Composite websites based on widget/dashboard environments offer top grade adaptability to theoretically any task requirement or user preference. In productive use, however, the usability of a running dashboard depends on the intelligence that has been incorporated when developing the underlying software framework. This is especially true for widget/dashboard frameworks that allow for an ad hoc inter-widget-communication. The paper shows a press media software company effort to semantically enrich the inter-widgetcommunication of a widget/dashboard framework called NewsDesk. Employing this enrichment, NewsDesk widgets will be able to share ontology-based data and operate in activities and roles. Preliminary results of the ongoing work will be reported, featuring the enhancement of the inter-widget-communication protocol as well as an approach to offer widget composition proposals based on widget template and instance usage patterns.

1. SEMANTIC-GUIDED COMMUNICATION &
COMPOSITION IN A WIDGET/DASHBOARD
ENVIRONMENT
5th International Workshop on Lightweight Integration on the Web 2013
(ComposableWeb) – Aalborg – July 8-11, 2013
KMU-Innovativ: IKT
FKZ 1IS11025A
Peter Wehner
Robert Krüger

2. Contents
• fink & Partner Media Services GmbH
• NewsDesk Introduction
• NewsDesk and SENSE
• Problems & Solution Statements
• Ontology-based Communication
• Composition Proposals Example
• Conclusions and Outlook

3. fink & Partner Media Services GmbH
• Production media management for publishers
in print and online
• Mainly archive, workflow and in-house UI
• Some web and mobile apps (epaper)
• Selected customers:
Image sources: mainpost.de / lzmedien.ch / krone.at / ddv-mediengruppe.de /
handelsblatt.de / guj.de / waz-mediengruppe.de / zgt.de

4. Section Overview
• fink & Partner Media Services GmbH
• NewsDesk Introduction
• NewsDesk and SENSE
• Problems & Solution Statements
• Ontology-based Communication
• Composition Proposals Example
• Conclusions and Outlook

5. NewsDesk - Classification
• Framework to support developer and end user
• Hierarchy of visual components, snap-in
• Event-based ad hoc communication
– XHTML-based communication description
Image sources: pageflakes.com / oracle.com

6. NewsDesk - Terms
Image sources: getty.com

7. NewsDesk – Widget Lifecycle
Image sources: getty.com

8. NewsDesk – Usage Example I
News stream facet browser
News sources: OTS / mainpost.de

9. NewsDesk – Usage II
Single session workspaces on monitor-wall

10. Section Overview
• fink & Partner Media Services GmbH
• NewsDesk Basics
• NewsDesk and SENSE
• Problems & Solution Statements
• Ontology-based Communication
• Composition Proposals Example
• Conclusions and Outlook

11. NewsDesk & SENSE
• 2 year / 5 partner science & industry effort
• Semantic technology to share knowledge
between application and technical domains
• Ensure long term scalability for large multimedia
document collections
• FuP: High-flexible / composable user interfaces
• FuP: Media industry prototype scenario
• http://sense-projekt.de

12. Section Overview
• fink & Partner Media Services GmbH
• NewsDesk Basics
• NewsDesk and SENSE
• Problems & Solution Statements
• Ontology-based Communication
• Composition Proposals Example
• Conclusions and Outlook

13. Problems & Solution Statements I
Developers perspective
• Communication description means weak, only
simple structuring and context information
• Widget-based identifiers may clash at runtime
• Event channel data sticks to object types
• -> introduce unique resource identifiers and
pattern networks to communication
descriptions

14. Problems & Solution Statements II
End users perspective
• Composition guidance vague (fixed desk)
• Composition operation by placement only
• Users overwhelmed by growing widget
favorite and template library
• -> offer composition guidance proposals and
smart behavior for instanciated widgets

15. Section Overview
• fink & Partner Media Services GmbH
• NewsDesk Basics
• NewsDesk and SENSE
• Problems & Solution Statements
• Ontology-based Communication
• Composition Proposals Example
• Conclusions and Outlook

16. Ontology-based Communication
• 3 OWL/RDFa
ontologies
(+rNews, …)
• Compositio
n builds upon
pmedia and
actrole
• Fact data in
repository
• Knowledge
generation by
inference

17. Communication Data I
• Once: Named object types as filters for
computing communication patterns
• Yet: Graphs of communication patterns with
URI entry points
• pmedia ontology
– Domain dependent view on communication
– Comprises image / video domain so far

18. Communication Data II
Code example (turtle)
• A video location and region on a map
@prefix ...
sns:Location rdfs:subClassOf sns:Place .
sns:Region rdfs:subClassOf sns:Place .
sns:video_1 rdfs:type sns:Video .
# sns:location_1 rdfs:type sns:Location .
# sns:region_1 rdfs:type sns:Region .
sns:contentLocation rdfs:domain sns:Video .
sns:contentLocation rdfs:range sns:Location .
sns:regionsAllowed rdfs:domain sns:Video .
sns:regionsAllowed rdfs:range sns:Region .
sns:video_1 sns:contentLocation sns:location_1 .
sns:video_1 sns:regionsAllowed sns:region_1 .

19. Communication Intent I
• Once: descriptive event naming scheme for
publish / subcribe
• Yet: events accompanied by activities to
deduce a role in communication
• actrole ontology
– Domain independent view on communication
– E.g. locateObject, displayResultDetail

20. Communication Intent II
Code example (XHTML / RDFa)
• Description of an activity role locateObject
…<ndw:communication xmlns …>
<ndw:consumer>
…<ndw:event type="itemSelect">
<ndw:data type="sns:VideoObject"
activity="act:locateObject"
callbackfunction="widget.onVideoRecieved" />
</ndw:event>…
</ndw:consumer>
</ndw:communication>…

21. Communication Intent III
• Yet: integration of data and event descriptions
from a dashboard point-of-view
• composition ontology
– Communication and composition structure
patterns – that is, scenarios
– To be modeled by domain experts
– Modeling may include inference rules
– E.g. comparison scenario with multiple detail
widgets in and out of communication

22. Section Overview
• fink & Partner Media Services GmbH
• NewsDesk Basics
• NewsDesk and SENSE
• Problems & Solution Statements
• Ontology-based Communication
• Composition Proposals Example
• Conclusions and Outlook

23. Composition Proposals
• New: communication computation extended
– from possible wirings on a dashboard
– to still open wire slots from the dashboard and
the templates area
– Visualized in dedicated proposals area
• Builds upon typical scenarios from the
composition ontology
• Does use inference to generate proposals

24. Composition Proposals
Running Example - Problem
Image sources: zgt.de

25. Composition Proposals
Running Example – Venn Diagram

26. Composition Proposals
Running Example – Venn And Search

27. Composition Proposals
Running Example – Basic Classes
fWiComp:Composition
a owl:Class ;
rdfs:label "Composition"^^xsd:string .
fWiComp:Widget
a owl:Class ;
rdfs:label "Widget"^^xsd:string .
fWiComp:wImageProvidingWidget
a owl:Class ;
rdfs:subClassOf fWiComp:Widget ;
owl:equivalentClass
[ a owl:Restriction ;
owl:onProperty fWiComp:hasActivityRole ;
owl:someValuesFrom fWiComp:rImageProvidingActivityRole
] .

28. Composition Proposals
Running Example – Composition Class
fWiComp:cImageSearchComposition
a owl:Class ;
rdfs:subClassOf fWiComp:Composition ;
rdfs:subClassOf [ a owl:Restriction ;
owl:minQualifiedCardinality 1 ;
owl:onClass fWiComp:wImageSearchResultProvidingWidget ;
owl:onProperty fWiComp:contains ] ;
rdfs:subClassOf [ a owl:Restriction ;
owl:minQualifiedCardinality 1 ;
owl:onClass fWiComp:wImageSearchResultConsumingWidget ;
owl:onProperty fWiComp:contains ] ;
rdfs:subClassOf [ a owl:Restriction ;
owl:maxQualifiedCardinality 1 ;
owl:onClass fWiComp:wImageSearchResultProvidingWidget ;
owl:onProperty fWiComp:contains ] .

29. Section Overview
• fink & Partner Media Services GmbH
• NewsDesk Basics
• NewsDesk and SENSE
• Problems & Solution Statements
• Ontology-based Communication
• Composition Proposals Example
• Conclusions and Outlook

30. Conclusions
• Semantics pays off for widget / dashboard
environments seen as communication and
composition networks
• Knowledge generation is applicable
• Extensive technology roundtrip
• URIs mandatory for information mapping

31. Outlook
• Evaluation at associated partners (SENSE)
– Exploration of large image and video collections
• Infer scenarios and activity roles from the
usage history of the end user
• Implement cascading wiring where a widget
commutes between provider and consumer

32. Questions
• Thanks!
• Questions???
Peter Wehner, Robert Krüger
Fink & Partner Media Services GmbH, 01309 Dresden, Germany
dresden@finkundpartner.de