Paggr videos
ESWC 2009 Linked Data Dashboards - benjamin nowack's blog
In case you missed the tweets or a local announcement: The first Paggr application went online a few days ago. This year's ESWC Technologies Team pushed things a little further, with RFID tracking during the event and extended conference data that includes detailed session and date/time information (kudos to Michael Hausenblas for RDFizing even PDFs).
Based on this dataset, we provided a conference explorer and stress-tested the "Dog Food" server while at it. The system survived, but I also learned a lot. We used about 50 RDF stores for the different public and user-specific dashboards, which basically worked nicely. However, rendering non-ugly resource summaries requires a bit of endpoint hammering, and some of the more complex path queries resulted in timeouts. Yesterday, I had to create a mirror from the data dump to route a couple of widgets through a replicated (ARC :-) endpoint. But then this is also one of the powerful possibilities that come with semantic web technologies. You can often switch or double the back-end repository in no time, and without any code changes. (And as all the Sparqlets are created in a web-based tool, I didn't even have to upload a changed configuration file. I simply tweaked a SPARQLScript parameter.)
Anyway, there are a couple of public dashboards, in case you'd like to give it a try (it's still an early version), I also embedded a short screencast below. The system is going to be moved to a DERI server when the conference is over, but the URIs and data will probably stay stable. (And no, it won't really work with IE yet.) More to come!
HQ version (quicktime, 110MB)
Based on this dataset, we provided a conference explorer and stress-tested the "Dog Food" server while at it. The system survived, but I also learned a lot. We used about 50 RDF stores for the different public and user-specific dashboards, which basically worked nicely. However, rendering non-ugly resource summaries requires a bit of endpoint hammering, and some of the more complex path queries resulted in timeouts. Yesterday, I had to create a mirror from the data dump to route a couple of widgets through a replicated (ARC :-) endpoint. But then this is also one of the powerful possibilities that come with semantic web technologies. You can often switch or double the back-end repository in no time, and without any code changes. (And as all the Sparqlets are created in a web-based tool, I didn't even have to upload a changed configuration file. I simply tweaked a SPARQLScript parameter.)
Anyway, there are a couple of public dashboards, in case you'd like to give it a try (it's still an early version), I also embedded a short screencast below. The system is going to be moved to a DERI server when the conference is over, but the URIs and data will probably stay stable. (And no, it won't really work with IE yet.) More to come!
HQ version (quicktime, 110MB)
by Benjamin Nowack on 2009-06-04
Paggr screencast: Conference Explorer (proto)
I just returned from a short, doc-enforced trip to Nice (awesome place, savoir-vivre and all that) and will fly to the NYC SemWeb Meetup in a few days. Before we went to France, I created another Paggr screencast. This one is the first to show the (user-facing) dashboard and widgets we plan to make available as a semantic conference explorer at ESWC 2009. Still some way to go, but I'm optimistic that we'll have a number of handy helpers online by the beginning of the event. I won't be able to attend in person, so I'm highly motivated to have at least a twitter and twitpic tracker up and running then.
HQ version (quicktime, 134MB)
HQ version (quicktime, 134MB)
by Benjamin Nowack on 2009-05-15
Paggr screencast: Linked Data Widget Builder
Running an R&D-heavy agency in the current economical climate is pretty tough, but there are also a couple of new opportunities for these semantic solutions that help reduce costs and do things more efficiently.
I'm finally starting to get project requests that include some form of compensation. Not much yet (all budgets seem to be very tight these days), but it's a start, and together with support from Susanne, I could now continue working on Paggr, semsol's Netvibes-like dashboard system for the growing web of Linked Data.
An article about Paggr will be in the next Nodalities Magazine, and the ESWC2009 technologies team is considering a custom system for attendees which is a great chance to maybe get other conference organizers interested. (I see much potential in a white-label offering, but a more mainstream-ish version for Web 2.0 data is still on my mind. Just have to focus on getting self-sustained first.)
Below is a short screencast that demonstrates a first version of the sparqlet (= semantic widget) builder. I've de-coupled sparqlet-serving from the dashboard system, so that I'll be able to open-source the infrastructure parts of Paggr more easily. Another change from the October prototype is the theme-ability of both dashboards and widget servers. Lots of clouds, sun, and sea for ESWC ;-)
HQ version (quicktime, 120MB)
I'm finally starting to get project requests that include some form of compensation. Not much yet (all budgets seem to be very tight these days), but it's a start, and together with support from Susanne, I could now continue working on Paggr, semsol's Netvibes-like dashboard system for the growing web of Linked Data.
An article about Paggr will be in the next Nodalities Magazine, and the ESWC2009 technologies team is considering a custom system for attendees which is a great chance to maybe get other conference organizers interested. (I see much potential in a white-label offering, but a more mainstream-ish version for Web 2.0 data is still on my mind. Just have to focus on getting self-sustained first.)
Below is a short screencast that demonstrates a first version of the sparqlet (= semantic widget) builder. I've de-coupled sparqlet-serving from the dashboard system, so that I'll be able to open-source the infrastructure parts of Paggr more easily. Another change from the October prototype is the theme-ability of both dashboards and widget servers. Lots of clouds, sun, and sea for ESWC ;-)
HQ version (quicktime, 120MB)
by Benjamin Nowack on 2009-03-28
paggr teaser video and pre-registration site online
I've been semi-silently working on something new. A combination of many semwebby things I came across and played with during the last 3 years or so:
So, what happens when you put this all together? At least something interesting, and perhaps semsol's first commercial service. (Or product, this is all just LAMP stuff and can easily be run in an intranet or on a hosted server). Anyway, still some way to go. It's called paggr, the landing page is up, and today I created a first teaser/intro video.
I'll demo the beta (launch planned for November) at upcoming ISWC during the poster session (my poster is about SPARQL+ and SPARQLScript, the two SPARQL extensions that paggr is based on). I may have early invites by then.
As a preparation for the hopefully busy fall and winter months, though, I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks. No Email, no Web, no Phone. Yay!
HQ version (quicktime, 130MB)
- semantic markup
- smart data
- an rdf clipboard
- ajax
- sparql sparql sparql
- sparql + scripting
- sparql + templates
- sparql + widgets
- lightweight, federated semweb services and bots
- UIs for open data
- semwikis
- agile and collaborative web development
So, what happens when you put this all together? At least something interesting, and perhaps semsol's first commercial service. (Or product, this is all just LAMP stuff and can easily be run in an intranet or on a hosted server). Anyway, still some way to go. It's called paggr, the landing page is up, and today I created a first teaser/intro video.
I'll demo the beta (launch planned for November) at upcoming ISWC during the poster session (my poster is about SPARQL+ and SPARQLScript, the two SPARQL extensions that paggr is based on). I may have early invites by then.
As a preparation for the hopefully busy fall and winter months, though, I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks. No Email, no Web, no Phone. Yay!
HQ version (quicktime, 130MB)
by Benjamin Nowack on 2008-10-09