Automatic generation of Semantic Email Processes

by
Jeff Lin

Semantic Email is an outgrowth of the vision of the Semantic Web into the email realm. The notion of semantic email is one of email messages containing machine-readable tags, along with explanatory text, which allow automation of common tasks (giving away items, obtaining RSVPs for invitations, etc.) requiring lightweight data manipulation. We refer to these tasks collectively as Semantic Email Processes. The process of creating a new Semantic Email Process has previously been a very messy and time-consuming task; each new process requiring the generation of several Java classes and hundreds of lines of Java code, as well as several HTML and text files. Here we outline using Resource Description Format as a way of defining all aspects of a Semantic Email Process, where the instantiation of every SEP â." from generating forms for user input, to validating the input, all the way through execution â." is derived completely at runtime from an RDF file. This streamlines the SEP creation process substantially, making it a relatively easy, declarative task for those with some technical expertise.

Advised by Oren Etzioni

EE1 037
Wednesday
May 12, 2004
3:30 - 4:20 pm