[科技前沿]语义网

语义网

来源：The Guardian 编辑：Vicki 翻译：译言网

各种创新在计算机世界里不停发生。语义网，一种新的网页形式，正在互联网的世界里起到革命性作用。通过语义网我们可以更加智能地控制我们的设备。通过它，我们还能更好的理解和处理数据内容。我们也可以通过它，增加我们和网页的互动性，使网页更好被浏览。

现今，开发语义网两种最重要的技术已经出现：可扩展标记语言(XML)和资源描述框架(RDF)。使语义网的开发称为可能。不久将来，我们就可以在现实生活中利用语义网来实现各种服务，使我们的家庭生活更加智能。

另一方面，语义网也可以帮助人类的语言进步。在社区活动中，人与人之间更加和谐。

The Semantic Web

The entertainment system was belting out the Beatles' "We Can Work It Out" when the phone rang. When Pete answered, his phone turned the sound down by sending a message to all the other local devices that had a volume control. His sister, Lucy, was on the line from the doctor's office: "Mom needs to see a specialist and then has to have a series of physical therapy sessions. Biweekly or something. I'm going to have my agent set up the appointments." Pete immediately agreed to share the chauffeuring.

语义网,一种新的网页内容，可能对计算机世界起到革命意义.当电话响时，娱乐系统正热情播放披头四的“我们要尽欢”。在皮特回答之前，他传送一个信息给他的音响设备，把它们的音量关小。他的姐姐路西从她医生那里打电话给他，说：“妈妈需要看一位专家，需要一系列的物理治疗。大概两个星期或者多些。我打算让我的代理约个时间。“皮特立即答应开车送她们。

At the doctor's office, Lucy instructed her Semantic Web agent through her handheld Web browser. The agent promptly retrieved information about Mom's prescribed treatment from the doctor's agent, looked up several lists of providers, and checked for the ones in-plan for Mom's insurance within a 20-mile radius of her home and with a rating of excellent or very good on trusted rating services. It then began trying to find a match between available appointment times (supplied by the agents of individual providers through their Web sites) and Pete's and Lucy's busy schedules. (The emphasized keywords indicate terms whose semantics, or meaning, were defined for the agent through the Semantic Web.)

在医生的办公室里，路西指令她的语义网的代理商用手持设备浏览网页。代理商尝试重新从医生那里获取她妈妈药物治疗信息，找寻几个供应商，在她家二十里范围内检查她妈妈最好和最可信的保险计划。同时开始尝试从路西和皮特的行程中，找到最好的 预约时间(几个供应商通过他们的网页提供这些资料)。(语义网通 过主要的关键字来表明语义，意思 ，还是指定的代理)。

In a few minutes the agent presented them with a plan. Pete didn't like it?University Hospital was all the way across town from Mom's place, and he'd be driving back in the middle of rush hour. He set his own agent to redo the search with stricter preferences about location and time. Lucy's agent, having complete trust in Pete's agent in the context of the present task, automatically assisted by supplying access certificates and shortcuts to the data it had already sorted through.

几分钟之前，代理商给皮特和路西看了他的计划，但是皮特不喜欢它。大学附属医院是从他妈妈家穿过城镇，他将在交通不是高峰期开车回家。他要求代理根据时间和地点重新查找。路西的代理完全信任皮特的代理计划，在存取验证和快捷键的帮助下任务自动 被排序。

Almost instantly the new plan was presented: a much closer clinic and earlier times?but there were two warning notes. First, Pete would have to reschedule a couple of his less important appointments. He checked what they were?not a problem. The other was something about the insurance company's list failing to include this provider under physical therapists: "Service type and insurance plan status securely verified by other means," the agent reassured him. "(Details?)"

没多久新的计划就给出了：一个离医务所更近和更早时间。但是有两封警告信。第一个是皮特更改了他的几个次重要的预约，缺席他们没有问题。其他包括保险公司名单， 没有包括物理治疗的提供者：“服务类型和保险计划已经被其他方法安全验证。”代理商将确认他 。

Lucy registered her assent at about the same moment Pete was muttering, "Spare me the details," and it was all set. (Of course, Pete couldn't resist the details and later that night had his agent explain how it had found that provider even though it wasn't on the proper list.)

路西登记了，但是皮特有点不满：“给我些详细资料”， 这是我所有资料。(当然，皮特不能拒绝计划，尽管它不在名单中， 在晚上他让他的代理解释。)

Expressing Meaning（表达方式 ）

Pete and Lucy could use their agents to carry out all these tasks thanks not to the World Wide Web of today but rather the Semantic Web that it will evolve into tomorrow. Most of the Web's content today is designed for humans to read, not for computer programs to manipulate meaningfully. Computers can adeptly parse Web pages for layout and routine processing?here a header, there a link to another page?but in general, computers have no reliable way to process the semantics: this is the home page of the Hartman and Strauss Physio Clinic, this link goes to Dr. Hartman's curriculum vitae.

皮特和路西能让他们的代理处理这些任务，不但要感谢今天的互联网，还要感谢明天将会出现语义网。今天大部分网页内容是设计给普通人读的，不是专给程序来操作。通常计算机能敏捷分隔网页和常规地处理主题，并可以把它连接到另一个网页，但是计算机并没有一种可靠的方法处理语义：这是Hartman和Strauss医务所的主页，连接可以带到Hartman医生的简历的网页。

The Semantic Web will bring structure to the meaningful content of Web pages, creating an environment where software agents roaming from page to page can readily carry out sophisticated tasks for users. Such an agent coming to the clinic's Web page will know not just that the page has keywords such as "treatment, medicine, physical, therapy" (as might be encoded today) but also that Dr. Hartman works at this clinic on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and that the script takes a date range in yyyy-mm-dd format and returns appointment times. And it will "know" all this without needing artificial intelligence on the scale of 2001's Hal or Star Wars's C-3PO. Instead these semantics were encoded into the Web page when the clinic's office manager (who never took Comp Sci 101) massaged it into shape using off-the-shelf software for writing Semantic Web pages along with resources listed on the Physical Therapy Association's site.

语义网可以对不同内容进行分类，当软件代理商浏览网页时候，能够为用户预先处理复杂的任务。当病人来到医务所的网页不只是能够看到“治疗，药，物理治疗”等关键字(可能今天已经被加密)，而且告诉Hartman医生在星期一，星期三，星期五工作时间和预约时间。在2001‘s Hal 或者StarWare's C-3PO 不需要人工智能就可以知道这些。利用物理治疗联盟的资源，医务所的经理用现成的软件写语义网。

Keke View：语义网就是能够根据语义进行判断的网络。

　　简单地说，语义网是一种能理解人类语言的智能网络，它不但能够理解人类的语言，而且还可以使人与电脑之间的交流变得像人与人之间交流一样轻松。