=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1224/paper1
|storemode=property
|title=The Organiser - A Semantic Desktop Agent based on NEPOMUK
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1224/paper1.pdf
|volume=Vol-1224
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/i-semantics/FaubelE14
}}
==The Organiser - A Semantic Desktop Agent based on NEPOMUK==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1224/paper1.pdf
The Organiser - A Semantic Desktop Agent
based on NEPOMUK
Sebastian Faubel and Moritz Eberl
Semiodesk GbR, D-86159 Augsburg, Germany
{sebastian, moritz}@semiodesk.com
Abstract. In this paper we introduce our NEPOMUK-based Semantic
Desktop for the Windows platform. It uniquely features an integrative
user interface concept which allows a user to focus on personal infor-
mation management while relying on the Property Projection agent for
semi-automated file management.
Keywords: Semantic Desktop, Personal Information Management
1 Introduction
In recent years, mobile cloud computing [5] has created a paradigm shift in the
use of electronic devices. It is now common for people to consume and produce
content using multiple devices, online platforms and communication channels.
However, productive and collaborative work is becoming increasingly fragmented
across different mobile platforms, social networks and collaboration platforms [1].
Different devices and applications often come with their separate methods
of organizing and storing information. Thus, considerable effort has to be made
to represent a single piece of information in multiple systems. In our case, the
ISWC 2014 conference is being represented in five different entities: a calendar
event, a shared folder in the hierarchical file system, a notes list, a bookmarks
folder and a task list.
There is a need for active support by computers in the creation and filtering
process of personal and group information. It has to provide a consolidated view
on data and blend the boundaries between workstations, mobile devices and web
services. Semantic Web technologies, specifically the Semantic Desktop [6], offer
a suitable platform for this purpose.
2 Our Solution
To solve this problem we have created the Organiser 1 , a Semantic Desktop agent
based on the NEPOMUK ontologies [4]. It integrates personal information such
as contacts, events and notes from cloud services with the local file system and
thus, provides a consolidated view.
1
Demo video: http://www.semiodesk.com/media/2014/0714-organiser-intro
2 Faubel & Eberl
Fig. 1. Upcoming events are easily accessible from the Organiser’s dashboard.
The application’s dashboard is shown in figure 1. It serves as an entry point
into exploring resources and provides quick access to resource collections (i.e.
documents, pictures, events, etc.) and the local file system. Most prominently,
it features an activity control (agenda and journal) which allows a user to plan
into the future. Because future activities also serve as containers for files and
related information, the dashboard provides quick access to all resources which
are relevant to the user at a certain time.
Moreover, all resources can act as containers for relevant files and informa-
tion. The displayed relations in the resource view can be hyperlinks to other
resources, which enables browsing for interesting files and information. In order
to assist a user in adding reasonable relations to a newly created resource, the
Organiser actively analyzes the resource’s properties and provides suggestions;
such as to relate a collection of pictures to an event if they were taken at the
time of the event. A user may accept or decline those suggestions.
Another feature of the resource view is, that it does not only consolidate
already existing relations, but it also offers the ability to create new content.
When adding new files, such as office documents, a file system path is being
generated from the metadata of the file and the context of the resource it was
created in.
Posters & Demos Track @ SEMANTiCS2014 3
2.1 File System Abstraction using Property Projection
The hierarchical file system is the de facto standard for organizing and sharing
files in a productive computing environment. In order to support a soft transition
away from the static file system as a primary means of organizing and browsing
files, we have developed the Property Projection method: A Semantic Web agent
that is capable of learning how resource metadata is being projected into the
path component of a URI, either by analyzing existing file systems or through
interactive user input (figure 2).
Fig. 2. Training the PropertyProjection agent interactively.
Once a projection schema has been learned, the agent can suggest storage
locations for files being created in the context of a resource. This allows a user to
shift from working with the static file system folders to working with resources
such as contacts, events, notes or tasks that have temporal relevance to his or
her activities.
The agent can formalize the schematic generation of URIs using the Property
Projection Ontology. Based on the Path Projection Ontology [3], the revised
ontology provides a vocabulary for the following features:
– Generating readable URIs from metadata (conforming to RFC 2396 [2])
– Generating names and titles for resources from metadata
URI schemes can be shared with other compatible agents on a global scale. This
can improve overall team productivity, since a common file organization schema
removes the burden to choose a storage location, and helps co-workers spend
less time on looking for misfiled information.
2.2 Implementation
The Organiser is implemented using Trinity, our Semantic Web application de-
velopment platform for .NET/Mono. It features a Semantic Object Mapping
4 Faubel & Eberl
mechanism that allows to define an object oriented abstraction layer on top of a
RDF triple store. This layer promotes the use of common development methods,
proven application design patterns, and significantly increases the compatibility
to existing APIs.
Although the Organiser’s user interface is currently implemented using WPF,
the consequent use of the MVVM design pattern allows for reimplementation
using other technologies such as HTML and JavaScript. The interface is laid out
in such a way, that it can be used on touch screens and may be scaled down to
the resolution of current smartphones.
Metadata from the file system and cloud services is gathered in the back-
ground by Ubiquity, a metadata extraction and synchronisation service. All
changes to the extracted resources made in the Organiser are mirrored back
to the metadata of the respective resource.
3 Conclusions / Future Work
The Organiser concept was refined over multiple iterations and the software is
nearing completion. Only final usability tests and some connectivity and format
extensions are missing.
A focus in the future is to implement the Organiser for mobile devices like
Tablets and Smartphones. Because they accompany the user most of the time,
we want them to act as a conduit to bring the seemingly virtual planning and
organisation of the desktop into the everyday world of the user. Achieving a
convergence of the user’s data on mobile devices and the Desktop PC can lead
to device independent productivity.
References
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MIT, 1998.
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