Using semantic annotations in HTML5 (e.g., RDFa), fine and coarse grained semantic information can be stored inside an EPUB 3 publication. Books can then be published on the web as Linked Data. Every published book can hence become a linked database, and machines can query these books (and reason about their contained knowledge) for the users. This way, books become auto-discoverable and interlinked with the rest of the web. It enables the creation of web services that no longer need to index a book to get information out of it, but can query the Web of books.

1. Interlinking books with the world
Using the Semantic Web to create books as reliable,
machine-understandable information service providers
Ben De Meester
Tom De Nies, Wesley De Neve, Erik Mannens, Rik Van De Walle
University Ghent – iMinds – Multimedia Lab
http://booksinbrowsers.org/2014-abstracts/#BenDeMeester
Books in Browsers | October 23-24 2014 | San Francisco

2. On the menu:
Digital books are valuable databases… That are closed.
Once opened…
… they can be (inter)linked.
Once interlinked…

3. What advantages does a digitized version
provide, information-wise?
vs.
<?

5. LINKS

7. SEARCHES

8. You get the info you want…
If you know what to look for.

9. There can be more in a book
than what meets the eye…

11.  +

12. From a book with text
to a book with information
 +

13. information
that can be interlinked
http://lod-cloud.net/

14. Digital books as
an API to information

15. API?

16. Querying!

17. Lets SPARQL books!

18. Lets SPARQL books!
PREFIX schema: <http://schema.org/>
SELECT DISTINCT ?person
WHERE
{ ?book a schema:book .
?book schema:name “Les Misérables” .
?book schema:actor ?person
}
 Returns all characters of the book Les Misérables.

19. Lets SPARQL books!
PREFIX schema: <http://schema.org/>
SELECT DISTINCT ?person
WHERE
{ ?book a schema:book .
?book schema:name “Les Misérables” .
?book schema:actor ?person
}
 Returns all characters of the book Les Misérables.

20. Go from

21. To
PREFIX schema: <http://schema.org/>
SELECT DISTINCT ?person
WHERE
{ ?book a schema:book .
?book schema:name “Les Misérables” .
?book schema:actor ?person
}
?person
Jean Valjean
Cosette
…

22. Interlink information inside a book…
Where is
character A
at time B?

23. http://neoformix.com/2013/NovelViews.html

24. http://xkcd.com/657/

25. … interlink books with each other…
What books are
about Paris?
Paris San Francisco Marseille New York Paris

26. … interlink books with each other…
What books are
about Paris?
Paris San Francisco Marseille New York Paris

27. … interlink books with each other…
What books are
about France?
Paris San Francisco Marseille New York Paris

28. http://www.jinni.com/

29. … and interlink books with the world!

30. http://smalldemons.com/

31. http://www.lookagain.me.uk/draculadissected/

32. To take away
By enabling queries for the Semantic information in-side
digital books, we can interlink the information
inside books…
And get all this for free:

33. Our project
The Publisher of the Future
Our pilot project partners: