Ivan's Blog

I played with some more codings a few weeks ago: I turned the RDFS Closure algorithm of Herman ter Horst [1] into Python, on top of RDFLib. It generates the RDFS closure of an RDF Graph. Ie, triples that are inferred by virtue of RDFS Semantics can be then retrieved from the Graph. Combined with sparql-p, for example, it may be pretty useful… (at least I hope). I am sure there are still bugs, though

The code is a single Python file, but you can also download a distribution file containing the documentation. The latter is also available on-line.

[1] Completeness, decidability and complexity of entailment for RDF Schema and a semantic extension involving the OWL vocabulary, Herman J. ter Horst, Journal of Web Semantics, (2005) 79-115. Unfortunately, as far as I know, the paper is not available on-line. Category: /WorkRelated/SemanticWeb/RDFLib; Posted at: 15:50 UTC; Permalink

I listened to a long interview this morning on BBC World with Richard Dowden (executive director of the Royal African Society). The interview was on the problems of Sub-Saharan Africa in general. One of the issues that he raised (among many others) is the huge role the mobile has and will have on the further development of Africa. What he said, essentially (and resonates very well with what I learnt in India) was that the possibilities offered by the mobile may radically change African society though offering hitherto unknown communication means. And what is obviously an further aspect of this (though Richard Dowden did not refer to that) is that for most of the Africans the first experience of accessing the Web may be through their mobile. We may not be there yet, but we will be. Ie, to repeat what I said for India: the Web on Mobile is not some sort of a cherry on the cake for Africa as it is for us in the rich World, but it is the Web…

Unfortunately, at the time of writing this, the interview is not yet on-line on the home page of the BBC HardTalk series but I am sure it will be in a few days.

Category: /WorkRelated; Posted at: 09:57 UTC; Permalink

I spend a few days in the city of Trento, in Italy (I was invited to a Semantic Web Workshop), up in the Italian Alps. This turned out to be much more interesting than I anticipated, I must admit. This very nice small town is at the cross-roads of cultures: it is one of the few places in Italy (with Bolzano, somewhat to the north of Trento, and Trieste, on the Eastern Adriatic shores) which did not become part of the unified Italy in the 19^th century; instead, it remained part of the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg Empire until the demise of the latter in 1919. It is only at that point that these cities became part of Italy. Whereas Bolzano (ie, Süd-Tyrol) is really culturally Austrian (and this fact created quite a lot of turmoil after the second World War), Trento is Italian but with a distinct Austrian influence. This shows really well in the city, even when one has only a few days to see it. The style of the houses; the fact that they wear and sell “loden” overcoat, something so typical of the German speaking Alps; Austrian style coffee places, etc. It was very interesting and really nice. I have learnt something again…

Of course, I made some of photos; I have put a selection on this site. Enjoy…

Category: /Private/General; Posted at: 15:57 UTC; Permalink

I had the pleasure to be in Montreal for a few days, just when a post-Kyoto conference took place on Global Warming. The news I read on what was going on at the conference did not make particularly happy, with the US (and some other countries, like Australia) still opposed to any type of Kyoto process, with India and China dragging their feet to say the least, with Saudi Arabia having the guts to ask for compensation for the (insane) revenue it gains from oil… In some ways it is also very discomforting that the media do not seem to care either (in contrast to some attacks that try to present the issues of global warming as a media hysteria). Looking at Google News today, there is only one reference to a (rather good) article in the Independent. This is not Google’s fault: they simply reflect the number of news articles and the number of references to those. (To be fair to Google: if one looks at a search term on Global Warming, than there are of course more news. But they do not make it to the “top”.) I am not young any more, the effects of global warming may not affect me personally, but I am afraid for my son, for the children he might have one time, and for all the younger generation that will have to live with a terrible heritage…

There were also demonstrations in a number of cities. Including Montreal, and I was there when it went along rue St. Catherine. Sympathetic demo although, in fact, not that terribly big. But there were some nice banner, you can look at some pictures I took of them.

Category: /Private/General; Posted at: 15:26 UTC; Permalink

As I put it in another note, I spend a few days in India. An interesting phenomenon is the usage of mobile phones for accessing the Web. The fact is that the traditional infrastructure (electric, phone lines, etc) is in a pretty bad shape. As a consequence, a mobile phone may be the only way for people to communicate and, hence, to access the Web. There are villages in India, we heard, who buy a shared mobile phone line used by the whole community. Clearly, this is not an Indian phenomenon, I heard similar stories from South Africa, Brazil, of even my home country, Hungary. It is just that the numbers in India are higher…

This turns our perception upside down, in fact. We in the “West” (whatever that means) consider the laptop or the desk top as the primary access to the Web; the “Mobile Web” is a cherry on the cake rather than a real necessity. In India and elsewhere, it is just about the opposite! Hey guys, think about W3C’s Mobile Web Initiative: it may be of a primary importance for people across the World…

Category: /WorkRelated; Posted at: 01:37 UTC; Permalink

I spent a few days in India lately on the opening of the W3C Indian Office. Some amazing numbers we heard there: only 5% of the population speaks English properly, to understand Web sites, for example. The rest of the population is “spread” over 22 languages using 9 different scripts. Some languages practically do not have a Web presence. And we are talking of a population of about 1 billion. Speaking about the importance of I18N on the Web… Category: /WorkRelated/I18N; Posted at: 01:22 UTC; Permalink