The document discusses a vision for semantic publishing where the distinction between data and publications becomes blurred. It argues that as publishing moves to a semantic model, data and publications will be intrinsically interwoven. The document outlines this transition from the linear document models of print to current digital scholarly environments to emerging semantic publishing approaches. These semantic approaches allow publishing at the granular level of words and sentences, enable linking of content both within and across publications, and integrate publications and data. However, challenges remain in formalizing semantics and linking in some disciplines like the social sciences and humanities. Overall, the document advocates that attention, rather than just data volume, will be the currency in semantic publishing environments.

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Publications = Data, Data ≠ Publications
A Semantic Publishing Vision
Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin / School of Library and Information Science
stefan.gradmann@ibi.hu-berlin.de

2. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 2
A Three-Course Menu
Hors d'oeuvre: The distinction of 'publications'
and 'data' never worked universally!
Main course: Gutenberg Galaxy → Turing
Galaxy → Semantic Publishing
Dessert: Surprise

3. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 3
Hors d'Oeuvre
Data = Publication ≠ Data?

4. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 4
Where the distinction never
really worked ...
Publication formats and research data have always been
intrinsically disjoint in the STM area: this fact is at the origin of
of the conference theme …
… there was until recently no inherent connection between the
publishing container and the published content (hence the
success of tools like http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/!)
'Data' and 'publication' belong to different signification models!
Publishing formats of scholarly discourse and the objects
of this discourse are intrinsically interwoven in large parts of
the humanities …
… producing books about books!
Discourse and meta-discourse (data and publications)
traditionally are part of one shared model of signification!

5. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 5
Main Course
Towards Semantic Publishing

6. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 6
Linear Document Continuum ...
… in the Gutenberg galaxy

7. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 7
Linear Document Continuum ...
… in emulation mode

8. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 8
Linear Document Continuum ...
… going digital (entering Turing galaxy)

9. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 9
Decreasing functional determination by traditional cultural techniques
Disintegration of the linear / circular functional paradigma
Erosion of the monolithic document notion in hypertext paradigms
Web Based Scholarly Working Continuum ...
… a triple paradigm shift: Beyond Documents

10. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 10
Ted Nelson's Xanadu:
radicalised Hypertext ...

11. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 11
… the web of 'documents'
extended with a web of 'things' ...

12. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 12
… another instance of
the web of 'things' ...

13. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 13
… and 'publication' aggregations
combining 'documents' and 'things'
Where do resource
aggregations
'start'? Where do
they 'end'?
And what
constitutes
document
boundaries??
And which node
was connected to
which one at a
given time???
A
B
C

14. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 14
Machines can reason
on triple sets!

15. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 15
Some reasoning preconditions ...

16. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 16
… and an automated inference!
There is quite some potential for generating scholarly heuristics here!

17. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 17
The use of InferencesCitation:Citation: van Haagen HHHBM, 't Hoen PAC, Botelho Bovo A, de Morrée A, van Mulligen EM, et al.van Haagen HHHBM, 't Hoen PAC, Botelho Bovo A, de Morrée A, van Mulligen EM, et al.
(2009) Novel Protein-Protein Interactions Inferred from Literature Context. PLoS ONE 4(11): e7894.(2009) Novel Protein-Protein Interactions Inferred from Literature Context. PLoS ONE 4(11): e7894.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007894 / Example provided by Jan Velteropdoi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007894 / Example provided by Jan Velterop

18. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 18
LoD: Billions of Triples …
… and Semantic Publishing!
http://esw.w3.org/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData/DataSets
34

19. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 19
Semantic Publishing as
Defined by Shotton
Shotton et al. (2009b) define semantic publication to include
anything that
enhances the meaning of a published journal article,
facilitates its automated discovery,
enables its linking to semantically related articles,
provides access to data within the article in actionable form,
or
facilitates integration of data between articles.
Example of an enhanced article

20. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 20
An example

21. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 21
Semantic Enrichment Tools
Generic:
OpenCalais (http://www.opencalais.com/)
Temis (http://www.temis.com/)
Specialised:
Bio Taxon Finder (http://www.ubio.org/index.php?pagename=x​
ml_services)
ConceptWebAlliance (http://conceptwiki.org) (Biomedical, Jan
Velterop)
Good critique by Roderic Page:
http://iphylo.blogspot.com/2009/04/semantic-publishing-towards-real.html
“linking terms to HTML pages doesn't get us much further. Great for
humans, not so good for computers.”
Too much focus on journal article format!
→ We need a little more!

22. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 22
Semantic Micro-Content: PAUX
PAUX is a Semantic Wiki, which is not based on static HTML
pages, but instead consists of dynamic documents, which
are provided at runtime from semantic microcontent
(“PAUX-Objects”), which are semantically linked by “PAUX-
Links”
PAUX (http://www.paux.de): origins in eLearning
Microcontent elements have HTTP URIs!
→ PAUX documents can be published as Linked (Open) Data
aggregations with maximum granularity: down to word level.

23. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 23
Granular Semantic Publishing:
Paux (1)

24. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 24
Very Granular Semantic
Publishing: Paux (2)

25. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 25
Semantic Publishing: Paux (3)

26. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 26
Linked Semantic Publishing:
Paux (4)

27. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 27
Linked Semantic Publishing:
Paux (5)

28. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 28
Social Semantic Publishing:
Paux (6)

29. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 29
Paux live (1): Outline &
Sentences
c

30. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 30
Paux live (2): Sentence &
Linking Options

31. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 31
Paux live (3): Word &
Hyperlinks

32. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 32
Paux live (4): Word &
Link to Sentence

33. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 33
Data = Publication
Distinction data vs. publication will get increasingly obsolete
in semantic publishing environments …
… at least (and somewhat paradoxically) in the STM sector.
The move into semantic publication will be much slower in
the SSH because of
fuzzy and unstable terminology
fuzzy linking semantics hard to formalise consistently
close relation between complex document formats and
scholarly discourse
Current examples are mostly from the medical and bio-
medical area as a consequence.
=> Jan Velterop's concept of “Nano-Publications” or Bill
Town's examples from chemistry (namely OreChem)

34. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 34
Dessert Surprise

35. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 35
Semantics and Reputation:
Valued Resources
How to create value in the sense of building reputation?
The currency in semantic publishing will not just be 'data
volume' or 'amount of information' but 'attention'!
Creating attention is the hidden driving force behind the 2.0
hype, as well.
A resource that doesn't deserve attention will be of little value in
such an environment.
Semantic contextualisation is key for creating attention in
future scholarly environments (think back to LoD cloud!)
The elementary digital curation decision thus remains a very
old one: what to semantically enrich (and thus add value to)
- and what to forget?
Do not keep data, nor information: preserve knowledge!
Context is king!

36. Data <=> Publications / Prof. Dr. Stefan Gradmann
London: Fourth Bloomsbury Conference 36
Some Reading
David Shotton (2009a): Semantic Publishing. The coming revolution
inscientific journal publishing. Learned Publishing Volume 22, No 2, 85–94,
April 2009; doi:10.1087/2009202
David Shotton et al. (2009b): Adventures in Semantic Publishing:
Exemplar Semantic Enhancements of a Research Article (
http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000361)
Barend Mons, Jan Velterop: Nano-Publication in the e-science era (
http://www.surffoundation.nl/SiteCollectionDocuments/Nano-Publication%20-%20
)
Strategic Reading, Ontologies and the Future of sc. Publishing (Alan
Renear / Carol Palmer) Science August 2009