A few users have been in touch and asked whether we are still alive here at SchemaWeb or is it abandoned and drifting through cyberspace like a digital Marie Celeste. Well I can report that Derek and I are well with hands firmly on the tiller. I'm afraid that we have just been too busy of late to inflict our bloggy ramblings on our valued users who I am sure are more interested in the cargo we have on board.

Actually I must confess that we have spent most of our leisure time this glorious summer exploring some of the wilder bits of North Wales. We have developed a fascination with prehistoric remains and the undisturbed uplands up here are packed full of them.

This incredible monument called Maen y Bardd was erected by a team of ancestors at least 4000 years ago in a sublime landscape overlooking the Conwy valley. Words or photos cannot begin to describe this special place. A great picnic spot too!

So what has tickled the SchemaWeb fancy over the last few months?

We like SPARQL and are looking forward to W3C Recommendation. This SQL style language for querying RDF data stores is a great step forward and will make implementation of semantic web applications much easier in the future. Derek tells me he has given up using the old fashioned graph traversal parsers with their GetStatements(subj, pred) type API calls. Too low level and too much work he complains. Why write three hundred lines of code when you can write one using a SPARQL query he says and as I have a 2p per line of code piecework arrangement with Derek I tend to agree.

We have been playing with early versions of SPARQL using John Barstow's Windows binaries for the Redland RDF toolkit with the C# wrapper and are impressed. John interrupted his busy career in music a few months ago to sort out the download and go situation for Windows at the Redland project. Sterling work John, you are a hero... many thanks.

And of course congrats to Redland's dad Dave Beckett who is off to Yahoo! I am sure that marketing at the big Y is even now working on the makeover/relaunch. "Yahland! The semantic web at your fingertips" maybe...

On the community front it was nice to see two A list ontologists from either side of the Atlantic meeting up in Buenos Aires recently. Leo (left) (author of the naughty Kissology schema) and Leandro (right) (the classic Speaks, Reads and Writes) are top semweb practitioners in Germany and Argentina respectively.

And in their spare time the coolest looking guys in semspace. What do you think girls?

It is exactly one year since SchemaWeb was born and unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. We are pleased to report that baby is doing fine and has grown to almost three times her birth size.

Like all proud parents, Derek (my developer) and I will be taking a short break from our relentless monitoring of semspace and cracking open a few bottles of (ginger) beer to celebrate this special day.

Many thanks to all SchemaWeb contributors and users for your interest, feedback and support over the last year. Special thanks to John McHugh and the team at Qmediastream who have provided excellent hosting.

And if by chance you have a new RDF schema or OWL ontology lurking somewhere on your hard disk then all we can say is... bring it on - make a one year old happy!

Many great photos from the historic 1st FOAF Workshop are now published and perusable online.

This photo of Chief FOAFster Dan Brickley however has caused Derek and I some slight concern. We can only think of only three explanations.

1. Somebody shrunk Dan.

2. There has been an almighty cockup at the printers with a specification misunderstanding comparable to the Spinal Tap 'Stonehenge' fiasco.

3. Just a business card specially designed to fit Dan's wallet!

[ Dan photo by Libby (slightly modified) ]

Bob DuCharme, whose excellent XSLT column for XML.com has been essential reading at SchemaWeb for many years, has grabbed a piece of semspace and launched rdfdata.org as a portal for direct access to large amounts of the golden stuff.

Bob, pictured above chilling with a Theremin, is also encouraging content producers to provide an RSS interface for all their content and not just the latest 10 or so offerings. Hear hear, after all HTML is so last year!

A request at the recent FOAF Workshop at Galway was for a guide to vocabularies available for use with personal profile documents expressed in FOAF. Until such a definitive list has been prepared and published, SchemaWeb may provide some pointers. The query page at SchemaWeb now opens with an example query which returns all properties that declare foaf:Person as the domain.

At present these properties belong to the following schemas:
Bio
Speaks, Reads and Writes
trust
Reading List Schema
Relationship
Pet Profile Ontology
Psychometric Profile Vocabulary
Trust Ontology
visit
Kissology
Uranai

Of course this is not the complete picture as this is only a list of schemas that explicitly declare a property / domain linkage to foaf:Person. Others that spring to mind are:
Geo
vCard
SWAP Personal Information Markup
Airport Ontology
Vegetarian Ontology
Blogger Code
Who's Who Description Vocabulary
MeNow
Music Vocabulary
Quaffing

Most of the above are used in the following FOAF files:
http://kasei.us/about/foaf.xrdf
http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=network&op=foafrdf&uid=1
http://xml.mfd-consult.dk/foaf/morten.rdf
http://xml.mfd-consult.dk/foaf/morten-history.rdf
http://dannyayers.com/misc/foaf/foaf.rdf

Are you just getting into the Semantic Web and want to take a quick shortcut to that penny dropping moment? Derek and I think you can do no better than check out the 'Business Model for the Semantic Web' by Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

Published in 2001, this beautifully constructed piece of fourteen paragraphs explains not only why XML over HTTP has revolutionised computer networking and systems interop but also defines this next great challenge in a way that even your (slightly webby) granny would understand.

If this produces a slight tingle then we recommend moving on to the 'Semantic Web Road Map' from 1998. This only shows its age in that all the alluded to RDF core specs (along with the mighty OWL) are now done and dusted and ready to rock.

And if by chance the tingle turns to an itch then I'm afraid the only cure is to visit the definitive RDF resource guide, pick up some tools (a parser and maybe a triples data store) and go do it.

Top semster Leo Sauermann, hot foot from FOAF Camp, has published the Kissology schema. This risqué masterpiece is already the talk of semspace and some very interesting instance data is eagerly anticipated by all.

Snapped at the camp, we see Leo (right) and Dan Brickley, pater of the popular person vocabulary, no doubt putting the finishing touches to this new FOAF extension.

A glittering selection of tee-shirts can be seen throughout the great pics from the camp. Dan and Leo above are modelling the FOAF Camp shirt and below we have Morten (right) and Dave, both looking rather dapper - Dave in the classic SWAD Europe and Morten in a foafnaut limited edition. Are they compiling the next Redland release or shopping on-line for some 'cool' threads? Who knows?

Word is that a World and Olympic record for beer per lines of code was set at FOAF Camp with a staggering 17.76 litres / 1000 lines. A performance we are sure that participants at the FOAF Workshop in Galway next week will be determined to beat.

[ Photos by Jip ]

The pages are up for the semweb event of the year, FOAF Galway to be held in Galway, Ireland on 2004-09-01 and 2004-09-02.

Local Organiser John Breslin kindly left a link with SchemaWeb to the Official FOAF Galway Site which contains all location, travel and accommodation info and will publish the programme when available. Submissions for full papers are due by 2004-07-18 and position papers and demos by 2004-07-22.

This complements the workshop committee's page.

John's own home page carries this rather tasteful webby icon:

This and that tee-shirt that Leo was seen modelling recently must be the RDF fashion accessories of 2004.

John's home page also leads nicely the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) who are co-sponsoring FOAF Galway with SWAD-Europe. Lots of good stuff going on at DERI who have two teams based at Innsbruck and Galway.

Derek and I were particularly taken with Web Service Agents, part of the Lion Project, which proposes and intends to implement a peer to peer architecture of workstation based agents. These will use semantically negotiated web services to exchange and maintain personal profile information across virtual networks. I think we can safely assume that FOAF is somewhere in the equation. Maybe a demo of this at the workshop (please).

Dan Brickley reports on a FOAF workshop planned for September 1 and 2 in Galway, Republic of Ireland as part of the SWAD-Europe initiative. All code monkeys, profs and business blokes with an interest in FOAFy matters are urged to contribute papers and practical demonstrations. Details are to be published soon so stay tuned.

My only concern is whether there are enough hotels in Galway to accommodate the expected army of FOAFsters who will descend on this beautiful Irish town. Derek and I will be hitching up the caravan to the old jalopy and taking the Holyhead ferry over to the Emerald Isle so no problems for us and a very convenient journey from the SchemaWeb summer base beneath Snowdon in North Wales.

And as this is Ireland, no doubt large quantities of http://www.purl.org/net/ontology/beer#Stout will be oiling the semantic wheels.

Semrockers SWIG, the group after which the Semantic Web Interest Group is named, were recently seen in action at the W3C Technical Plenary in the South of France. This snap catches the band, featuring guitar ace and W3C top person Dan Connolly giving it some 'Jimi', as they tear through a stonking set of Busted and Captain Beefheart covers.

Rumour is rife that these potential chart toppers have signed an exclusive deal with ex Beatles tea-boy, Max Clifford who will represent them on this year's world tour of semweb conferences and jollies.

Careful with those hotel TVs guys!

[ Picture from Libby via the RDFWeb co-depiction service complete with RDF meta. ]