General Information:

Instructor: Don Turnbull
Email:
Phone: (512) 232-3508
Office: SZB 562C
Office Hours: by appointment

Class Meeting Times: 12:00 - 3:00 pm, Tuesdays
Classroom: SZB 446
Course Website: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~i385t-sw
TA: Larry Archer
Email:

Description: [Top]

This course surveys the technologies that support the Semantic Web. This course will approach understanding Semantic Web technologies from three perspectives:

• Top-down, theoretical approaches to organizing semantic information including ontologies, taxonomies, knowledge representation and software agents.
• Bottom-up approaches, sometimes called "emergent semantics" or "the lower case 'S' semantic web", for understanding and creating networked information including XML-based solutions including RDF, XPath and RSS. Also included are smaller, informal systems for organizing Web information including tagging (social bookmarking), microformats and other specific markup and distribution systems.
• Application approaches focusing on Web Services or "Web 2.0" functionality including distributed (client and server) application design, syndication, Application Programming Interfaces, remote databases and "mash-ups".

Class work will include reviews of working semantic systems including discussion of their construction, interfaces and functionality.

Objectives: [Top]

• Participate generously in discussions, attend class regularly, and complete assignments according to the course schedule.
• Understand the history, state-of-the-art and future of Semantic Web methods and applications.
• Use and evaluate Semantic Web Systems to facilitate individual and group work.
• Develop a thorough review of Semantic Web application, both historical and speculative.
• Originate and distribute research on a Semantic Web System topic.
• Develop lightweight Semantic Web, Web Services or "Web 2.0" applications or alternatively research and write a scholarly research paper suitable for publication about topics related to Semantic Web techonologies.

Textbooks: [Top]

Required

• Daconta, Michael C., et al.(2003). The Semantic Web : A Guide to the Future of XML, Web Services, and Knowledge Management . John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Recommended

• Passin, Thomas B. (2004). Explorer's Guide to the Semantic Web . Manning Publications.
• Flanagan, David. (2001). Javascript, the Definitive Guide . O'Reilly Media, Inc.
• Estrella, Steven A. (2001). Web Wizard's Guide to Javascript . Prentice Hall.
• Hughes, Cheryl. (2004). Web Wizard's Guide to XHMTL . Prentice Hall.
• Estrella, Steven A. (2002). Web Wizard's Guide to DHTML and CSS . Prentice Hall.
• Hemenway, Kevin and Calishain, Tara. (2003). Spidering Hacks . O'Reilly Media, Inc.
• McFarlane, Nigel. (2005). Firefox Hacks . O'Reilly Media, Inc.
• Bausch, Paul. (2005). Yahoo Hacks . O'Reilly Media, Inc.
• Dornfest, Rael and Calishain, Tara. (2004). Google Hacks . O'Reillli>
• Ducharme, Bob. (2001). XSLT Quickly . Manning Publications.
• Boswell, David, et al, (2002). Creating Applications with Mozilla . O'Reilly Media, Inc.
• McFarlane, Nigel. (2003). Rapid Application Development with Mozilla . Prentice Hall PTR.
• Haynes, David. 2004. Metadata for Information Management and Retrieval . Neal-Schuman Publishers.

Mailing List: [Top]

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Please email presentations to the class TA.