Intelligent Information Infrastructures
In recent years there has been much talk about a future Web driven by semantic and agent technologies. An intelligent infrastructure is envisioned which enables data, information, and knowledge to be exposed, shared, connected and consumed by users and services.
Linked Data is often cited as a key enabler of this infrastructure; the term refers to a set of best practices for publishing and connecting structured data on the Web. Key technologies that support Linked Data are URIs (a generic means to identify entities or concepts in the world), HTTP (a universal mechanism for retrieving resources, or descriptions of resources), and RDF (a graph-based data model to structure and link data).
While Linked Data can play an important role in such systems, by providing a mechanism to support data integration and a means to support reasoning and annotation, on its own it is not sufficient to build effective applications, as other important elements are necessary:
- Mechanisms must be in place to represent and reason about the provenance of data created or modified within such an infrastructure;
- Workflow capabilities are needed in order to manage the blending of the user and machine aspects of an application;
- Means to represent quality dimensions and requirements are needed in order to reason about and annotate data;
- Support for reasoning about trust and reputation is needed to facilitate confidence in system actions;
- Means to represent and reason about user (or other agent) policies are needed in order to ensure that actions within the system comply with appropriate norms.
We are exploring these issues within a range of user application contexts in order to better understand the shape of future intelligent information infrastructures.
Projects:
Informed Rural Passenger (IRP)
Agent-Supported Integrated Cancer Aftercare (ASICA)
Smart Micro-logistics for the Rural Economy (SMiLE)
Trusted Mobile Platform for the Self-Management of Chronic Illness in Rural Areas (TRUMP)
We are exploring these issues within a range of user application contexts in order to better understand the shape of future intelligent information infrastructures.
Opportunities for collaboration
Our work is increasingly focused on capturing the provenance of data arriving from sensors and mobile devices, and as such we are interested in the following: intelligent information infrastructures for the internet of things; provenance and quality of big data; traceability of actions and decisions; integration of human and machine sensors. For more information see the Intelligent Information Infrastructures collaboration leaflet [pdf].
