWiki
- int.ere.st
- OpenLink Virtuso AMI
- Talis Engage
- Reusing SIOC data
SIOC utilities
- Finding and indexing SIOC data
See also
- DOAPDOAPDescription of a Project is an RDF schema and XML vocabulary to describe software projects, and in particular open-source. It was created and initially developed by Edd Dumbill to convey semantically information associated with open-source software projects...
- FOAF (software)FOAF (software)FOAF is a machine-readable ontology describing persons, their activities and their relations to other people and objects. Anyone can use FOAF to describe him or herself...
- Online Presence OntologyOnline Presence OntologyThe OPO is an ontology which aims to model the dynamic aspects of a user’s presence online and to enable exchange of the Online Presence data. The creator of the OPO is Milan Stankovic, a young researcher and a member of the GOOD OLD AI Research Network...
- SKOSSKOSSimple Knowledge Organization System is a family of formal languages designed for representation of thesauri, classification schemes, taxonomies, subject-heading systems, or any other type of structured controlled vocabulary. SKOS is built upon RDF and RDFS, and its main objective is to enable...
- XMLXMLExtensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
- DataPortabilityDataPortabilityData portability is the ability for people to reuse their data across interoperable applications - the ability for people to be able to control their identity, media and other forms of personal data...
Further reading
- John G. Breslin, Uldis Bojārs, Alexandre Passant, Sergio Fernández, Stefan Decker. SIOC: Content Exchange and Semantic Interoperability Between Social Networks. W3C Workshop on the Future of Social Networking, 15-16 January 2009, Barcelona, Spain.
- Uldis Bojars, John G. Breslin, Vassilios Peristeras, Giovanni Tummarello, Stefan Decker. Interlinking the Social Web with Semantics. IEEE Intelligent Systems, Volume 23, Issue 3 (May/June 2008), pp. 29-40.
- John G. Breslin, Andreas Harth, Uldis Bojars, Stefan Decker. Towards Semantically Interlinked Online Communities. 2nd European Semantic Web Conference, Heraklion, Greece, May 29 to June 1, 2005, pp. 500-514. LNCS 3532.
- Andreas Harth, John G. Breslin, Ina O'Murchu, Stefan Decker. Linking Semantically-Enabled Online Community Sites. 1st Workshop on FOAF, Social Networking, and the Semantic Web, Galway, Ireland, Proceedings, September 2004.