Proposal / WSIS Semantic Web gTLDs

Introduction

Proposal

Linguistic SWgTLDs

Contact

GENERAL PROPOSAL

The idea is to implement Semantic Web gTLDs (SWgTLDs), where are implemented and enforced those features :

All registrants in a specfic SWgTLD must follow the same ontology ( ie same set of metadata with rules ) whether described with the Web Ontology Language (OWL) or RDF schemas and/or a set of specific XML-schemas. Registrants that are not abiding by those rules shall be removed from the SWgTLD.
An Open Digital Ressource Identifier ( ODRI ) system shall be made available to all registrants. The ODRI system shall be integrated within the DNS system of the domain.
Use a strategy to fight against spam based ether on the DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) proposal or the OpenSPF (Open Sender Policy Framework ) proposal. Both strategies are working at the domain name level, and therefore it is easy to check.

Of course this proposal is a first sketch, and we are fully aware of the complexities, however they are not larger than those met at the previous evolutionnary steps of the Web, and it appears as a natural evolution of the Web in order to meet new challenges, combining grassroot and academic technologies.

Concerning the enforcement of the ontologies the sites are going to be checked using automatic tools, relying on human inspection only in extreme cases. The registration policy will make it clear that the registrant is waiving the registrar from all damages. The registrant takes a risk, and the penalty is relatively light since no site is destroyed. For some SWgTLD implementations, a registrant shall be obliged to have another traditional gTLD or ccTLD domain name to locate his/her site so that in case of penalty, his/her ressource can continue to be available on the Web.

Concerning the ODRI system, it shall be conceived as integrated within the DNS system of the SWgTLD ( through an update of the DNS protocal, and distribution of a new version the free software BIND ), both to take advantage of the existing DNS servers around the world, and to avoid the software patent patent over Digital Object Identifier ( DOI) (Pat. No. 6,135,646 ) "System for uniquely and persistently identifying, managing and tracking digital objects" (10/24/00) from the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). The CNRI hosts the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Secretariat, through Foretec Seminars, Inc., a subsidiary of CNRI. The ODRI identifier shall le conceived to follow or include the Torrent file format ( with possible improvements and extensions ) so that this identifier can used within the versatile and increasingly popular P2P BitTorrent system. Several versions of the same content can be used as various seeds. Furthermore, the location of various mirrored versions of the same content shall be made by using BitTorrent trackers maintained by the authorities managing the SWgTLD. It does not mean that content might necessarily be retrieved through the swarm controlled by this tracker, it does only mean that mirrored content will be located in this way. It might depends on the specific implementations for each SWgTLD.

In the last pages of the book "A Semantic Web Primer" (p 225) it is written : How one should deal with a multitude of ontologies ?. This problem ( known the ontology mapping problem ) is perhaps the hardest problem to be solved. ../.. Possibly the first success stories will not emerge from the open heterogeneous eovironment of the WWW but rather in intranets of large organizations. In such environments, central control may impose the use of standards and technologies, and possibly the first real success will emerge.

It is clear that our SWgTLDs proposal is going in the same direction, but on a much larger scale, and with more chance of success, because the problem of ontology negotiation and interface between various "intranets" ontologies would remain among a fierce competition within the business sector.

SPECIFIC IMPLEMENTATIONS

.ART as proposed by the WSIS-ARTS group.
.OPEN in the context of the WSIS-SI group
.FREE in the context of the WSIS-PCT group
.EQUI a global worlwide equitable market place, in the context of a topic related in part with the WSIS-finance group.
.CHAL for challenged people, ie people with disabilities.
.MEDIA for journals, television and other mass media
Language related semantic extension or Linguistic SWgTLDs or LSWgTLDs : an extension shall be assigned to each language ( according to the three-letter code ISO 639-2 ) so that sites or sites' versions written in specific languages can be easily found and identified. It would facilate greatly the task of search engines and would foster linguistic diversity, which is reaching its greatest wealth in Africa. These set of extensions shall be managed by the World Language Diversity Network (REDILI). Further informations concerning the LSWgTLDs are described in more details in the Linguistic SWgTLDs page.