A Semantic Web for End Users

For whom are we creating the Semantic Web? As we wrestle with our ontologies, alignments, inference methods, entity extractions and triple stores, it's easy to lose track of the vast majority of users who have no idea what any of these things are, who they help, or what problems they'll solve. In this talk, I'll adopt the perspective of these end users. I'll identify a number of information management problems faced by them---such as organizing their personal information, communicating effectively on the web, and handling their incoming information overload. The Semantic Web can play a key role in solving these problems. But what will matter most to end users is not the details of the Semantic Web's syntax, model, or algorithms, but rather the interfaces and workflows through which end users interact with it. I will describe key characteristics of these interfaces and workflows, and offer an overview of the research that needs to be done to develop them as effective solutions for end users.