[OSM-dev] GSoC: formalising knowledge in OSM

[Karl Guggisberg]

Hi Radomír

four months ago we saw a similar discussion on this list. It lead to a
proposal for a machine-readable map-feature list [1] and to a proposal for
managing map features using Semantic MediaWiki, see the wiki prototype[2].
There is also an article on the OSM wiki which tries to explain how  the Web
Ontology Language, Semantic Mediawiki and OSM map features are related[3].

Unfortunatelly, we didn't make any progress in the last two months. I'd
still be interested in a well-managed machine-readable map feature list and
I encourage you to pursue your ideas.

Regards
Karl 

[1] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Machine-readable_Map_Feature_list
[2] http://dev.openstreetmap.org/~edgemaster/semwiki/index.php/Main_Page
[3]
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Machine-readable_Map_Feature_list/OWL_Sem
antic_Wiki_and_more


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: dev-bounces at openstreetmap.org [mailto:dev-bounces at openstreetmap.org] Im
Auftrag von Radomír Cernoch
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 25. März 2009 10:36
An: dev at openstreetmap.org
Betreff: [OSM-dev] GSoC: formalising knowledge in OSM

Dear Openstreetmap community,

My name is Radomir Cernoch and as a long-time OSM user, I have recently
started creating maps. I must say I was quite surprised, how difficult it is
to start producing maps in a proper way and good quality -- the
possibilities and complexness of OSM is quite high.

Since I am a student (doing AI, knowledge engineering specialism) I thought
about the currently running GSoC 2009, in which OSM takes part. My idea,
which I am proposing, is to build a taxonomy of map elements formalised in
an ontology, which could formally define and classify them. I believe that
such project could build a well-structured knowledge base aiding beginners
to understand nitty-gritties of mapping, yet still useable for skilled
users.

Its main long-term benefit would then be providing a single place to store
all knowledge about map elements, which could be used across whole OSM
project (JOSM, maplint, rendering and web front-end). This can unify the
data duplicated between eg. JOSM menus and wiki documentation.

I am not sure how familiar are you with knowledge engineering, so I thought
I would propose some areas, where such technology could be useful and let
you ask about anything you might want to. Currently I can think of
exploiting this idea in following areas:

- Creating an automatic and coherent documentation for wiki. An ontology
includes a clearly defined taxonomy and annotations, which can be easily
converted into a well arranged web page.
- Integration into JOSM could provide a more user-friendly GUI:
Currenty the "presets" menu allow you to assign predefined key-value pairs
to a node or path, but there is no way how to edit existing key-value pairs
of existing element (apart from editing them by hand).
An ontology could provide a clean way to determine which real-world element
corresponds to current node and provide appropriate options.
- Handle region specific delicacies. Eg. In Czech Republic we have a very
specific tourist signs. In the proposed system such knowledge could be
easily incorporated, but become filtered out for different countries.

Then there are some other areas, where it could be benefitial (but I have
not gone into these ideas very deep):
- Assisting in building an search engine for structured queries. Eg.
google maps provides a great search engine for unstructured queries like
"Bus station in Prague". The advantage of OSM can be to pose precise
questions like "bus station in Prague which has wheel-chair access". With an
ontology, translation of such questions into SQL should be easy.
- Ontologies are a big topic in semantic web and they could potentially help
OSM in this field.
- As the ontology represents general, high-level ideas, it should not suffer
from API changes.

As far as the GSoC is concerned, I was thinking about including the
following bits: Firstly create the initial ontology to support at least all
official map elements. Possibly, there could be an API to it, which would
encapsulate common operations and reasoning to provide an easy integration
into standard programming languages. Lastly an export to wiki (or even
import?) utility would be created in order to expose and promote this
technology to users and developers.

I am happy to hear any comments and criticism from you (especially from
people who offered to supervise GSoC students this year).

Yours sincerely,
Radomir Cernoch

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