Visualizing the Semantic Web: XML-based Internet and Information Visualization

The Web is undergoing revolutionary changes – its second generation is emerging. The key player in the new generation is not HTML but XML (this is why it is also known as "the XML-based Web"). If the appearance of web pages is a major concern in the first generation, then the meaning (or semantics) of information on the Web is the focus of the second generation, which is why it is also called "the Semantic Web." The new edition of the pioneering monograph on Visualising the Semantic Web has undergone a number of changes in order to reflect recent research results, web standards, developments and trends. In this new edition, 2 chapters have been removed, 4 new chapters have been added and the 10 remaining chapters have been completely revised and updated.

This pioneering book deals specifically with the visualization of the Second-Generation Web. Now in its second edition it has been completely revised and updated, and includes extensive new material. It focuses on key topics including:

• Visualization of semantic and structural information and metadata in the context of the emerging Semantic Web

• Ontology-based information visualization and the use of graphically represented ontologies

• Semantic visualizations using topic maps and graph techniques

• Web Services, e-commerce and web search applications

• Recommender systems for filtering and recommending on the Semantic Web

• SVG and X3D as new XML-based languages for 2D and 3D visualisations

• Methods used to construct and visualize high quality metadata and ontologies

• Navigating and exploring XML documents using interactive multimedia interfaces

• The use of semantic association networks as well as social networks on the Second-Generation Web

• Semantically enhanced solutions for the medical community

• Semantic-oriented use of existing visualization methods

The design of visual interfaces for e-commerce and information retrieval is currently a challenging area of practical web development. Most of the techniques and methods discussed can be applied now, making this book essential reading for web developers and end users as well as visualisation researchers.