Is the semantic web now becoming a reality. Sir Tim Berners-Lee has said all the tools are in place, it just needs people to collate the data and make the applications. As mentioned yesterday we have been trialling one of the recent tools developed by Reauters called Calais.
The techno language bit is a bit baffling to a non-techie like me but I have understood enough to run a few queries on what I call challenging texts. Would it be able to distiguish between company names, places and people? The image above is an extract from the output and I must admit I am pretty impressed. Although it failed a few times yesterday, on this extract from the FT it was able to distingussh between Zurich the financial services company and the Swiss town – pretty good!
Michael:
Thought you might be interested – we’ve released a web-based submission tool that allows you to explore not just the entities extracted – but the events and facts as well. It’s hosted at http://sws.clearforest.com/calaisviewer. This tool will give you a much better view of the full Calais capabilities.
Regards,
Thanks Tom, appreciate the comment. I had a look at the web-based tool and it really helps clarify what’s going on. I just grabbed a bit of FT text on Zurich Financial Services results and the system was not entirely successful in distinguishing between the city and the firm. Getting this right is possibly unreasonable and would involve complete understanding of the text. But, I am a believer so I will persevere! Best, Michael