Webmontag in Kaiserslautern

Nun findet also morgen in Kaiserslautern auch ein Webmontag statt, ganz nach dem Motto: wo sich IT-Leute ballen und Semantic Web und Web2.0 Projekte entwickeln, da sollte man unbedingt über Instituts- und Organisationsgrenzen hinweg zusammenkommen und Ideen austauschen. Als mich Stephan Baumann daher bat, mit ihm diesen Event zu organisieren, war ich natürlich sofort dabei, auch wenn Stephan zugegebenermaßen maßgeblich die Trommel gerührt hat.

Wollen wir doch mal sehen, was wir hier in Kaiserslautern und darüber hinaus in Sachen künftiges Web noch alles auf die Beine stellen können.

Two explanation scenarios

Explanations are always tied to some goal or intention in order to understand something better. One asks questions either explicitly or implicitly during a conversation. The conversation partner does not even need to be another person (or computer program). Often we ask questions to ourselves, e.g., in order to comprehend what we read or how a system works. Currently, I am working with two students at two scenarios where I think explanations are helpful.

Scenario 1: Similarity measure modeling in case-based reasoning (CBR) is a complex task. In commercial settings consultants help the users of CBR tools, i.e., the to-be knowledge engineers, to learn necessary skills. The goal of explanation I pursue here is to collect questions knowledge engineers ask the consultants and transfer some of the rules of thumb CBR that consultants use into the system. First implementation results of the work will be available soon. Check the myCBR homepage.

Scenario 2: Applications being built using Nepomuk standards and components will be knowledge-based systems of high complexity. Users of such applications will need support in some places where automatisms enrich already entered knowledge. The gnowsis system already shows how complex the upcoming Nepomuked applications will become. One of its components, the so-called Rebirth Machine, already generates new concepts in the personal information model PIMO from data on your desktop (also known as lifting). For example, the Rebirth Machine generates PIMO Persons from address book entries. As there could be some “magic” involved the user might wonder where certain concepts came from (knowledge provenance) and how they were generated and/or interconnected (cognitive explanations).

Doctoral colloquium at next Nepomuk General Assembly

As many Nepomukians pursue a PhD in the project it is only logical to support them. Yesterday, at the Steering Committee (STC) meeting in Athens, Greece, I suggested to hold a doctoral colloquium where PhD students can report on their research work and discuss about achievements, problems, and goals. The PhD students will report to each other and probably also discuss their work with senior project members. As the STC supports this idea the doctoral colloquium will be part of the next General Assembly end of February next year in Paris. Of course, details have yet to be discussed.