
Verb/predicate/Property using same URIs
The Semantic Web uses URIs not just to refer to web-pages, but to things.
For the Semantic Web to work, there must be agreement from decentralized agents on what "things" a URI refers to.
Thesis
How can we determine what a good URI is? Can it be determined from the kinds of acts found in the associated description of it?We're going to have use an interdisciplinary approach from two rarely connected fields: philosophy and the World Wide Web.
Infamous argument between Pat Hayes and Tim Berners-Lee.
Social Meaning and RDF: "the meaning of an RDF document includes the social meaning, the formal meaning, and the social meaning of the formal entailments" so that "when an RDF graph is asserted in the Web, its publisher is saying something about their view of the world" and "such an assertion should be understood to carry the same social import and responsibilities as an assertion in any other format" RDF Concepts and Abstract Syntax DraftBerners-Lee said "a single meaning is given to each URI" which is summarized by the slogan that a URI "identifies one thing."
Hayes retorted that "I'm not saying that the `unique identification' condition is an unattainable ideal: I'm saying that it doesn't make sense, that it isn't true, and that it could not possibly be true. I'm saying that it is crazy" since it goes against the "basic results in 20th century linguistic semantics"
Patches of sense-data known through direct acquaintance allow one to ground the atoms of logical statements or create descriptions that can form the basis for names.
The priority of reference over senseWe are also assuming the real world (as opposed to any logical idealization of it) is divided neatly into individuals (Strawson).
But how can we deal with referents in the past, or imaginary referents?
A name can be transmitted through time via historical and causal chains, with a name being given its original referent through a process Kripke calls baptism.
A URI is given its meaning by a baptism by its owner, such as registering a domain name.
Question:Is there too many or no URIs for things?
Answer: : Sample the Semantic Web using a query log
Data Set: Microsoft Live Search Query Logs
There are too many URIs for the same thing probably...
An average of 1,339 URIs (S.D. 8,000) returned per query
That's a lot, but most may obviously be URIs that just mention the term...
Top 10 Domain Names: Entities
Top 10 Domain Names: Concepts
The priority of meaning over reference
Example:Hesperus has a sense ("the morning star") different from that of Phosphorus ("the evening star"), yet both have the same referent, the planet Venus.
As formalized in logic, meaning is taken to be given by interpretations that define the truth conditions of the statement.
Ambiguity is built in: The web of logical statements is the bearer of meaning, and whatever satisfies the sense of the statement could be a referent.
The amount of co-ordination needed does not need full agreement, but only the minimal agreement needed to get the task at hand completed.
How can we boot-straps URIs for things and re-use these URIs in a way that people will actually use?Answer: Use a paradigm average Web users are familiar with, such as a search paradigm.
Have a human judge actually figure out what web-pages are relevant, and then use those to feed back and expand the query, in order to re-rank the results.
Experiment: Had 200 queries from previous work, retrieved top 10 hypertext Web (Yahoo!) results and top 10 (FALCON-S) results each judged by 3 judges for relevancy. Fliess's Kappa=0.5724$ (p < .05, 95% Confidence interval [0.5678,0.5771]), indicating the rejection of the null hypothesis and moderate agreement.

Results of Querying the Hypertext Web

Results of Querying the Semantic Web
Average Precision Scores for Vector-space Model Parameters: Relevance Feedback From Hypertext to Semantic Web
Summary of Best Average Precision Scores: Relevance Feedback From Hypertext to Semantic Web
Average Precision Scores for Language Model Parameters: Relevance Feedback From Hypertext to Semantic Web
Summary of Best Average Precision Scores: Relevance Feedback From Semantic Web to Hypertext
Is this a unified picture?
Thesis: Finding and giving meaning to URIs on the Semantic Web can be built out of the social semantics implicitly given by the searching behavior of ordinary users.
Any questions?