The Gnowsis Semantic Desktop for Information Integration

The Gnowsis Semantic Desktop for Information Integration
Leo Sauermann
Proceedings of the IOA 2005 Workshop at the WM

Abstract:

To integrate office appliances, there are different standards, consisting of data formats and communication protocols. The WWW and Semantic Web standards are already designed for worldwide integration and can be transferred to office integration.We present our vision of the Semantic Desktop – a Semantic Web enhanced desktop environment. Central is the idea of taking know-how from the Semantic Web to tackle personal information management. The architecture is based on a Semantic Web Server running as Desktop service. Existing desktop applications (email client, browser, office applications) are integrated. The semantic glue between them is expressed with ontologies. This architecture will enable us to create tools for information management faster and cheaper. Based on the local Semantic Desktop Servers, teams of knowledge workers can set up peer-to-peer connections. Distributed Organisational Memories can be based on Semantic Desktops. The gnowsis framework is an open source project led by the DFKI that realizes parts of this vision. Gnowsis was used to test our ideas and allow others to experiment.