Social Semantic Web: Where Web 2.0 Meets Web 3.0/panel 1

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• title: Social Semantic Web User Experience

• panelist: Natasha Noy, Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research
• panelist: Denny Vrandečić, AIFB
• panelist: Jamie Taylor, Metaweb
• panelist: Nova Spivak,Scott White, Radar Networks
• panelist: Jeff Pollock, Oracle

Abstract: As the infrastructure mechanisms underlying the semantic web have grown more stable, it has become clear that the major challenge in the social semantic web is providing a compelling user experience into the relevant set of semantic data. User experience is a critical factor in the success of the social semantic web. Great user experiences can support and reinforce communities of users, incentivize contributors to add value to existing data, inspire developer communities, and be a powerful engine of growth. This panel will consider two broad topics: (1) how social web technologies and semantic technologies can combine to improve user's daily experience of the web, and (2) how user experiences can be created to support self-reinforcing communitarian practices for the creation, access, curation, and linking of high-quality semantic data. Below are some sample questions for the panelists:

1. There are several types of potential user for semantic data: web information seekers, business users, systems integrators, mashup developers, and information designers. Each of these user types will favor different aspects of user experience. Are there interesting common elements or design principles between these user types which uniquely arise with respect to semantic data? Are there interesting distinctions?
2. Successful UIs and rewarding user experiences in this area are not really separable from externally-defined practices. The community practices that shaped Wikipedia’s approach to contribution, community editing, and accuracy are as important to the user experience as the elements of the UI design. What are the key factors that lie behind scalable, successful UIs and user experiences in semantically-oriented web applications?
3. Large-scale social Web systems invariably include practices that address trust and privacy requirements. How can we use user experience to reinforce advantageous practices for trust and privacy during the creation, publication, and use of semantic data?
4. Semantic representations come in various levels of ontological strength, from tags to RDFS to the varieties of OWL to more powerful logics. How do the user experience considerations evolve as we ascend the representational ladder? What are the principles surrounding socially-created semantics at each layer of the stack?
5. What features of user experience can create or reinforce social incentives to increase the breadth, depth, and quality of semantic data? What lessons can we draw from other successful social systems?
6. Virtually all semantic representation systems are based on a truth-functional semantic theory. They are often presented to users as pure true/false assertions, without the nuance, vagueness, and metaphoric reference that make natural language so flexible. How can we use user experience to shape or take advantage of these true/false expectations?

Note: All participant should feel free to grow the list by directly updating this page or contacting the organizers.