i360. Semantics in everything

Tony Sukiennik believes in the superiority of people over the power of the algorithm when it comes to the development of semantic technology. His company, infoGenome, an unknown startup that has been in the shadow for 4.5 years, has decided to show its potential by making semantics available using innovative “drag and drop” capabilities. The software they created - i360 is actually the application “Mahalo of semantic apps,” which is based on the user's ability to add semantic tags (metadata) to the information that we use daily. With i360, you can add semantics anywhere.

Semantics for the user

When you search for information on the Internet, you immediately understand which data is relevant and which is not. The developers of the i360 program call this understanding "the moment of information awareness." In seconds, you determine the usefulness of a particular information. But the problem is a huge number of ways to save the received data - you can place tags, bookmark, save the data as a file, send via e-mail, post on the blog, share with others, etc. Despite the huge choice, busy people most often try to just remember information, which inevitably leads to subsequent forgetting. In our information world, the human brain is already overloaded with information, therefore, it cannot be a reliable repository of received data.

So, the software should take care of this for us and remember everything we need. The i360 comes to the rescue. By itself, this application is just a prototype of a conceptual idea that, according to Tony, might be interested in Google or Microsoft. (Tony plans to offer his ideas to both companies).

The i360 application allows you to quickly add markup and semantic meaning to the data you are working with - whether it is a link to an Internet resource, e-mail, file, or something else. This process is easy to do with drag and drop into the application.

This is not to say that this application uses semantics in the technical sense of the word, information is not converted to machine-readable formats for use on the semantic web. The i360 simply adds semantics to everything by assigning an e-mail, PDF, link, note, spreadsheet, etc. The meaning is clear only to you, not to the computer or algorithm. This application does not rely on the semantic network, it is focused on your own database, which consists not only of links to web pages, but also files, contacts, email, keywords, and the i360 “knows” how they are related.

Although Tony believes that developers should not forget about the algorithm - in any case, research in this area must be continued - he is sure that his application allows users to combine and assign a certain value to the data, which computers cannot.

How it works?

If you do not work with the i360 directly, then it will be difficult for you to understand the principle of its operation. For ease of understanding, we begin the explanation from the end, that is, by obtaining the results of using the i360.

Imagine you are using Google Desktop Search or Google Enterprise Search, and instead of just clicking on the links that match your keywords, you get the following:


Argumented search results

Using this software, you can combine people, documents, notes into an original file. The process of such a union is carried out using the search and drag and drop method. Did you see a useful link? Drag to i360. Select the text and drag it as a description. Click on the button and a screenshot will be automatically added. Then you can connect this link with a person, a person with a Word document, a document with a search and e-mail, and so on, you can continue indefinitely.


Saving a Web Page

i360 technology can be used in companies to work with applications like SharePoint from Microsoft or any other application whose code base you have access to.

Using a 100-line code, information from these applications can be transferred to the i360, and like any other information is associated with a person, file, and so on.

This application may have something else. For example, the search itself can be started in a more structured format - limited only to what you need to find (an example is given below). Any item you are looking for is accessible with one click on a block of text, (it is placed on the side of the main text of the document), without saving to del.icio.us.


Directional search

The results of your search can be converted into a new file with links (example below), preserving the structure of your own headers and list items, then this file can be sent by e-mail or published on the Internet. If you find new information on a topic, whether it be a new link or a file, you just need to drag the new item into the i360 to instantly update the results.


You can share formatted results with others.

Suppose if a certain project team of a certain company would use this application, combining people, e-mail and searches to create a database about the project, then a year later, an employee of another department could find all the information about this project and its participants, even if all employees have already changed jobs. Now all the information about this or that project will not be in the head of this or that person, but will be available to all employees. Employees may quit, but all information they find and related data will be saved.

Are improvements needed?

The concept of the “drag and drop” semantics is itself magnificent, although it has not been fully implemented in practice. By installing the i360 application, you will not immediately understand what's what, you will have to learn how to use this program. Given the abundance of web applications, the main thing that attracts users is their simplicity and accessibility. The Enterprise 2.0 trend implies ease of use of consumer applications and the transfer of affordable applications to the business world. But, unfortunately, this application does not meet these requirements.

The user interface itself is confusing. The developers did a bit strange - for example, the address bar is located at the bottom of the page; buttons marked with the “E +” icon - a link to the name of the part of the software used, which will confuse an inexperienced user. The graphics and fonts used in the application look outdated.


User Interface

Conclusion

Despite all the above about the user interface, nevertheless, this idea regarding semantics is relevant in itself, provided that it is finalized. It is safe to say that this technology is the future.