A widget library for creating policy-aware semantic Web applications

Abstract

In order to truly reap the benefits of the Semantic Web, there must be adequate tools for writing Web applications that aggregate, view, and edit the widely varying data the Semantic Web makes available. As a step toward this goal, I introduce a Javascript widget library for creating Web applications that can both read from and write to the Semantic Web. In addition to providing widgets that perform editing operations, access control rules for user-generated content are supported using FOAF+SSL, a decentralized authentication technique, allowing for users to independently manage the restrictions placed on their data. I demonstrate this functionality with two examples: an aggregator application for exploring information about musicians from multiple data stores, and a universal annotation widget that allows users to make public and private comments about any resource on the Semantic Web.