Category Archives: Tools & Software

Andreas Blumauer

17 Video Tutorials are available now: Learn how to use PoolParty – step by step!

by , Category: Tools & Software, Videos & Tutorials

Learn how to make use of PoolParty, step by step! Each video is about a specific feature or functionality of PoolParty Thesaurus Server or PoolParty Extractor. By walking through all the modules you learn how to use PoolParty for your Semantic Information Management.

This series of tutorials has been produced in cooperation with our partner Term Management, LLC.

Andreas Blumauer

PoolParty: SKOS is the basis for Enterprise Knowledge Graphs

by , Category: Tools & Software, Videos & Tutorials
The latest release of PoolParty Thesaurus Server offers a comfortable GUI to extend SKOS thesauri by other RDF schemas in order to create highly linkable knowledge graphs which now can be deployed into a Virtuoso RDF database.

In its core, PoolParty is built upon SKOS, W3C’s standard to define controlled vocabularies like taxonomies or thesauri. However, the latest release 3.2.2 of the well known Thesaurus Software offers a highly flexible RDF schema editor to introduce either widely accepted schemas like FOAF or SIOC or even individual ones, customized to one’s own needs.

“This extension of PoolParty offers new options to our clients to create highly expressive knowledge graphs. Custom schemas can also be used to make links between differing enterprise vocabularies. One the other hand we have taken care not to overload the PoolParty user interface with unwanted complexity”, says Helmut Nagy, COO of the Semantic Web Company.

Watch this video to get an impression how this new feature works:

In addition to “Custom Schemas”, PoolParty Thesaurus Server is now integrated with Virtuoso Universal Server. Thesaurus managers can ‘deploy’ stable versions of their knowledge graphs into a Virtuoso RDF store. Virtuoso is well-known for its high performance even when complex queries are made across different (named) graphs.

The following video will show a short demo of this brandnew feature which opens up completely new options for big data solutions based on enterprise linked data integration:

To get a complete overview over all new features of PoolParty Thesaurus Server 3.2.2, please take a look at the release notes.

Andreas Blumauer

It’s All about Finding the Needle in the Big Data Haystack

by , Category: Companies & Institutions, Open Government Data, Semantic Web Applications, Tools & Software

Wolters Kluwer Deutschland GmbH and Viennese Semantic Web Company agree on cooperating on the development of innovative and highly efficient products for data, information and metadata management.

Cologne/Vienna (February 05, 2013) – Wolters Kluwer Deutschland (WKD), knowledge and information service provider located in Cologne and the Austrian Semantic Web Company (SWC) act in collusion with each other. The aim of this cooperation is to offer the sustainable creation and targeted usage of domain specific thesauri and enterprise taxonomies based on Linked Data technologies as a market-ready and ready to use product.

Whereas WKD with its core competences in law, business, tax, finance and health is covering the domain and methodological dimension of the cooperation, SWC is contributing the technological know-how. Main target is to fulfill concrete needs and requirements of customers in a highly efficient and practical way.
“Our offering is addressing large national institutions like ministries, federal agencies and social insurances as well as banks. This includes also larger NGOs and administrations that have an international focus”, explains WKD content architect Christian Dirschl the direction of the cooperation. As with searching and finding the ‘proverbial needle in the data haystack’, we also address specialists like large law firms or smaller units in large enterprises, “who are specifically working on legal matters, making with their work an important contribution to the success of the company as a whole.” Especially knowledge domains like law, industry, tax and finance are getting more and more intransparent on global scale, Dirschl explains, “so that semantic technologies and Linked Data methods gain importance”.
Amongst others, the following services and products are offered, based on this cooperation:
  • Metadata management and enterprise thesaurus management
  • Semantic search and data integration
  • Text mining and knowledge extraction
  • Creation of knowledge networks and knowledge management systems
  • Supporting the creation of Linked Data and Open Data infrastructures
We observed in the last 10 years “how search and linking of information have gained importance in certain domains and what competitive advantages can evolve from that,” stresses Andreas Blumauer, managing director of SWC. “Our customer base profits from this cooperation. We immediately guarantee state-of-the-art technologies paired with professional domain assistance, e.g. with the creation of domain taxonomies and thesauri, so that information resources can be used more efficiently”, Blumauer says.

About Wolters Kluwer Germany
Wolters Kluwer Germany is an information services company specializing in the legal, business and tax sectors. Wolters Kluwer provides pertinent information to professionals in the form of literature, software and services. Headquartered in Cologne, it has over 1,200 employees located at over 20 offices throughout Germany and has been conducting business on the German market for over 25 years.
Wolters Kluwer Germany is part of the leading international information services company, Wolters Kluwer n.v., located in Alphen aan den Rijn (The Netherlands). The core market segments, targeting an audience of professional users, are legal, business, tax, accounting, corporate and finance services, and healthcare.  Its shares are quoted on the Euronext Amsterdam (WKL), and are included in the AEX and the Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has annual sales of 3.4 billion Euros (2011), employs approx.19,000 people worldwide and has over 40 offices located throughout Europe, North America and Asia Pacific and in Latin America.
Andreas Blumauer

Extended Thesaurus Management with SKOS Collections and SPARQL Lists

by , Category: Ontology Engineering, Tools & Software

The latest release of PoolParty Thesaurus Server comes with some interesting new features: Besides an improved user dialogue for thesaurus alignment, dynamic lists (SPARQL lists) and SKOS Collections have been introduced. 

SPARQL lists are lists of concepts or specific data from concepts based on pre-defined SPARQL queries. The SPARQL list framework is very flexible and makes dynamic access from third-party applications to specific lists of concepts of your thesaurus possible: it is easy to add new lists on demand, e.g. to define certain workflow tasks, or to display all concepts of a defined status for further editing.

SKOS Collections (as part of the W3C SKOS standard) are useful where a group of concepts shares something in common, and it is convenient to group them under a common label, or where some concepts can be placed in a meaningful order. See how it works: