-The SIOC project is aimed at expressing information about the structure and content of online community sites and at enabling interoperability on the Social Web using Semantic Web technologies. In this paper we briefly describe the SIOC project, introduce the SIOC Core ontology and its modules, and discuss some SIOC-based applications in terms of human and agent communication.
While new paradigms, tools and web services introduced
by the Social Web (such as blogs, wikis, tagging practices)
are now widely accepted in both public and scientific
communities, these tools generally act as independent data silos;
hence, interoperability between applications is a complex
issue. The SIOC project1 aims at solving this by providing
a comprehensive data model (as well as related tools and
applications) based on Semantic Web technologies [
set of modules, focusing on the ease of integration of SIOC in existing applications by Web developers. With an emphasis on standard Semantic Web technologies since its beginning, the whole ontology has been designed using RDF(S)/OWL.
A. SIOC Core Ontology
Main classes and properties in the SIOC ontology2 are shown in Figure 1. While relatively small and simple, this model is yet powerful enough to represent the content produced and exchanged within online communities. For instance, a Forum represents a space in which discussion happen (not necessarily a bulletin board, in spite of its name, but for example as a weblog), and contains different Posts, written
by Users. The following example then describes that Alice has created a post in a particular forum (i.e. an area of discussion) and that Bob replied to it — as follows (using the N3 notation - prefixes omitted). In order to represent more abstract containers (such as a personal information space), more general Container and Space classes can be used. :post a sioc:Post ; sioc:has_creator :alice ; sioc:has_container :forum ; sioc:has_reply :reply . :forum a sioc:Forum . :reply a sioc:Post ;
sioc:has_creator :bob . :alice a sioc:User . :bob a sioc:User .
Fig. 1. Main classes and properties in the SIOC ontology.
instance properties to represent previous and next versions of an item, which can be used when representing Wikis.
related to the Agent class (from the FOAF3 — Friend Of
consequently associated with both software agents and human users. Hence, SIOC can be used to represent communication between bots on the Social Web (e.g. on IRC using the subClassOf !"#$%&'()*$%'+$,)+'-such as blog+.'/$0$+' %1*'23&&),$1'2"%4*+5'%4)'6&%7$18'%1' $(6"4,%1, 4"&)'$1'0))6$18'6)"6&)'
description of commu#n"it(ie(s 3o1f$#a%g,$e"n1t's"1i'n,:te)r'a;c)ti2n<'g=>t)o4g7e'*th%7e'r on data being indexed by SearchMonkey3!to1#i$m+'p%1ro'%v4e,$#p&)re'"s4e'n(ta)t+i+o%n8)' Container Forum User
of seasrubcClhassOfresults) and by various be6s"t+,p)r*a'c2t7i'c%e'sT+d)o4'c,"u'm%'eOn"4ts3(<' &%48)'%a(n"o3th1e,+r'"9'$19"4(%,$"1'%F4)O'AF a nhads_containedrescri bsubiCnlasgsOf data phaus_cbonltaiinserhing social websites. Moreover, link between has_meombner the SemU"an+,t+ic'(W%7e'b2)s',u:c4h)%a*s)*[<5].
2)$18'#4)%,)*'27'3+)4+'"9',:)+)'+$,)+< SIOC is that the social networking aspect can be represented
?"/)>)4.'currently these +$,)+'%4)' using FOAF (by foaf+$:(k$&%4',"'$+&%1*+'/:S)I4O)'%&&',:)' be used to
nows), while C can represent aspects of re$1la,)ti4o%n#,s$h"i1p':s%i6n6s)id1e+'/t h$,e:',c:o)m'+m$,)u'n%1it*y', e.g. a user following anoththeerre( oisnlitmtlei cinrtoebrlilnokginggin/g$,:s'e4r)v&)ic>e%s1),'can be
#"1>)4+%,$"1+'%1*'#"1,)1, )&+)/:)4)<' expressed by the sioc:follows property.
@:)4)'$+'%'1))*',"'$1,)4&$10'+"#$%&' SIOC data from various sources in an6"in+,t+e'g/r:at$#e:d'4w)6a&y7.',"',:)(< B. SIOC Modules ()*$%'#"1>)4+%,$"1+'%1*'%'1))*'9"4'
$19"4(%,$"1')A#:%18)'9"4(%,',:%,'
Several SIOC mod%u&l&e"s/+h',a"v'e4)6b4e)e+n)1,d'%e&fi&'n$(ed6"t4o,%1e,x'tend the B3(780,31 $()),0'(31 $(&18-,31 available terms and to *a)v,o%i$&d+'m"9a'+k3i#n:g'#t"h1e>)S4I+O%,C$"1C+o< re Ontology
/:$#:'U"+,+'"4')1,4$)+'%4)'(%*)< forminhgas_reaply food- ctophicain (Figure 2) that includes data exporters for Web 2.0 platforms and services (e6.-g#2. D$+'r%u1p'a"l11&1$1,)W'#o"r(dP(r3e1s$s,,7'"4'
Topic +),'"9'#"((31$,$)+<
+,17.28$& 64"6)4,7'#"11)#,+' S%a$1n'#d&%++v)i+s'%u1*a'l6i4z"a6)t4i,o$)n+'$1a',:p)p'!lEiFcDa'Fti1o,"n&"s8,7 allowUi"n+g,+',"'",:)t4o'#"(()1m,+e'"4' users consu Add-Ons and Fns for Exporting SIOC from Existing Apps SIOC from SemiStructured Data or Queryable APIs Applications with Native Storage of
SIOC Data Bypassing Apps by Directly Mapping RDBMS to SIOC RDF Browsers and Other Custom SIOC Explorers SIOC Detectors and Clipping
Applications Reuse and Import for Data Portability
Requirements Graphical Viz of Derived SIOC
Networks SIOC Crawlers and Aggregate Storage of Data
Indexers of SIOC Instances w/o Full Storage @:)'!EFD'%66&$#%,$"1'9""*'#:%$1 too complex and unreadable. SIOC has 4 ontology modules: Access, Argumentatio#n,8S3e%@rvIicIe3s(a.n0d4Types5.
the Access moduBle dCe)fi>)n&e"s6's%i1m'!p"le#!c$!la%s&se"s9',a)n4d(+p'r9o"4p'erties regarding the notion4s)o6f4)R+)o1le,$1a8n'd4$#P:e'r*m%,i%s's9i4o"n(t',o:r)e' present !"#$%&';)2 access rights and permissions in online communities websites; B D4)%,)'%''!!()*+,-" "9'%66&$#%,$"1+' 9"4'64"*3#$18.'#"&&)#,$18'%1*' the Argument mod#u"l1e+3d(e$fi1n8e'!sEFcDl'a*s%s,e%s and properties to represent simpBle Ca$r+g+u)(m$e1n%t,a)ti-v"e'!d./isc,u#-s!s"io)%n2s"3in,' online communities websit!eEsF. D'>$%'6%6)4+.',3,"4$%&+. the Services modul*e"#d3e(fi)n1e,s%,c$"la1s'%s1e*s')aAn%d(6p&r)o+perties to reprsent Web services related to online communities (e.g. API endpoint and return format, etc.); the Types modul!e"d#e$fin%#es&a'(dv)(an*c+ed content-types to be used when definiSnIgOCusoenrto-gloegnyeirsaatendopceonndtaetnatfofrrmomat foornlinecommunities. Fodresincrsibtainngcest,ruicttuirnecalnuddceosntcelnatsosfessocsiaulch as media sites in RDF. sioct:BlogPostor sioct:Wiki that respectively subclass the sioScI:OPCofoslltowansdbessitporacc:ticFeosrouftmheclasses from
Semantic Web by reusing existing the Core Ontologoyn;tologies: Dublin Core, FOAF, SKOS.
module defining alignSmIOeCntCsorbeeotnwtoeleongy SsiImOpCle aannddeatshyetoSWAN
— Semantic Web AppulnicdaetrisotannsdiwnhNileeeunrsoumrinegdiecxitneensibilitoyn.tology
—
[
Ontology published in July 2007. tive discussions in online scientific communities.
III. STATUS AND UPDATE OF SIOC 4http://irc.sioc-project.org/about.html
here as PTSW indexes only a part of available RDF data.
tween communities on the Social Web, one way to evaluate !"#$%&'()*+'%, -++./00)*12,.R31E4F'E2R+5E1N36C0ES its success is to consider its uptake on the Web. To illustrate the amount of SIOC data on the Web, according to the
were 132’475 URIs which contain data described using the
alongside with FOAF. Hence, the use of SIOC is suggested by the Yahoo! SearchMonkey developer documentation9 (SIOC
Fig. 2. The SIOC food-chain
>1.*,%.&7%@II)/0.'/(&1 "&2(3-.'/(&%.6(8'%!"#$
!EFD'"1,"&"87'$+'4%10)*I'VV,.:'C%1O*N' CLUSI@O3N,"4$%&+'%,';;;'GHHI'%1*'!)(@)#:'
!EFD'@76)+'("*3&)'L K,:'$1'KHH' GHHI'-36#"($185'#"19)4)1#)+<
"1,I"n&"t8h$i)s+'p%,a'pU@er!,;w<' Se"b4r)i'e,:fl%y1'introduc!e"d#$%&'C%S,%I'O"1C',:p)r';oj)e2c't-,!Ci"ts;'GHHI5'
the
QgHoHal',s:"an3d+%1m*e'!aEnFsDa'*s"w#3e(ll)a1s,+'uptake a/n"d40s+e:r"v6i'c%e,'sE!o;vDe'GrvHiHeIw'-.36In#"($185<
$1*)A)*'27'U@!;.'%4"31*'
particular, in the context of multi-aJgGeKn't!EFsyDsLt4e)m&%,s)*a'6n3d2&o$#n%l,i$n"1e+'94"('
VR',:"3+%1*':$,+'"1'!/""8&)<
communities, an already active fieldCs =fMoE'r$1s',e:v)e'Nr"a3l41y%e&a'"rs9';if)2w'e
!EFD'C)>)&"6)4+'&$+,W'GHH'()(2)4+' !)(%1,$#+.'E==='E1,)&&$8)1,'!7+,)(+.'
%1*'XHH'6f"o+r,+instance [
• YGH'%66&$#%,$"1+'9"4'!"#$%&'() @0G&(K),7*,-,&'1
!EFD'*%,%'94"('2&"8+.'9"43(+.' @:$+'/"40':%+'2))1'931*)*'27' (%T$&$h1e8'w&$+o,r+k'%p1r*e's;e)n2te'Gd<Hi'n+$t,h)i+s paper h!a#s$)b1e#e)n'Of"u3n1d*e%d,$"in1'pE4a)r&t%1b*y'31*)4' •S!cEiFenDc'ZeUFE+o'9u"n4'dUa?tiUo.'nU)I4r&e.'lNa%n>d%.'under Gr8a4n%t1N,'1o3.(SF2)I/40'!8O/ECPHEG/PID13=Q8P0EQRQ. M(L3´ı2o7n'"-21')M.%$&+