[x3d-public] X3D Semantic Web Working Group minutes, 10 JAN 2019: approval, OSNAP, EG2019

Thu Jan 10 10:13:43 PST 2019

3.0 *Attendees*. Jakub Flotynski, Athanasios Malamos, Christophe Mouton, Nicholas Polys, Don Brutzman.

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3.1 *Working group*.  Congratulations everyone!  The Web3D Consortium Board of Directors has approved the charter and goals of our new working group.

* X3D Semantic Web Working Group
    http://www.web3d.org/x3d-semantic-web-working-group

* X3D Semantic Web Working Group Charter
    http://www.web3d.org/x3d-semantic-web-working-group-charter

Board members thank and congratulate everyone participating in this work.  Very impressive.

OK let's get to work!   8)

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3.2 *Open Semantic Network Analysis Platform (OSNAP)*.

	Semantic Network Analysis Platform (SNAP)
	http://vis.arc.vt.edu/projects/osnap/home.html

Assets
	Open Semantic Network Analysis Platform (OSNAP)
	https://github.com/VT-Visionarium/osnap

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"Graph visualization continues to be a major challenge in the field of information visualization meanwhile gaining importance due to the power of graph-based formulations across a wide variety of domains from knowledge representation to network flow, bioinformatics and software optimization. We present LinkLayout, an open visualization framework, initially designed for the flexible composition of 2D and 3D ontology layouts.

Analysts can filter and map a graph’s attributes and structural properties to a variety of geometric forms including shape, color, and position. Using the Provider software engineering pattern, developers can extend the framework with additional mappings and layout algorithms.

The first version of our framework was designed to address the problem of ontology visualization as applied to the domain of engineering knowledge bases, specifically ontologies. Our results have shown this to be successful (See Gallery). However, our first-principles approach to the framework design and software engineering has resulted in a flexible framework that can be a used in a wide variety of domains. We will publish the code on sourceforge and released it under the liberal Apache2 license in hopes the community will adopt and extend it."

OSNAP 1.0.0 is open source.  Currently supports:

      Import: GraphML and OWL
      Export: X3D; our testing has been focused toward the InstantReality
      rendering engine and X3DOM.org support. We have also produced
      compliant X3D for Bitmanagement Contact, OctagaVS and Xj3D

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Gallery
	http://vis.arc.vt.edu/projects/osnap/Gallery.html

Project Specifications: What is SNAP?

	http://vis.arc.vt.edu/projects/osnap/Project_Specifications.html

"Abstract. Both research and industry are facing the issue of analyzing vast amounts data. Much of that data is highly interrelated and provides challenges for sense making. Graph visualization has the potential of aiding the sense making process. However, graph visualization and exploration are hard problems as well. This project attempts to develop a graph-visualization framework (SNAP) that allows for the creation of highly customized visualizations.

Problem Statement. Graph visualization continues to be a challenging field within the visualization domain and its importance is increasing due to the prevalence of graph-based problems in e-Design. The challenges of graph visualization stem from the nature of graphs and the amounts of data to be represented. Thus, while a graph with 50 nodes and 70 edges may be easy to visualize, this does not hold for graphs orders of magnitude larger. Furthermore, oftentimes it is not even the case that the structural data is the point of main interest, but rather the attributes or metadata associated with the graph, the nodes, or the edges. We focus on the visualization of ontologies. Ontologies (semantic networks) can be represented using mixed pseudo graphs (i.e., graphs that can contain loops, multiple edges between nodes, and both directed and undirected edges). As such, ontology visualization faces the same problems as graph visualization, most notably the so-called “Hairball Effect” (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Ontology visualization using a 2D force-directed layout with one (left), two (center), or three (right) relationships.  Algorithms and toolkits for graph visualization have the disadvantage that they are not specifically targeted at ontologies. Yet ontologies have an inherent structure that can be leveraged in layout algorithms: they contain hierarchical relationships (e.g., the subclass relationship) and data type properties, which represent paths of length one. This structure disappears in general graph layouts. Furthermore, the metadata contained in ontologies can be used to enhance its visual representation. However, support for custom mappings from the metadata contained in ontologies to different visual properties (such as color, shape, size, etc.) is not widely supported in graph visualization toolkits today. Moreover, current graph visualization toolkits only provide support for a limited number of input and output formats without the possibility for easy extension. This limits the usefulness of these toolkits due to the huge variety of data formats prevalent in both research and industry."

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We discussed at some length how X3D Ontology can include both structural and visualization aspects of 3D models.

Wow, totally cool.  At International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) in Asilomar CA a few months back, multiple companies and groups have been experimenting with these kinds of techniques.

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3.3 *EG2019 workshop*.  Jakub brought up a really interesting opportunity, Eurographics 2019 workshop proposals are being solicited.

	Eurographics Conference. 6-10 May 2019, Italy
	https://www.eurographics2019.it/index.php/for-submitters/workshops/

Jakub discussed a possible proposal for University of Poznan to EuroGraphics possibly including EuroVR association and participants in this group as well.

	https://www.eurovr-association.org

Very interesting opportunities!  Further discussion will continue.  This will happen quickly.

* Proposal Submission Deadline: January 14, 2019
* Notification of Acceptance:   January 21, 2019

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3.4 *Communications*.  We will be preparing press releases and announcements for the working group.

Member participants are requested to provide a description paragraph, short quote and link describing both their completed work and future goals.

Our charter has asked for a new mailing list for this group - will advise when that occurs.

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3.5 *Schedule*.  We will continue meeting weekly, immediately following the Web3D Design Printing and Scanning (DPS, CAD) Working Group teleconference.

* Routine: 0900-1000 pacific Thursday

* Regrets for next 1-2 weeks: several of us will be traveling and attending the Web3D Korea Chapter meetings in Seoul Korea, 21-25 JAN 2019.  We will be briefing the activities of this group there.

	http://www.web3d.org/event/web3d-korea-chapter-and-isoiec-jtc-1sc24-wg9

* Next week: we might meet at a different time, perhaps one hour later or one day earlier.  Jakub will coordinate by email.

For Web3D members, teleconference information is online at

	http://www.web3d.org/member/teleconference-information

Web3D membership has value.  Please join us in these important endeavors.

	Join the Web3D Consortium
	http://www.web3d.org/join

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Have fun with Semantic X3D!

all the best, Don
-- 
Don Brutzman  Naval Postgraduate School, Code USW/Br       brutzman at nps.edu
Watkins 270,  MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000 USA   +1.831.656.2149
X3D graphics, virtual worlds, navy robotics http://faculty.nps.edu/brutzman