Tuesday, 5/22/2007
3:15 PM - 3:45 PM
Level: Technical - Intermediate

One of the challenges in developing semantic applications is bridging the chasm between the intuitions and expectations of users and the rigid requirements of data. This is especially apparent in applications that aim to support the blending or "mash up" of structured and unstructured information in service of users' dynamically evolving goals. At JustSystems Corporation, we see this kind of problem at the core of the next generation of semantic applications. Crossing boundaries between the enterprise and the web, the data in such applications will have to retain and reflect their inherent semantics coherently under transformations. To achieve an effective "universal semantics," such systems must integrate, minimally, (a) a reference model or ontology, (b) a set of associated resources, encompassing lexicons, "grammars," and general rules of interpretation, and (c) information-object schemata. We have developed a technology called "xfy" that approximates the ideal of universal semantics. Typical xfy applications support "WYWIWYG" ("What You Want Is What You Get") interfaces; web-service-based semantic mash-up; graceful integrations and interpretations of structured data and unstructured text; and semantically "self-aware" information environments. This presentation will include demos as illustration of the power of a principled, but broad framework for semantic applications.

Dr. David A. Evans is Chief Scientist and Director, Advanced Technology Innovation, for JustSystems Corporation of Japan. He is also President, CEO, and Chief Scientist of Clairvoyance Corporation, which he founded (as CLARITECH Corporation) in 1992. Dr. Evans received his Ph.D. degree in Computational Linguistics from Stanford University in 1982. He joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University in 1983, where he established the Computational Linguistics Program (in 1985) and the Laboratory for Computational Linguistics (in 1986), both of which he directed until 1996. Dr. Evans's development of the CLARIT System, beginning in 1988, was a pioneering effort in the fusion of natural-language processing technology and information science. CLARIT today is the core technology in JustSystems' ConceptBase suite of knowledge managment applications, representing approximately 50% of the Japanese market share. ConceptBase Search received the "Software Product of the Year" Award from the Japanese Government in 1998.