Semantic web as an operating system: with users and access rights!
Very soon, semantic network data will be accurately labeled, so that it will become much easier to search for them. This will further accelerate the development of the trend, when the Internet and the global community will become two closely interconnected networks that will constantly increase interconnections and transparency for each other. Are we obliged to sacrifice anonymity in order to maintain trust for such cooperation? Or we will see the emerging “new network”, which will function as if it were a kind of operating system with different users and rights, and will be launched on this global machine, which we call the Internet.
Kevin Kelly’s talk about the future of the Internet made me think. Kelly says that the first step in the evolution of the Internet was about linking computers to each other - through which you, for example, can now access files on another computer via FTP. The second step was to create the World Wide Web (WWW), i.e. linking HTML pages, each of which had a URL, and users "jumped" from page to page, clicking on the links embedded there. Kevin quite seriously points out that the next step in the development of the Internet will be the semantic web , where the DATA itself will be interconnected.
The concept is not to have data only shown on the page (
')
Figure 1: the semantic web is about connecting words and concepts, and now never “just the HTML pages” (borrowed from Kevin Kelli Kevin's presentation slide on TED: www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html CC- by-nc-nd 3.0)
Kelly was probably not the first in such statements about the Internet, but for the first time he proposed to consider the Internet as a general planetary machine, and the web as its operating system. With the advent of AJAX web applications, Google Chrome and YouTube, this operating system is becoming more and more skillful every day. This machine is basically decentralized and, therefore, quite reliable - in particular, it “in general, as a system” does not have failures (downtime). As Linus Tovalds put it: “Why make backups? I'll just put these things on the net and people mirror them! ” This huge machine is an environment for unprecedented (until now) communication and cooperation - and the corresponding information network is woven every day more and more and is becoming increasingly important. A computer without the Internet is now not much more than a regular typewriter. As the web becomes more semantic, each part of the network becomes part of this “universal” machine. Even such simple actions as writing a small paragraph in a Wikipedia article become meaningless in isolation from the whole.
On the Internet, layers of abstractions like HTML or a semantic framework reduce the time and, therefore, the cost of finding and accessing information. In general, it seems that as the cost of the connection between the nodes falls, it becomes more efficient for parts of the system to specialize as one, or to integrate with each other more closely. As a result, the resulting whole is much more valuable than the sum of its parts. In this case, parts of such a system become interdependent (all parts depend on each other).
Figure 2: The Internet as a global network or planetary machine (borrowed from Kevin Kelly’s presentation on TED:
www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html CC-by-nc-nd 3.0)
In each interdependent system, stopping (interrupting) connections is a real threat to the integrity of the entire system. Each time you build interdependent systems, you take this risk and, of course, must do everything possible to ensure that the connections are always operational.
The trend towards closer networking can occur at the expense of our privacy. This is another topic discussed by Kevin Kelly and Marisa May from Google. The fact is that the network is becoming more information about you, which is easier to find. What will happen when the era of the semantic web comes? On the other hand, the very idea of ​​the network lies in facilitating the search for information. There are those who think that there is no room for anonymity on the semantic web. They argue that what is based on intensive cooperation and interdependence, must have reliable mechanisms of personal responsibility, and, because of this, anonymity is the enemy of trust.
It is important to know who is behind a specific blog post if you want to use this information for your own product. Similarly, if you are going to cooperate in large projects, with a person with whom you have never met, you will want to have access to reliable information about him. This applies to any user content on the network, the quality and accuracy of which is largely determined by the “personal brand”, especially if it is not published on the New York Times website, but on a shared resource with many authors. As the network becomes increasingly interdependent, personal responsibility becomes increasingly important for the operation of the system. You can not trust anonymous users as much as users with a certain reputation. Anonymity is a threat to an emerging information society based on cooperation.
Figure 3: Do we need to sacrifice anonymity online to maintain trust for closer and more productive cooperation? (Source: slide from Kevin Killy's presentation on TED: www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html CC-by-nc-nd 3.0)
On the other hand, there is a risk of completely losing anonymity online. There is even an opinion that the virtual world should reflect the physical world, in which, for obvious reasons, we have less anonymity. But the problem is that the physical world is not so ubiquitous to search than the web. Thanks to the semantic web, you can collect all the information about a person that has ever been published in just a few seconds. Let's imagine that you made some statements in the sub-state and they are still in the social network archives, in the form of comments to the photos of your family or friends on Flickr, that your political statements are forever imprinted on someone in the blog. In the virtual world there is no room for anonymity and secrets. In the physical world, only if you are not a famous person, you can not worry about your private life, for example, walking around the city or meeting with friends in a restaurant. Only people who surround you can become random witnesses of what you are talking about, and even then they are unlikely to remember for a long time. On the other hand, if you say something on the Internet, anyone, sooner or later, will be able to find out about it. And even if you try to delete this message, it will still remain as a copy in Google or in the Internet archive (Internet Archive)!
How to resolve this conflict of interest?
I think the key to understanding is that in order to gain credibility and trust in the network you do not have to disclose your “real” personality. Think about the people involved in developing open source software. They won’t inspire a team lead by saying “Hi, I’m Peter Smith from San Francisco, and my family never had a problem with drugs.” No! They usually start making minor improvements to the program and, if their work is good enough, they are given full access to the repository. The ability to write good code has nothing to do with their problems in the physical world. And, if you are respected in the Internet community for expressing political views, it also has nothing to do with the ability to program well.
Figure 4: Multiple OpenID identifiers per person could bring a balance between transparency and privacy (Source: OpenID Foundation, openid.net/logos - fair use)
Let's go back to the analogy that the Internet is a giant machine, and the web is its operating system: have you ever seen an operating system without users and access rights to files and resources? Some people create multiple user accounts on the same computer. For example, one for work and the other for personal use. I suggest using similarly OpenID identifiers or another similar mechanism to create a user completely independent virtual accounts, each of which is potentially recognized on all web sites. Perhaps you decide to create one account to participate in the open source software community, another for activities related to your work in the physical world. Also, it is possible that you will want to create a third account for personal contacts and social networking. One of the reasons why the Internet has become so widespread is the ability to save incognito. We do not advocate a return to the principles of the physical world (one body - one person). In the virtual world, many roles can be played, and the Internet will lose a lot if it is deprived of such a feature.
With several OpenIDs, we have different single-user accounts in our operating system, but we still need permissions to access data stored by the system. After logging in to a website or web application using one of your OpenID (or your browser will do it for you, remembering it when you first access the site), you can go to the settings and specify a specific group of users who will be available for viewing publications, images and other artifacts of your network activities, similar to your current friends from social networks. Or you can change the settings so that your notes are published openly, but the actual OpenID identifier is visible only to your friends. Some of these “trusted friends” will be able to combine several of your virtual accounts into one (like current instant messaging programs in which you can simultaneously specify accounts for a contact with GMail, AIM and ICQ). On the other hand, you will be able to integrate all your services that you use through various accounts in a single application (just like today's email clients allow you to work with several email addresses at the same time).
Of course, this system is not completely secure: you will need to trust companies and organizations to manage your accounts, and the services that you have allowed to collect and provide information about you. But, ultimately, this is the price of personalizing and sharing data, if you use the services of third-party web services, rather than installing and maintaining your own server locally. And you will probably have to put up with advertising messages, which this web service will display in order to remain free.
However, managing access rights and accounts, and deciding which parts of your life to publish openly will always remain a delicate matter. But then there will be a basic framework, open, decentralized and providing benefits from owning personal brands. They identify users and provide trust without the need to renounce confidentiality and anonymity, along with total transparency and accessibility to find the proposed semantic web, the future, for which we need to unite.
© IEEE Internet Computing
Original (English):
Original (English):
Translation: © Denis Egorov ( ur001 ), xasima , Dmitry Ulanov ( dulanov ).
License: www.ieee.org/web/publications/rights/privacy.html
Semantic Web
Kevin Kelly’s talk about the future of the Internet made me think. Kelly says that the first step in the evolution of the Internet was about linking computers to each other - through which you, for example, can now access files on another computer via FTP. The second step was to create the World Wide Web (WWW), i.e. linking HTML pages, each of which had a URL, and users "jumped" from page to page, clicking on the links embedded there. Kevin quite seriously points out that the next step in the development of the Internet will be the semantic web , where the DATA itself will be interconnected.
The concept is not to have data only shown on the page (
cat ), but to link such data with their definition or something similar ( <item rdf:about="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cat">cat ). This will make the DATA itself, and not only their representations, available directly and from anywhere. You will not be limited to just viewing the page, but you will be able to find and take possession of specific data that can be located anywhere on the Internet (and we can’t worry about which HTML pages they really are), and then automatically use this data and put it anywhere for a variety of purposes. You can put data into a program (or web application) to process it, search, sort, display in various custom formats, views, etc. Instead of performing a flat search on everything that contains the word "cat" (cat), you can search all objects marked df:about="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cat , which is much more accurate. And For example, if the same object is marked with its GPS coordinates, you can easily find “All the Cats on the web” and automatically display their location on any map of the world.')
Figure 1: the semantic web is about connecting words and concepts, and now never “just the HTML pages” (borrowed from Kevin Kelli Kevin's presentation slide on TED: www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html CC- by-nc-nd 3.0)
Network
Kelly was probably not the first in such statements about the Internet, but for the first time he proposed to consider the Internet as a general planetary machine, and the web as its operating system. With the advent of AJAX web applications, Google Chrome and YouTube, this operating system is becoming more and more skillful every day. This machine is basically decentralized and, therefore, quite reliable - in particular, it “in general, as a system” does not have failures (downtime). As Linus Tovalds put it: “Why make backups? I'll just put these things on the net and people mirror them! ” This huge machine is an environment for unprecedented (until now) communication and cooperation - and the corresponding information network is woven every day more and more and is becoming increasingly important. A computer without the Internet is now not much more than a regular typewriter. As the web becomes more semantic, each part of the network becomes part of this “universal” machine. Even such simple actions as writing a small paragraph in a Wikipedia article become meaningless in isolation from the whole.
On the Internet, layers of abstractions like HTML or a semantic framework reduce the time and, therefore, the cost of finding and accessing information. In general, it seems that as the cost of the connection between the nodes falls, it becomes more efficient for parts of the system to specialize as one, or to integrate with each other more closely. As a result, the resulting whole is much more valuable than the sum of its parts. In this case, parts of such a system become interdependent (all parts depend on each other).
Figure 2: The Internet as a global network or planetary machine (borrowed from Kevin Kelly’s presentation on TED:
www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html CC-by-nc-nd 3.0)
In each interdependent system, stopping (interrupting) connections is a real threat to the integrity of the entire system. Each time you build interdependent systems, you take this risk and, of course, must do everything possible to ensure that the connections are always operational.
Anonymity versus Trust
The trend towards closer networking can occur at the expense of our privacy. This is another topic discussed by Kevin Kelly and Marisa May from Google. The fact is that the network is becoming more information about you, which is easier to find. What will happen when the era of the semantic web comes? On the other hand, the very idea of ​​the network lies in facilitating the search for information. There are those who think that there is no room for anonymity on the semantic web. They argue that what is based on intensive cooperation and interdependence, must have reliable mechanisms of personal responsibility, and, because of this, anonymity is the enemy of trust.
It is important to know who is behind a specific blog post if you want to use this information for your own product. Similarly, if you are going to cooperate in large projects, with a person with whom you have never met, you will want to have access to reliable information about him. This applies to any user content on the network, the quality and accuracy of which is largely determined by the “personal brand”, especially if it is not published on the New York Times website, but on a shared resource with many authors. As the network becomes increasingly interdependent, personal responsibility becomes increasingly important for the operation of the system. You can not trust anonymous users as much as users with a certain reputation. Anonymity is a threat to an emerging information society based on cooperation.
Figure 3: Do we need to sacrifice anonymity online to maintain trust for closer and more productive cooperation? (Source: slide from Kevin Killy's presentation on TED: www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html CC-by-nc-nd 3.0)
On the other hand, there is a risk of completely losing anonymity online. There is even an opinion that the virtual world should reflect the physical world, in which, for obvious reasons, we have less anonymity. But the problem is that the physical world is not so ubiquitous to search than the web. Thanks to the semantic web, you can collect all the information about a person that has ever been published in just a few seconds. Let's imagine that you made some statements in the sub-state and they are still in the social network archives, in the form of comments to the photos of your family or friends on Flickr, that your political statements are forever imprinted on someone in the blog. In the virtual world there is no room for anonymity and secrets. In the physical world, only if you are not a famous person, you can not worry about your private life, for example, walking around the city or meeting with friends in a restaurant. Only people who surround you can become random witnesses of what you are talking about, and even then they are unlikely to remember for a long time. On the other hand, if you say something on the Internet, anyone, sooner or later, will be able to find out about it. And even if you try to delete this message, it will still remain as a copy in Google or in the Internet archive (Internet Archive)!
Several virtual personalities for each person
How to resolve this conflict of interest?
I think the key to understanding is that in order to gain credibility and trust in the network you do not have to disclose your “real” personality. Think about the people involved in developing open source software. They won’t inspire a team lead by saying “Hi, I’m Peter Smith from San Francisco, and my family never had a problem with drugs.” No! They usually start making minor improvements to the program and, if their work is good enough, they are given full access to the repository. The ability to write good code has nothing to do with their problems in the physical world. And, if you are respected in the Internet community for expressing political views, it also has nothing to do with the ability to program well.
Figure 4: Multiple OpenID identifiers per person could bring a balance between transparency and privacy (Source: OpenID Foundation, openid.net/logos - fair use)
Let's go back to the analogy that the Internet is a giant machine, and the web is its operating system: have you ever seen an operating system without users and access rights to files and resources? Some people create multiple user accounts on the same computer. For example, one for work and the other for personal use. I suggest using similarly OpenID identifiers or another similar mechanism to create a user completely independent virtual accounts, each of which is potentially recognized on all web sites. Perhaps you decide to create one account to participate in the open source software community, another for activities related to your work in the physical world. Also, it is possible that you will want to create a third account for personal contacts and social networking. One of the reasons why the Internet has become so widespread is the ability to save incognito. We do not advocate a return to the principles of the physical world (one body - one person). In the virtual world, many roles can be played, and the Internet will lose a lot if it is deprived of such a feature.
With several OpenIDs, we have different single-user accounts in our operating system, but we still need permissions to access data stored by the system. After logging in to a website or web application using one of your OpenID (or your browser will do it for you, remembering it when you first access the site), you can go to the settings and specify a specific group of users who will be available for viewing publications, images and other artifacts of your network activities, similar to your current friends from social networks. Or you can change the settings so that your notes are published openly, but the actual OpenID identifier is visible only to your friends. Some of these “trusted friends” will be able to combine several of your virtual accounts into one (like current instant messaging programs in which you can simultaneously specify accounts for a contact with GMail, AIM and ICQ). On the other hand, you will be able to integrate all your services that you use through various accounts in a single application (just like today's email clients allow you to work with several email addresses at the same time).
Finally
Of course, this system is not completely secure: you will need to trust companies and organizations to manage your accounts, and the services that you have allowed to collect and provide information about you. But, ultimately, this is the price of personalizing and sharing data, if you use the services of third-party web services, rather than installing and maintaining your own server locally. And you will probably have to put up with advertising messages, which this web service will display in order to remain free.
However, managing access rights and accounts, and deciding which parts of your life to publish openly will always remain a delicate matter. But then there will be a basic framework, open, decentralized and providing benefits from owning personal brands. They identify users and provide trust without the need to renounce confidentiality and anonymity, along with total transparency and accessibility to find the proposed semantic web, the future, for which we need to unite.
© IEEE Internet Computing
Original (English):
Original (English):
Translation: © Denis Egorov ( ur001 ), xasima , Dmitry Ulanov ( dulanov ).
License: www.ieee.org/web/publications/rights/privacy.html
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/52003/
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