Facebook, the home of profiles for People, Comments, Groups, Pages, Games and Interests. It has traditionally been a very closed wall system with only the ability to link internally (i.e. Many Facebook People Profiles link to a Facebook Group Profile), or link outward (i.e. this Person gave this comment about this website).

However, this is slowly changing, we now see:

• “Facebook Like” buttons on websites around the web, allowing a Facebook user to easily say that they like a page.
• “Facebook Comments” on websites rather than being only within Facebook itself. For instance, the commenting system on Techcrunch.com is provided by the Facebook Comments system.
• The Social Graph API allowing developers to use the proprietary schema built using the JSON language. This effectively, using a few mappings, allows people to link into the Facebook system – and potentially grab the data (for data portability, or query purposes)

You see that all this Facebook data is starting to whirl around the world-wide-web in an increasingly “open” fashion. So we should start using it for our own good, and not just for the good of the Facebook Corporatation.

So how can we do this? The first way is to see what you can do with the new RDF/Turtle API interface that Facebook has developed. If you have curl installed then you’ll be able to do this:

curl -L -H ‘Accept: text/turtle’ graph.facebook.com/danieljohnlewis

Which returns the results:

@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
@prefix api: <tag:graph.facebook.com,2011:/> .
@prefix og: <http://ogp.me/ns#> .
@prefix fb: <http://ogp.me/ns/fb#> .
@prefix : <http://graph.facebook.com/schema/~/> .
@prefix user: <http://graph.facebook.com/schema/user#> .
</277003772#>
user:id "277003772" ;
user:name "Daniel Lewis" ;
user:first_name "Daniel" ;
user:last_name "Lewis" ;
user:link <http://www.facebook.com/danieljohnlewis> ;
user:username "danieljohnlewis" ;
user:gender "male" ;
user:locale "en_GB" .

There are of course other things you can do and “grab” once you’ve used authentication etc. I should also point out that neither the RDF/Turtle format nor the RDF framework is not actually required for “Linked Data”, it is only really the use of URIs/IRIs as dereference-able object identifiers.

However, this is all very developer centric, and wouldn’t make much sense to the average user. So why not plug the Linked Data from Facebook into a Data Exploration engine such as the Virtuoso Description Page view, see my version here:
http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http/www.facebook.com/danieljohnlewis

For more information about exploring a Facebook Person Profile using Virtuoso and OpenLink Data Explorer see the documentation: http://ode.openlinksw.com/FacebookPersonProfile.html

In conclusion Facebook, which traditionally has been a data silo is becoming a linkable data set. This is a good thing, granted Facebook does still have many rough edges (particularly regarding privacy/security issues) but hopefully we will see more of a progression into a truly Distributed/Decentralised Data-orientated Web. Facebooks progression into “opening up”, should be a call to many other data-silo/walled-garden type data services to better Facebook by becoming truly user-friendly systems, by opening up their data which is rightfully owned by their users.

[UPDATE - Highly recommend you read the following]

On 30th September my good friend Kingsley Idehen summarised “Facebook and Linked Data” in a wonderfully understandable Google+ Post (available here: https://plus.google.com/112399767740508618350/posts/6cqa1Sxk5KV (last accessed: 13th October 2011 at about 3:30pm BST)). Kingsley highlights how Facebook has given the Linked Data Web a bit of an evolutionary bump, using its Graph URIs and accessibility functions.

I would very highly recommend reading through Kingsleys post, as it seems to make a lot more sense than my own quickly made “quick post” from earlier on.

[/UPDATE]

It has been a while since I last made a useful update to my Vanir Systems Blog… so I thought that I should let you know what has been going on.

In my business life I’ve been incredibly busy working with OpenLink Software, where I am a Professional Services Consultant. I worked for OpenLink Software as a Technology Evangelist back in 2007-2008, I like the company so much that I accepted an offer to work with them again. So here I am as a PS Consultant!

Aside from OpenLink work (which takes up 100% of my full-time work time at the moment), in my spare time I’ve been doing a little bit of website design & development for the Order of The Grail, and some article writing for IBM developerWorks.

I’ve also been getting a lot more involved with my community – taking more of an active role in Church/Religion, Local Politics (North Somerset Liberal Democrats – Wraxall & Long Ashton Ward), the local Transitions Network Group (Transitions Long Ashton) and a new Local Energy Co-operative (ENECO). My “journey” as a “Journeyman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists” is going well, and of course I have a few other secular interests which are certainly progressing nicely. This all happens alongside me spending some lovely time with my wonderful wife (Beki) and two cats (Lucy and Ishtar).

It really is a very busy time for me at the moment, and I love it!

:-)

So thats a summary for you! Now I’ve got to get back to improving myself and helping society as best I can.

Daniel

p.s. feel free to get in touch with me:

• About OpenLink Software at my OpenLink Software email address which is: dlewis [at] openlinksw [dot] com
• About Vanir Systems work at my Vanir Systems email address: dlewis [at] vanirsystems [dot] com
• About personal stuff at my personal GMail/GTalk address: danieljohnlewis [at] gmail [dot] com

Just to let all my friends, colleagues and clients know that I shall be away from my desk and out of my office:

• From: Thursday 25th August 2011
• Until: Tuesday 30th August 2011

During this time I shan’t be picking up any work-based emails. This is because I’ll be in the middle of Cheltenham Racecourse enjoying Greenbelt Festival 2011 – which is an annual Festival with Music, Christian-Worship, Christian-Talks, Economic Talks, Ecological Talks and various other bits and pieces – it is a very Liberal and very Progressive festival (in comparison to many other Christian Festivals out there)

Many of you know that I find August one of the most stressful times of the year, and Greenbelt is my form of “getting away from it all”… before busy September steps in.

I’ll respond to any emails I get once I am back. I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Many many thanks,

Daniel

For the true technologist there is a clear progression from Relational Databases to Objective Databases (OO or ORM) to Graph Databases (including Linked Data Triple/Quad Stores). It is possible to “automatically devolve” (for want of a better phrase) newer data structures into the old data structures… but that’s not what I am trying to get to today.

I’m coming across many technologists who are forming cliques, and their language is becoming restricted to their cliques. This is worrying, because it forms islands which don’t trade (to use business terminology). Not only this, but it also restricts access to the average person in the street, the technologies and tools that these islands create can become more and more distant from their potential users.

The idea of “Whirling Databases” is not to see “Databases” in terms of a specific data structure or data management system, but to see databases as a generic repository for information, capable of inputting and outputting data in different formats and frameworks. In a Linked Data system, data needs to “whirl” around the web using “links” as their travelling routes. We should work together, collaboratively and collectively to achieve this.

As some of you know, I’ve recently been working quite closely with OpenLink Software to help them help others learn about Linked Data. Linked Data, as a generic term, is an incredibly powerful tool – and a tool that should never get bogged down in frameworks (such as RDF) or formats (such as RDF/XML), it should be applicable to all frameworks and formats capable of providing outbound links, and capable of receiving inbound links. I’ve been working with Virtuoso Universal Server solidly for over a year now (not just with OpenLink Software, but with other businesses too), and I truly believe that allows for this travelling via “links” in Linked Data for a variety of frameworks and formats – this is powerful stuff!

A couple of months ago I wrote about “Professional Memberships“, and how I was considering leaving the BCS (British Computing Society). Well, I’ve got a few months left, and I have decided to definitely not renew my membership.

The 7 reasons for my leaving:

1. It costs quite a bit of money, which in this current economic period isn’t great. Granted its not as much as some societies, but there are more reasons.
2. The only thing that I really “get out” of my membership is the use of the “MBCS” letters after my name. Granted this does mean that other people can understand that I am at a certain level of professionalism, but I can be at that level of professionalism without the letters and without the membership.
3. The BCS is far far too business orientated, its audience is primarily involved with the running of computing businesses. Granted it does have some technology based articles, and many of its interest-groups are academic in nature, but it just doesn’t fit with my niche.
4. The BCS has no events that I’m particularly interested in, and nothing really happens in Bristol / North Somerset. Granted that its probably one of those societies that you only get things out of it if you can put stuff in, but putting stuff in seems incredibly strenuous.
5. What I was trying to find in the BCS, I have found in the WCIT. The WCIT is practical, it has a better framework for personal development, it is both business and technology focused, it has some rather interesting panels and it is easy to “put stuff in” and “take stuff out” – therefore I am pleased to be a WCIT Journeyman.
6. There are events out there which are no-membership required, that are more interesting and more suited to my (technical and non-technical) interests.
7. I can rejoin BCS in the future if I wish to.

Of course, my reasons for leaving are clear for the here and now, but I should say that I’m sure that the BCS is useful and interesting for many. I do believe that the reason for the existence of the BCS is pure, and I do hope that I don’t sway people to leave it, or put off people from joining it just because of my current dissatisfaction.

At this present time I’ll be focusing on my computing-society-related involvement with the WCIT, but I may explore other areas in the future.

Feel free to comment!

In the last couple of weeks I’ve been using a programming language (Python) that I’ve not used extensively in the past to work on a unit of a production website, increasing the simplicity of the unit and hopefully also increasing the efficiency (Occam’s Razor stylie?). I have been learning “as I go along”, and with a little help from a borrowed book[1]. It has been fun, and I’ve found myself liking Python a lot more than I was expecting (as I documented in my previous blog post about My Python Learning Curve).

Within the past week I’ve also picked up a small project (almost finished), which was essentially “Web Design“. Those of you who know me, probably know that I’m not really a “designer” but a “developer”. So this has been a bit of a learning curve for me too, actual practical – production level use of CSS (both 2.1 and 3 – focusing on getting it working for Chrome, Webkit, Firefox and IE >= 8), and also some graphical work using the GIMP.

Being freelance means that I’ve been able to focus on learning new things, and doing it quickly – its something that I love. I may, or may not, use the new Python and Design skills in the future – but hopefully it helps me to become a more well-rounded freelancer. Variety is also a spice, and so it has been nice to step away from the PHP/MySQL and Semantic Web stuff that I’ve been doing for quite a while.

The next step is progression. Next week is the beginning of a new tax-year here in the United Kingdom, and I hope that I will be able to progress using some variety (as indicated above), some reuse of my existing skill set, some hard work, some networking and a bit of luck!

Where am I going (i.e. where am I progressing to)? Who knows where the path may take us? but travel it nonetheless in good faith taking decisions when needed.

I have figured out that at any one time I have:

• A favoured set of skills (skills that I already have, some of which might be rusty)
• A set of skills that I’ve recently been using or learning (skills that I have and are refreshed in my mind)
• A set of skills that I want to acquire
• A set of interests which I wish to apply my skills to

So I look for freelance work that will combine as many of the above as possible (so if you can help then please let me know!).

As I am becoming a Journeyman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, I shall be “paired up” with a mentor (someone who has many many more years in industry than I – although I do have quite a few already to be honest). This mentor will hopefully help to guide me on my career path, hopefully help me to avoid pitfalls that I have made in the past and choose good choices to make. I always hope that I can get more involved with the British Computer Society, but haven’t yet found their events particularly interesting (and when they do seem interesting, then they are usually somewhere else at some strange time).

So, time to plan combining skills and interests for the new tax year then!

Footnotes:

1. Learning Python by Mark Lutz

A quick lunchtime post…

I believe that each Christmas and New Year begins a fresh start. For me, I tend to truly look at the previous year and analyse it and calculate what I want to do in the future year and beyond. 2010 and was an interesting year, it saw my marriage, my transition between being employed to self-employed and me moving two times within 7 months! This was in addition to a few other interesting bits and pieces.

Now the general plan is to continue to improve myself, particularly being a freelancer/contractor. I want to get better at being organised, get better at communication and get better at estimating how long things will take. Its all about learning from mistakes, and learning fast! That’s my plan for 2011, and I hope to prepare for 2012 in some way too.

You should see some output from me being self-employed very soon. You’ve possibly seen a little already, but there is one particular “biggy” which shall be released very soon. I also have a couple of things I’ve been working on in my spare time, just for my own amusement/interest which will be released soon too.

So please do keep in touch all of you. If you live outside of Bristol (England), and happen to be passing through then give us a nudge as we may be able to have a quick catch-up.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Years Celebration, and hope to talk to you all soon. I’ve included some contact points at the bottom of this post if you do wish to get in touch.

Daniel
—
Daniel Lewis
- Location: Bristol, England
* Skype: daniel.lewis
* GTalk/Jabber/XMPP: danieljohnlewis {.at.} gmail {.dot.} com
* Twitter: danieljohnlewis
* Facebook: danieljohnlewis
* LinkedIn: danieljohnlewis

The International Knowledge Expo 2011: http://www.knowledge-expo.com/

It will be in mid-late 2011 in Bristol, UK. More details available on the website, please register your interest on the site to stay up to date.

I’ll be posting some informal information on this blog from time-to-time, but all formal information will be on the official website.

Here are some informal give-aways:
Slogan:

• “Building Knowledge Bridges”

Mission Statement:

• To bring together far reaching communities in order to share knowledge about working with knowledge.

We hope to have:

• Stalls
• Talks (including Keynotes)
• Job Advertising Areas
• Socialising Areas

So yes, please do keep up-to-date on: The International Knowledge Expo 2011 website: http://www.knowledge-expo.com/

Hi all,

I’ve slotted this into both the vanirsystems category (as it is a article written by me, Daniel Lewis), and the interesting category (as it is something other than technology – namely spirituality/theology).

I have written a new article for the company TRCB, it is about specific forms of Mysticism/Philosophy which have been inspired by Christianity. They are namely Theosophy, Anthroposophy and Swedenborgianism. The article attempts to compare them, their societies and their attached churches.

Heres the summary:

Theosophy, Anthroposophy and Swedenborgianism have had a reasonable amount of influence on modern day life: Theosophy brought many Buddhist and Hindu texts to the west, Anthroposophy brought new forms of teaching and mystical elements of Christianity to the mainstream, and Swedenborgianism has influences on philosophy and poetry. This article explores all three schools, and their respective societies and churches.

Heres the link to the full article:
Theosophy, Anthroposophy and Swedenborgianism – Their Societies and Churches (on TRCB)

Please do have a read, give me a good rating, and comment (either comment on here, or via a share on twitter or facebook or something like that). It is of course quite a concise article, its a topic which could definitely fill at least one book! So please keep that in mind. I’m happy to describe things in further detail if people need/want me to. One thing I forgot to mention is that Gandhi was involved with the Theosophical Society.

Many thanks, and the Brightest Blessings to all,

Daniel

Back in the office

First of all, I’d just like to say that I am back in the home-office after the honeymoon, and working hard! So I am now picking up emails, having meetings and doing work as usual… so do feel free to get in touch.

Language Processing

Secondly… Beki and I went to Sicily (a town called Cefalu’) on our honeymoon, and before we went I decided that it would probably be a good idea to learn some of the basics of Italian. I know a bit of Spanish, and a tiny bit of French and a very tiny bit of Swedish, so picking up the basics of another language could potentially be a bit easier than learning a language from scratch. While learning Italian it came to me that Italian, and the other Latin-based languages are incredibly “rules-based“, they follow quite strict grammar rules which are almost followed, even the shortening of sentences follow a certain rule. This differs from English, which I would call “lexicon-based“, where words have set meanings with a very subtle grammatical influence and are strung together using very liberal grammar rules.

The question then comes then, that, maybe it would be easier (i.e. more semantically viable) to do computational language processing – in its logical form rather than its statistical form – on a language such as Italian, or even Latin.

This is relevant for my research and development in Natural Language Processing, which I have always favoured the symbolic processing over the connectionist or statistical approaches. Maybe it is something I need to look into in more detail, and maybe there is some research about it elsewhere (if my readers know of any then please do let me know, either by a comment or by sending me an email!).