Building a Usable and Accessible Semantic Web Interaction Platform

  • Authors:

  • Roberto García;Juan Manuel Gimeno;Ferran Perdrix;Rosa Gil;Marta Oliva;Juan Miguel López;Afra Pascual;Montserrat Sendín

  • Affiliations:

  • Universitat of Lleida, Lleida, Spain 25001;Universitat of Lleida, Lleida, Spain 25001;Universitat of Lleida, Lleida, Spain 25001 and Segre Media Group, Lleida, Spain 25007;Universitat of Lleida, Lleida, Spain 25001;Universitat of Lleida, Lleida, Spain 25001;Universitat of Lleida, Lleida, Spain 25001;Universitat of Lleida, Lleida, Spain 25001;Universitat of Lleida, Lleida, Spain 25001

  • Venue:
  • World Wide Web
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

Semantic Web applications take off is being slower than expected, at least with respect to "real-world" applications and users. One of the main reasons for this lack of adoption is that most Semantic Web user interfaces are still immature from the usability and accessibility points of view. This is due to the novelty of these technologies, but this also motivates the exploration of alternative interaction paradigms, different from the "traditional" Web or Desktop applications ones. Our proposal is realized in the Rhizomer platform, which explores the possibilities of the object---action interaction paradigm at the Web scale. This paradigm is well suited for heterogeneous resource spaces such as those common in the Semantic Web. Resources, described by metadata, correspond to the objects in the paradigm. Semantic web services, which are dynamically associated to these objects, correspond to the actions. The platform is being put into practice in the context of a research project in order to build an open application for media distribution based on Semantic Web technologies. Moreover, its usability and accessibility have been evaluated in this real setting and compared to similar systems.