Social Networking on the Semantic Web

Tim Finin; Li Ding; Lina Zhou; Anupam Joshi

The Learning Organization

Social Networking on the Semantic Web

Tim Finin, Li Ding, Lina Zhou, and Anupam Joshi

December 31, 2005

The Semantic Web promised to enable a new generation of intelligent applications by providing programs and software agents with rich and effective ways to share information and knowledge. The Semantic Web allows people and groups to define sharable ontologies - collections of classes, properties, and objects - with well-defined and unambiguous meaning. These ontologies permit computer programs to read, publish, and exchange information and knowledge, enhancing interoperability, cooperation, and service-oriented architectures. While we are early in the development and exploration of the Semantic Web, there is evidence that the concepts and technologies are being adopted and used. One of the most widely used current ontologies is FOAF, or "Friend of a Friend". The FOAF ontology specifies a vocabulary that can be used to define, exchange, and search for social information -- information describing people, their attributes, and their relationships with others. We will briefly review the concepts underlying social networks and the Semantic Web, and then describe how they are embodied in FOAF and are being used today on the Semantic Web.