The fact and future of semantic astronomy

Gray, N. (2008) The fact and future of semantic astronomy. In: Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVII. Astronomical Society of the Pacific, p. 742. ISBN 9781583816585

Abstract

The Semantic Web has turned from W3C vision into a set of practical engineering challenges; at the same time, the success of Web~2.0 applications has illustrated a broad variety of new ways that users (and indeed machines) can interact with data sources. Now is an excellent time to examine the many opportunities for astronomy, including semantic data access, data mining (exploiting distributed annotation and heterogeneous sources), and intelligent data dissemination and discovery. This paper presents a brief review of the technologies, illustrating it with examples of the wide range of existing Virtual Observatory semantic applications, from the elaborate and formal to the informal and lightweight. The latter tools overlap with Web-2.0 style applications, and indicate how we might adapt some of that community's more successful ideas. Throughout, the emphasis will be on how existing applications help us imagine further possibilities of the emerging field of Semantic Astronomy.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gray, Dr Norman
• Authors: Gray, N.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Publisher: Astronomical Society of the Pacific
• ISBN: 9781583816585