IFI7101: Session 7

[8.9] Session 7 – Metadata, ontologies and folksonomies

Lecture and seminar by David Lamas

Driving question:

How do we go about pushing interactive media closer to the Semantic Web and the Internet of Things concepts?

Metadata

The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts (types). Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at design time the application contains no data. In this case the correct description would be "data about the containers of data". Descriptive metadata, on the other hand, is about individual instances of application data, the data content. In this case, a useful description would be "data about data contents" or "content about content" thus metacontent.

Metadata (metacontent) is traditionally found in the card catalogs of libraries. As information has become increasingly digital, metadata is also used to describe digital data using metadata standards specific to a particular discipline. By describing the contents and context of data files, the quality of the original data/files is greatly increased.

For example:

1. A webpage may include metadata specifying what language it's written in, what tools were used to create it, and where to go for more on the subject, allowing browsers to automatically improve the experience of users.
2. A digital image may include metadata that describes how large the picture is, the color depth, the image resolution, when the image was created, and other data. Metadata may be written into a digital photo file that will identify who owns it, copyright and contact information, what camera created the file, along with exposure information and descriptive information such as keywords about the photo, making the file searchable on the computer and/or the Internet. Some metadata is written by the camera and some is input by the photographer and/or software after downloading to a computer.

Metadata on the Internet

The HTML format used to define web pages allows for the inclusion of a variety of types of metadata, from basic descriptive text, dates and keywords to further advanced metadata schemes such as the Dublin Core, e-GMS, and AGLS standards. Pages can also be geotagged with coordinates. Metadata may be included in the page's header or in a separate file. Microformats allow metadata to be added to on-page data in a way that users do not see, but computers can readily access.

Interestingly, many search engines are cautious about using metadata in their ranking algorithms due to exploitation of metadata and the practice of search engine optimization, SEO, to improve rankings. See Meta element article for further discussion.

Ontology

In computer science and information science, an ontology formally represents knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain, and the relationships between those concepts. It can be used to reason about the entities within that domain, and may be used to describe the domain.

Ontologies are the structural frameworks for organizing information and are used in artificial intelligence, the Semantic Web, systems engineering, software engineering, biomedical informatics, library science, enterprise bookmarking, and information architecture as a form of knowledge representation about the world or some part of it.

Examples of applications using ontology engines

SAPPHIRE or Situational Awareness and Preparedness for Public Health Incidences and Reasoning Engines is a semantics-based health information system capable of tracking and evaluating situations and occurrences that may affect public health.

Folksonomy

A folksonomy is a system of classification derived from the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content; this practice is also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging.

Folksonomies became popular on the Web around 2004 as part of social software applications such as social bookmarking and photograph annotation. Tagging, which is one of the defining characteristics of Web 2.0 services, allows users to collectively classify and find information. Some websites include tag clouds as a way to visualize tags in a folksonomy.

A good example of a social website that utilizes folksonomy is 43 Things, a social networking website that is built on the principles of tagging, rather than creating explicit interpersonal links (as seen in Friendster and Orkut). Users create accounts and then list a number of goals or hopes; these goals are parsed by a lexer and connected to other people's goals that are constructed with similar words or ideas.

The Semantic Web

The Semantic Web is a "man-made woven web of data" that facilitates machines to understand the semantics, or meaning, of information on the World Wide Web. The concept of Semantic Web applies methods beyond linear presentation of information (Web 1.0) and multi-linear presentation of information (Web 2.0) to make use of hyper-structures leading to entities of hypertext.

It extends the network of hyperlinked human-readable web pages by inserting machine-readable metadata about pages and how they are related to each other, enabling automated agents to access the Web more intelligently and perform tasks on behalf of users. The term was coined by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium ("W3C"), which oversees the development of proposed Semantic Web standards. He defines the Semantic Web as "a web of data that can be processed directly and indirectly by machines."

"Semantic Web" is sometimes used as a synonym for "Web 3.0", though each term's definition may vary depending on whom you ask. Many believe that Web 3.0 is the "next big thing"[citation needed] but there only lies speculation as to just what that might be. It will be an improvement in the respect that it will still contain Web 2.0 properties while continuing to add to its ever expanding lexicon and library of applications.





The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things refers to uniquely identifiable objects (Things) and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure. The concept of the Internet of Things has become popular through the Auto-ID Center. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is often seen as a prerequisite for the Internet of Things. If all objects of daily life were equipped with radio tags, they could be identified and inventoried by computers. However, unique identification of things may be achieved through other means such as barcodes or 2D-codes as well.

Although the idea is simple, its application is difficult. If all objects in the world were equipped with miniscule identifying devices, daily life on our planet could undergo a transformation. Such a system could greatly reduce the chances of a company running out of stock or wasting products, as all involved parties would know exactly which products are required and consumed. Mislaid items and physical theft would be affected by the fact that the location of an item would be known at all times.

References:

1. Metadata - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2. Ontology (information science) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
3. Folksonomy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
4. Semantic Web - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
5. Internet of Things - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Concept map:

IFI7101: Session 6

[7.9] Session 6 – Social interaction in new media communities

Lecture and seminar by Kai Pata

Question to answer:

How does a community serve as a "cultural interface" to mediate communication with computers?

Concept map:

IFI7101: Session 5

[7.9] Session 5 – New media concept: culture and technology aspects

Lecture and seminar by Kai Pata

A lecture based on the history and trends in interpreting what is new media and how it influences the society, culture and economy.

Questions to answer:

1. What characterizes new media?
2. New media – a technology or culture?

Concept map:

IFI7101: Session 4

[6.9] Session 4 (guided self-study) – Humans and Technology

Lecture and seminar by David Lamas

Driving questions:

1. Where do we draw the line between man and machine?
2. Can we differentiate between an "enhanced" human (for instance, a person with an artificial hand or a heart pacer) and a cyborg?
3. What, if any, are the legal, moral, ethical and political differences between humans and cyborgs?
4. Will technology replace biology?

Cyborg

A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial (e.g. electronic, mechanical or robotic) parts. Generally, the term "cyborg" is used to refer to a human with bionic, or robotic, implants.



Technological singularity

Technological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than human intelligence through technological means. Since the capabilities of such an intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of technological singularity is seen as an intellectual event horizon, beyond which the future becomes difficult to understand or predict. The term was coined by science fiction writer Vernor Vinge, who argues that artificial intelligence, human biological enhancement or brain-computer interfaces could be possible causes for the singularity.

Proponents of the singularity typically anticipate such an event to precede an "intelligence explosion", wherein superintelligences design successive generations of increasingly powerful minds. The concept is popularized by futurists like Ray Kurzweil and widely expected by proponents to occur in the early to mid twenty-first century.

Tecnological singularity by Vernor Vinge

Vinge argues that the creation of superhuman artificial intelligence will mark the point at which "the human era will be ended," such that no current models of reality are sufficient to predict beyond it.

"Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended," he says.

So, is becoming cyborgs part of our collective future?

Here are some of my thoughts...

Listening to and watching the videos of Kevin Warwick and his human experiments, I have no question or doubt that these experiments to merge men and computers will only grow and become more common in the future. We are depending on the technology more than we want to or are ready to admit. There are already so many technical implants in human bodies that help to cope with the shortfall of health - problems that only biology cannot fix. It is after all our natural instinct to do whatever it takes to survive. We have already made computers portable and as small as possible for comfortable use. Implanting them inside us is only one step further. And there are many of us willing to experiment with whatever new techology has to offer.

Cyborgs are already part of us, whether we call them anyone who use technology to repair or overcome their physical and mental constraints (including artificial limbs and hands as well as a device for helping colour-blind people to "hear" in colour) or more strictly those who experiment with technology to increase or enhance normal capabilities. The question is when we arrive to the point at which they become a majority. And does that mark the end of human era? Or is it only natural that we extend the definitions of what is human and what is normal as we extend ourselves?

It's also quite evident that to overcome the tecnologigal singularity, or in other words the intellectual event horizon, we need to become something more than human in today's sense, we need to extend ourselves. Perhaps it works like the natural selection where only those with advanced capabilities and ability to adjust will survive. And I must admit, my mind is at the point beyond which this topic becomes difficult for me to understand or predict. It sounds logical that to overcome the barrier, we need to create successive generations of increasingly powerful minds, but where do we draw the line between man and machine?

British mathematician Irving John Good has said, already back in 1965: "Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an "intelligence explosion," and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make."

Sounds a bit frightening to me... But who am I? A human with an unaided human mind.

... and the concept map to conclude it.

IFI7101: Session 3

[6.9] Session 3 – Interaction Styles

Lecture and seminar by David Lamas

Driving questions:

1) How do you see the evolution of interacting with and through interactive media? Are natural user interfaces the future or part of the future? Are the previous interaction styles dead or condemned?

2) Should mobile user interfaces be regarded as a completely new interaction style? If so, what would their distinctive characteristics be?

Concept map:

IFI7101: Session 2

[5.9] Session 2 – Interactive Media

Lecture and seminar by David Lamas

Driving questions:

1) Is interactive media a subset of new media?

Interactivity can be considered a central concept in understanding new media, but different media forms possess different degrees of interactivity, and some forms of digitized and converged media are not in fact interactive at all. Tony Feldman considers digital satellite television as an example of a new media technology that uses digital compression to dramatically increase the number of television channels that can be delivered, and which changes the nature of what can be offered through the service, but does not transform the experience of television from the user's point of view, and thus lacks a more fully interactive dimension. It remains the case that interactivity is not an inherent characteristic of all new media technologies, unlike digitization and convergence.

2) Do we drive interactive media or does it drive us?

While some perspectives suggests that the technology drives – and therefore is a determining factor – in the process of globalization, arguments involving technological determinism are generally frowned upon by mainstream media studies. Instead academics focus on the multiplicity of processes by which technology is funded, researched and produced, forming a feedback loop when the technologies are used and often transformed by their users, which then feeds into the process of guiding their future development.

Commentators such as Castells espouse a "soft determinism" whereby they contend that "Technology does not determine society. Nor does society script the course of technological change, since many factors, including individual inventiveness and entrpreneurialism, intervene in the process of scientific discovery, technical innovation and social applications, so the final outcome depends on a complex pattern of interaction. Indeed the dilemma of technological determinism is probably a false problem, since technology is society and society cannot be understood without its technological tools." This, however, is still distinct from stating that societal changes are instigated by technological development, which recalls the theses of Marshall McLuhan.

Manovich and Castells have argued that whereas mass media "corresponded to the logic of industrial mass society, which values conformity over individuality," new media follows the logic of the postindustrial or globalized society whereby "every citizen can construct her own custom lifestyle and select her ideology from a large number of choices. Rather than pushing the same objects to a mass audience, marketing now tries to target each individual separately."

Media determinism, a subset of technological determinism, is a philosophical and sociological position which posits the power of the media to impact society. As a theory of change, it is seen as a cause and effect relationship. New media technologies bring about change in society. Much like the "magic bullet" theories of mass communication, media determinism provides a somewhat simplistic explanation for very complicated scenarios. Cause and effect relationships are reduced to their most basic premise, and explained as such. Techno-centrist theories make everything explainable in light of the media's relation to technological developments. Two leading media determinists are the Canadian scholars Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan.

3) How is interactive media facilitated and what does it facilitate?

New media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content. Another important promise of new media is the "democratization" of the creation, publishing, distribution and consumption of media content.

Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, is an example, combining Internet accessible digital text, images and video with web-links, creative participation of contributors, interactive feedback of users and formation of a participant community of editors and donors for the benefit of non-community readers. Facebook is an example on the social media model, in which most users are also participants.

The rise of new media has increased communication between people all over the world and the Internet. It has allowed people to express themselves through blogs, websites, pictures, and other user-generated media.

References:

1. New media - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2. Technological determinism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Concept map:

NOP

http://www.nop.ee/

Came across (and instantly fell in love with) this cute little grocery shop / cafe this summer with a fun interactive website.

And what's best - it's close to both work and uni. Open every day from 8 A.M. till 8 P.M. in Kadriorg, Köleri 1.