From: Claudio Sacerdoti Coen Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 17:44:42 +0000 (+0000) Subject: First MOWGLI paper. Many others will follow. X-Git-Tag: V_0_3_0_debian_8~170 X-Git-Url: http://matita.cs.unibo.it/gitweb/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=0b98d26b91686aa610e53dc7aca882f914994be6;p=helm.git First MOWGLI paper. Many others will follow. --- diff --git a/helm/mowgli/home/html/Makefile b/helm/mowgli/home/html/Makefile index a6c631fb3..805650404 100644 --- a/helm/mowgli/home/html/Makefile +++ b/helm/mowgli/home/html/Makefile @@ -120,6 +120,8 @@ DOCUMENTS = \ sites/nijmegen.html \ sites/trusted-logic.html \ publications/index.html \ + publications/mowgli/crimea2002_aw_on_line.html \ + publications/mowgli/crimea2002_aw.html \ publications/others/category_al.html \ publications/others/crimea2001_apss.html \ publications/others/cup_s.html \ @@ -289,12 +291,16 @@ publications/index.html: $(XMLROOT)/publications/index.xml \ $(XSLTP) $(XSLROOT)/publications-index.xsl $< | $(XSLTP) --param path_to_top "'..'" --param use_frames "'$(FRAMES)'" -o $@ $(XHTMLCONTENT) - +publications/mowgli/%_on_line.html: $(XMLROOT)/publications/mowgli/%_on_line.xml \ + $(XHTMLCONTENT) + $(XSLTP) --param path_to_top "'../..'" --param use_frames "'$(FRAMES)'" -o $@ $(XHTMLCONTENT) $< + + publications/%.html: $(XMLROOT)/publications/%.xml \ $(XSLROOT)/publication.xsl \ $(XHTMLCONTENT) $(XSLTP) $(XSLROOT)/publication.xsl $< | $(XSLTP) --param path_to_top "'../..'" --param use_frames "'$(FRAMES)'" -o $@ $(XHTMLCONTENT) - - work-packages/index.html: $(XMLROOT)/work-packages/index.xml \ $(XSLROOT)/work-packages_index.xsl \ $(XHTMLCONTENT) diff --git a/helm/mowgli/home/html/publications/mowgli/.cvsignore b/helm/mowgli/home/html/publications/mowgli/.cvsignore index e69de29bb..05440f9e4 100644 --- a/helm/mowgli/home/html/publications/mowgli/.cvsignore +++ b/helm/mowgli/home/html/publications/mowgli/.cvsignore @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +crimea2002_aw.html +crimea2002_aw_on_line.html diff --git a/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/index.xml b/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/index.xml index 677cd50c8..7ea341ef1 100644 --- a/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/index.xml +++ b/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/index.xml @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ - + diff --git a/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/mowgli/crimea.xml b/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/mowgli/crimea.xml deleted file mode 100644 index 104cf586b..000000000 --- a/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/mowgli/crimea.xml +++ /dev/null @@ -1,410 +0,0 @@ - - - MOWGLI - A New Approach for the Content Description in Digital - Documents - - - -

MOWGLI - A New Approach for the Content Description in Digital Documents

- -

Andrea Asperti, University of Bologna, and Bernd Wegner, TU Berlin

- - -

Abstract:

- -

The acronym MOWGLI stands for "Mathematics On the Web: Get it by Logic and -Interfaces". MOWGLI is an European Project founded by the European Community -in the ``Information Society Technologies'' (IST) Programme. The partners are -the University of Bologna, INRIA (Rocquencourt), the German Research Centre -for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI, Saarbruecken), the Katholieke Universiteit -Nijmegen, the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein -Institute, Golm), Trusted Logic (Paris) and TU Berlin.

- -

The aim of the project is the study and the development of a technological -infrastructure for the creation and maintenance of a virtual, distributed, -hypertextual library of mathematical knowledge based on a content description -of the information. Currently, almost all mathematical documents available on -the Web are marked up only for presentation, severely crippling the -potentialities for automation, interoperability, sophisticated searching -mechanisms, intelligent applications, transformation and processing. The goal -of MOWGLI is to overcome these limitations, passing from a machine-readable to -a machine-understandable representation of the information, and developing the -technological infrastructure for its exploitation.

- -

The project deals with problems traditionally belonging to different -scientific communities: digital libraries, Web publishing, automation of -mathematics and computer aided reasoning. Any serious solution to the complex -problem of mathematical knowledge management needs a co-ordinated effort of -all these groups and a synergy of their different expertise. MOWGLI attempts -to build a solid co-operation environment between these communities. The -current paper will concentrate on the aspects related to digital libraries.

- - -

1. Aims and mission of MOWGLI

- -

After a ten years period of electronic publishing in mathematics we are still -confronted with slightly enhanced electronic versions of printed publications. -Almost all mathematical documents available on the Web are marked up only for -presentation, if such an enhancement is available at all. Only a minority of -documents try to care about some of the potentialities for automation, -interoperability, sophisticated searching mechanisms, intelligent -applications, transformation and processing. But these approaches could be -considered as first preliminary steps towards an electronic document providing -all these facilities. Hence, the goal of MOWGLI is to overcome these -limitations, passing form a machine-readable to a machine-understandable -representation of the information, and developing the technological -infrastructure for its exploitation.

- -

In order to reach this goal MOWGLI has to deal with problems traditionally -belonging to different scientific communities: digital libraries, Web -publishing, automation of mathematics and computer aided reasoning. To our -knowledge, MOWGLI is the first attempt to build a solid co-operation -environment between these communities. In principle, any serious approach for -providing good tools for mathematical knowledge management needs a -co-ordinated effort of several partners from the above mentioned communities -and a synergy of -their different expertise. The choice of partners for the took this condition -into account, as can be seen below.

- -

The goals of MOWGLI largely overlap with the aims of the so called "Semantic -Web" [14]. -Associating meaning with content or establishing a layer of machine -understandable data will allow automated agents, sophisticated search engines -and interoperable services and will enable higher degree of automation and -more intelligent applications. The ultimate goal of the Semantic Web is to -allow machines to share and exploit knowledge in the Web way, i.e. without -central authority, with few basic rules, in a scalable, adaptable, extensible -manner. However, the actual development of the Semantic Web and its -technologies has been hindered so far by the lack of large scale, distributed -repositories of structured, content oriented information. The case of -mathematical knowledge, the most rigorous and condensed form of knowledge, is -paradigmatic. The World Wide Web is already now the largest single resource of -mathematical knowledge, and its importance hopefully be increased by the -emerging display technologies like MathML.

- -

Machine understandable information will make possible to offer added-value -services like: -

Preservation of the real informative content in a highly structured and - machine understandable format, suitable for transformation, automatic - elaboration and processing.
Cut and paste on the level of computation (take the output from a Web - search engine and paste it into a computer algebra system).
Automatic proof checking of published proofs.
Semantic search for mathematical concepts (rather than keywords).
Indexing and Classification.

- -

Due to its rich notational, logical and semantic structure, mathematical -knowledge is a main case study for the development of the new generation of -semantic Web systems. The aim of the MOWGLI project is both to help in this -process, as well as pave the way towards a really useful virtual, distributed, -hyper-textual resource for the working mathematician, scientist or engineer.

- - -

2. Standards and Tools

- -

Current standards for electronic publishing in mathematics are mainly -presentation oriented. New tools for the management and publishing of -mathematical documents are in development like MathML -[3], OpenMath, OMDoc -([17],[18]) and integrated with different -XML technology [7] (XSLT [8], RDF -[4], [5], SOAP [6], ...). -All these languages cover different and orthogonal -aspects of the information and its management; our aim is not to propose a new -standard, but to study and to develop the technological infrastructure -required for taking advantage of the potentialities of all of current -standards and those which are likely to be established in the near future.

- -

MOWGLI makes an essential use of standard XML technology and aspires to -become an example of ``best practice'' in its use, and a pioneering leading -project in the new area of the Semantic Web [12]. -In particular, the potentialities of -XML will be deeply explored in the following directions: -

Publishing. XML offers sophisticated publishing technologies (Stylesheets, - MathML, SVG, etc.) which can be profitably used to solve, in a standard way, - the annoying notational problems that traditionally afflict content based and - machine-understandable encodings of the information.
Searching and Retrieving. Metadata will play a major role in MOWGLI. New - W3C languages such as the Resource Description Framework or XML Query are - likely to produce major innovative solutions in this field.
Interoperability. Disposing of a common, machine understandable layer is a - major and essential step in this direction.
Distribution. All XML technology is finally aimed to the access of the Web - as a single, distributed resource, with no central authority and few, simple - rules.

- -

MathML [3], introducing for the first time a content markup -layer in parallel -with a presentational one, has indubitably been a pioneering project towards -the mining of the mathematical treasure available on the web. Still, its -limitations are evident as well: -

MathML is merely focused on mathematical expressions. However, in order to -bring the idea of a Semantic Web of Mathematics to its full potentialities, -other layers of mathematical information must be considered as well. In -particular, we need a clean, microscopic description of proofs, a markup for -mathematichal "objects" (Theorems, Lemmas, Corollaries, Examples, etc.), a -markup for "structured collections" of these objects (Documents, Theories, -etc.), possibly "functors" between these collections, and finally a good -"metadata" layer.
MathML is just an (important) piece in a much wider technological puzzle. -Passing from content to a good presentational format requires sophisticated -operations; on the other side, these transformations are themselves a basic -component of the whole mathematical knowledge (like mathematical fonts). XSLT -[8] provides here the right technology, opening the way to -the creation of well maintained and documented libraries of mathematical -stylesheets [11].

- -

Similarly, the creation and maintenance of the library as a distributed -repository, and the crucial aspect of managing the information in the ``web -way'' requires a light but powerful communication protocol, overcoming some of -the limitations of HTTP (SOAP [6] looks as a promising -solution).

- -

Metadata will eventually require a fairly sophisticated model, much beyond -what is currently offered by typical metadata models as the Dublin-Core system -[1]. Here, RDF (Resource Description Framework) -([4], [5]) looks as the right -framework for developing the model, providing a general architectural model -for expressing metadata and a precise syntax for the encoding and interchange -of these metadata over the Web.

- -

The fact of encoding also the microscopic, logical level of mathematics opens -the possibility to have completely formalised subsystems of the library -([9],[10]), which could be checked -automatically by standard tools for the -automation of formal reasoning and the mechanisation of mathematics (proof -assistants and logical frameworks -([15],[16]). At the same time, any of these -tools could be used as an authoring system for documents of the library, by -simply exporting their internal libraries into XML, and using stylesheets to -transform the output into a standard, machine-understandable representation, -such as MathML content markup or OpenMath. In MOWGLI we shall use the COQ -Proof Assistant of INRIA [13] as a paradigmatic example of -these applications.

- -

An alternative route for the creation of content-based mathematical -information from standard digital repositories by means of a suitable -LaTeX-based authoring system will be explored by the Albert Einstein -Institute. They publish the "Living Reviews in Relativity" -[2], a solely -electronic journal on the Web, which provides refereed, regularly updated -review articles on all areas of gravitational physics. AEI will develop a -LaTeX-based authoring tool interfacing with MOWGLI, and serve as a showcase to -demonstrate how content-mark-up in mathematics improves the usability and -information depth of electronic science journals.

- - -

3. A minimal technological infrastructure

- -

It is clear that the creation and maintenance of large repositories of -content-based mathematical knowledge can only be conceived as a cooperative -and distributed process, comprising not only the creation of documents, but -also libraries of notational rules, metadata and management tools. The crucial -point is to build a minimal infrastructure to start up this process, so that -more and more tools can be added by interested parties. All these -considerations lead to two requirements for the developments in MOWGLI: -

Information must be accessible with few basic rules an no central - authority (the web way).
Make extensive use of standard XML technology and tools, even when it would - be easier or more efficient just to develop an ad-hoc solution.

- -

In this way, we put no barrier to third party development and, every time a -standard technology or tool is improved, we can simply benefit of the new -implementation with minimal effort.

- -

The MOWGLI architecture is essentially based on three components, which are -distribution sites, standard browsers and plug-outs, and active components, -such as XSLT processors, to elaborate the information. Distribution sites are -simply HTTP and FTP servers, widespread throughout the world; user browsers -are HTTP clients and run on the user host. We do not require any other -components to run on a specific host. Active components must provide answers -to browsers, requiring an HTTP server interface; they must also ask data to -distribution sites, acting as HTTP clients. Hence, MOWGLI is essentially -conceived as an HTTP pipeline.

- -

The module client of the distribution sites is the "getter", which maps URIs -to URLs and hence documents, offering functionalities similar to the APT -packet management system -(http://www.debian.org).

- -

The main active component is the XSLT stylesheet manager, whose typical -functionality is the application of a list of stylesheets (each one with the -respective list of parameters) to a document. However, other components may be -added in a completely modular way. This is exactly the content-based -architectural design of future web system enabled by XML technology.

- - -

4. The contributions from the participants

- -

The concrete background for the work in MOWGLI is represented by the -activities at the participating institutions. Though details could easily be -obtained from the MOWGLI web-page -(http://mowgli.cs.unibo.it) some short -remarks on this background should be made here.

- -

The Department of Computer Science at the University of Bologna is the only -educational institution in Italy to be affiliated to W3C. They care about the -coordination of the project. The HELM project (Hypertextual Electronic Library -of Mathematics, -http://www.cs.unibo.it/helm, see also -[12]) is active in -Bologna since 1999. It is one of the systems of reference mentioned in the -previous section.

- -

INRIA (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique) is a -French institution located in Rocquencourt. They pursue two projects of -importance for MOWGLI: the Lemme project, introducing and developing formal -methods for use in writing scientific computing software, and the LogiCal -project, which developed the Coq proof assistant (see -[13]).

- -

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is based in -Kaiserslautern and Saarbruecken. Its main mission is technology transfer, i.e. -to move innovations in Artificial Intelligence from the lab to the market -place. Its main MOWGLI-related prototypical product so far has been the -Web-based learning environment ActiveMath that integrates several external services.

- -

The Subfaculteit Informatica of Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen hosts a -broad experience in logic, formal methods and theorem proving. They are -involved in several research activities in this domain as the EC sponsored -Network "TYPES", the FTA project (Fundamental Theorem of Algebra), the EC -Working group Calculemus which also deals with OpenMath et al.

- -

The role of the Albert Einstein Institute (MPG, Golm) near Potsdam has been -described above already. They provide a test bed with the Living Reviews which -will represent the important link to the domain of mathematical publishing. -This also is the main concern of the partner TU Berlin which is formally -associated to AEI caring about the exploitation and information dissemination -for MOWGLI.

- -

Trusted Logic makes the group complete. This is a French start-up company, -which offers a wide range of efficient and secure solutions of smart cards and -terminals in a wide range of areas. Their development methodology includes a -permanent concern of quality and security aspects.

- -

As it is common for projects like MOWGLI the cooperation between the partners -is regulated by workpackages and a time schedule for the deliveries. But the -project started formally in March 2002. Hence these things are still theory, -and it will be subject of the next report on MOWGLI to describe, how theory -came into practise.

- - -

BIBLIOGRAPHY

- -

[1]: The Dublin Core Metadata Inititiative. http://purl.org/dc/
[2]: Living Reviews in Relativity. - http://www.livingreviews.org.
[3]: Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) 2.0 W3C Recommendation, 21 February -2001. http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML2/. -
[4]: Resource Description Framework (RDF) Model and Syntax Specification, W3C -Recommendation 22 February 1999. - /http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-rdf-syntax-19990222/
[5]: Resource Description Framework (RDF) Schema Specification 1.0, W3C - Candidate Recommendation 27 March 2000. - http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-schema/
[6]: SOAP Version 1.2 Part 0: Primer. W3C Working Draft 17 December 2001. - http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-soap12-part0-20011217.
[7]: Extensible Markup Language (XML) Specification. Version 1.0. W3C - Recommendation, 10 February 1998. - http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml -
[8]: XSL Transformations (XSLT). Version 1.0, W3C Recommendation, 16 November - 1999. http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt.
[9]: Asperti, A.; Padovani, L.; Sacerdoti Coen C.; Schena, I.: Formal -Mathematics in MathML. Proceedings of the First International Conference on -MathML and Math on the Web, October 20-21 2000, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
[10]: Asperti, A.; Padovani, L.; Sacerdoti Coen, C.; Schena, I.: Formal -Mathematics on the Web. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on -Libraries and Associations in the Transient World: New Technologies and New -Forms of Cooperation, June 9-17, 2001, Sudak, Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine.
[11]: Asperti, A.; Padovani, L.; Sacerdoti Coen, C.; Schena, I.: XML, -Stylesheets and the re-mathematization of Formal Content. Proceedings of -Extreme Markup Languages 2001 Conference, August 12-17, 2001, Montreal, Canada.
[12]: Asperti, A.; Padovani, L.; Sacerdoti Coen, C.; Schena, I.: HELM and the -semantic Math-Web. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Theorem -Proving in Higher Order Logics (TPHOLS 2001), 3-6 September 2001, -Edinburgh, Scotland.
[13]: B. Barras et al.:The Coq Proof Assistant Reference Manual, version 6.3.1, - http://pauillac.inria.fr/coq
[14]: Tim Berner's Lee: The Semantic Web. W3C Architecture Note, 1998.
[15]: G. Huet, G. Plotkin (eds): Logical Frameworks. Cambridge University
[16]: G. Huet, G. Plotkin (eds): Logical Environments. Cambridge University -Press. 1993.
[17]: Kohlase, M.: OMDoc: Towards an Internet Standard for the Administration, -Distribution and Teaching of mathematical Knowledge. Proceedings of Artificial -Intelligence and Symbolic Computation, Springer LNAI, 2000.
[18]: Kohlase, M.: OMDoc: An Infrastructure for OpenMath Content Dictionary -Information. Bulletin of the ACM Special Interest Group for Algorithmic -Mathematics SIGSAM, 2000.

- -

-Prof. Dr. Andrea Asperti
-Dipartimento di Scienze dell Informazione
-Universita degli Studii di Bologna
-Via di mura Anteo Zamboni VII
-I - 40127 Bologna
-Italy -

- -

-Prof. Dr. Bernd Wegner
-Fakultaet II, Institut fuer Mathematik
-TU Berlin, Sekr. MA 8-1
-Strasse des 17. Juni 135
-D - 10623 Berlin
-Germany -

- - diff --git a/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/mowgli/crimea2002_aw.xml b/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/mowgli/crimea2002_aw.xml new file mode 100644 index 000000000..04dcc1db4 --- /dev/null +++ b/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/mowgli/crimea2002_aw.xml @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ + + + + + + MOWGLI - A New Approach for the Content Description in Digital + Documents + + + To be presented at the Nineth International Conference on + New Technologies and New Forms of Cooperation", + Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine + + diff --git a/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/mowgli/crimea2002_aw_on_line.xml b/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/mowgli/crimea2002_aw_on_line.xml new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7d5d25bd6 --- /dev/null +++ b/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/mowgli/crimea2002_aw_on_line.xml @@ -0,0 +1,411 @@ + + + MOWGLI - A New Approach for the Content Description in Digital + Documents + + + +

MOWGLI - A New Approach for the Content Description in Digital Documents

+ +

Andrea Asperti, University of Bologna, and Bernd Wegner, TU Berlin

+ + +

Abstract:

+ +

The acronym MOWGLI stands for "Mathematics On the Web: Get it by Logic and +Interfaces". MOWGLI is an European Project founded by the European Community +in the ``Information Society Technologies'' (IST) Programme. The partners are +the University of Bologna, INRIA (Rocquencourt), the German Research Centre +for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI, Saarbruecken), the Katholieke Universiteit +Nijmegen, the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein +Institute, Golm), Trusted Logic (Paris) and TU Berlin.

+ +

The aim of the project is the study and the development of a technological +infrastructure for the creation and maintenance of a virtual, distributed, +hypertextual library of mathematical knowledge based on a content description +of the information. Currently, almost all mathematical documents available on +the Web are marked up only for presentation, severely crippling the +potentialities for automation, interoperability, sophisticated searching +mechanisms, intelligent applications, transformation and processing. The goal +of MOWGLI is to overcome these limitations, passing from a machine-readable to +a machine-understandable representation of the information, and developing the +technological infrastructure for its exploitation.

+ +

The project deals with problems traditionally belonging to different +scientific communities: digital libraries, Web publishing, automation of +mathematics and computer aided reasoning. Any serious solution to the complex +problem of mathematical knowledge management needs a co-ordinated effort of +all these groups and a synergy of their different expertise. MOWGLI attempts +to build a solid co-operation environment between these communities. The +current paper will concentrate on the aspects related to digital libraries.

+ + +

1. Aims and mission of MOWGLI

+ +

After a ten years period of electronic publishing in mathematics we are still +confronted with slightly enhanced electronic versions of printed publications. +Almost all mathematical documents available on the Web are marked up only for +presentation, if such an enhancement is available at all. Only a minority of +documents try to care about some of the potentialities for automation, +interoperability, sophisticated searching mechanisms, intelligent +applications, transformation and processing. But these approaches could be +considered as first preliminary steps towards an electronic document providing +all these facilities. Hence, the goal of MOWGLI is to overcome these +limitations, passing form a machine-readable to a machine-understandable +representation of the information, and developing the technological +infrastructure for its exploitation.

+ +

In order to reach this goal MOWGLI has to deal with problems traditionally +belonging to different scientific communities: digital libraries, Web +publishing, automation of mathematics and computer aided reasoning. To our +knowledge, MOWGLI is the first attempt to build a solid co-operation +environment between these communities. In principle, any serious approach for +providing good tools for mathematical knowledge management needs a +co-ordinated effort of several partners from the above mentioned communities +and a synergy of +their different expertise. The choice of partners for the took this condition +into account, as can be seen below.

+ +

The goals of MOWGLI largely overlap with the aims of the so called "Semantic +Web" [14]. +Associating meaning with content or establishing a layer of machine +understandable data will allow automated agents, sophisticated search engines +and interoperable services and will enable higher degree of automation and +more intelligent applications. The ultimate goal of the Semantic Web is to +allow machines to share and exploit knowledge in the Web way, i.e. without +central authority, with few basic rules, in a scalable, adaptable, extensible +manner. However, the actual development of the Semantic Web and its +technologies has been hindered so far by the lack of large scale, distributed +repositories of structured, content oriented information. The case of +mathematical knowledge, the most rigorous and condensed form of knowledge, is +paradigmatic. The World Wide Web is already now the largest single resource of +mathematical knowledge, and its importance hopefully be increased by the +emerging display technologies like MathML.

+ +

Machine understandable information will make possible to offer added-value +services like: +

Preservation of the real informative content in a highly structured and + machine understandable format, suitable for transformation, automatic + elaboration and processing.
Cut and paste on the level of computation (take the output from a Web + search engine and paste it into a computer algebra system).
Automatic proof checking of published proofs.
Semantic search for mathematical concepts (rather than keywords).
Indexing and Classification.

+ +

Due to its rich notational, logical and semantic structure, mathematical +knowledge is a main case study for the development of the new generation of +semantic Web systems. The aim of the MOWGLI project is both to help in this +process, as well as pave the way towards a really useful virtual, distributed, +hyper-textual resource for the working mathematician, scientist or engineer.

+ + +

2. Standards and Tools

+ +

Current standards for electronic publishing in mathematics are mainly +presentation oriented. New tools for the management and publishing of +mathematical documents are in development like MathML +[3], OpenMath, OMDoc +([17],[18]) and integrated with different +XML technology [7] (XSLT [8], RDF +[4], [5], SOAP [6], ...). +All these languages cover different and orthogonal +aspects of the information and its management; our aim is not to propose a new +standard, but to study and to develop the technological infrastructure +required for taking advantage of the potentialities of all of current +standards and those which are likely to be established in the near future.

+ +

MOWGLI makes an essential use of standard XML technology and aspires to +become an example of ``best practice'' in its use, and a pioneering leading +project in the new area of the Semantic Web [12]. +In particular, the potentialities of +XML will be deeply explored in the following directions: +

Publishing. XML offers sophisticated publishing technologies (Stylesheets, + MathML, SVG, etc.) which can be profitably used to solve, in a standard way, + the annoying notational problems that traditionally afflict content based and + machine-understandable encodings of the information.
Searching and Retrieving. Metadata will play a major role in MOWGLI. New + W3C languages such as the Resource Description Framework or XML Query are + likely to produce major innovative solutions in this field.
Interoperability. Disposing of a common, machine understandable layer is a + major and essential step in this direction.
Distribution. All XML technology is finally aimed to the access of the Web + as a single, distributed resource, with no central authority and few, simple + rules.

+ +

MathML [3], introducing for the first time a content markup +layer in parallel +with a presentational one, has indubitably been a pioneering project towards +the mining of the mathematical treasure available on the web. Still, its +limitations are evident as well: +

MathML is merely focused on mathematical expressions. However, in order to +bring the idea of a Semantic Web of Mathematics to its full potentialities, +other layers of mathematical information must be considered as well. In +particular, we need a clean, microscopic description of proofs, a markup for +mathematichal "objects" (Theorems, Lemmas, Corollaries, Examples, etc.), a +markup for "structured collections" of these objects (Documents, Theories, +etc.), possibly "functors" between these collections, and finally a good +"metadata" layer.
MathML is just an (important) piece in a much wider technological puzzle. +Passing from content to a good presentational format requires sophisticated +operations; on the other side, these transformations are themselves a basic +component of the whole mathematical knowledge (like mathematical fonts). XSLT +[8] provides here the right technology, opening the way to +the creation of well maintained and documented libraries of mathematical +stylesheets [11].

+ +

Similarly, the creation and maintenance of the library as a distributed +repository, and the crucial aspect of managing the information in the ``web +way'' requires a light but powerful communication protocol, overcoming some of +the limitations of HTTP (SOAP [6] looks as a promising +solution).

+ +

Metadata will eventually require a fairly sophisticated model, much beyond +what is currently offered by typical metadata models as the Dublin-Core system +[1]. Here, RDF (Resource Description Framework) +([4], [5]) looks as the right +framework for developing the model, providing a general architectural model +for expressing metadata and a precise syntax for the encoding and interchange +of these metadata over the Web.

+ +

The fact of encoding also the microscopic, logical level of mathematics opens +the possibility to have completely formalised subsystems of the library +([9],[10]), which could be checked +automatically by standard tools for the +automation of formal reasoning and the mechanisation of mathematics (proof +assistants and logical frameworks +([15],[16]). At the same time, any of these +tools could be used as an authoring system for documents of the library, by +simply exporting their internal libraries into XML, and using stylesheets to +transform the output into a standard, machine-understandable representation, +such as MathML content markup or OpenMath. In MOWGLI we shall use the COQ +Proof Assistant of INRIA [13] as a paradigmatic example of +these applications.

+ +

An alternative route for the creation of content-based mathematical +information from standard digital repositories by means of a suitable +LaTeX-based authoring system will be explored by the Albert Einstein +Institute. They publish the "Living Reviews in Relativity" +[2], a solely +electronic journal on the Web, which provides refereed, regularly updated +review articles on all areas of gravitational physics. AEI will develop a +LaTeX-based authoring tool interfacing with MOWGLI, and serve as a showcase to +demonstrate how content-mark-up in mathematics improves the usability and +information depth of electronic science journals.

+ + +

3. A minimal technological infrastructure

+ +

It is clear that the creation and maintenance of large repositories of +content-based mathematical knowledge can only be conceived as a cooperative +and distributed process, comprising not only the creation of documents, but +also libraries of notational rules, metadata and management tools. The crucial +point is to build a minimal infrastructure to start up this process, so that +more and more tools can be added by interested parties. All these +considerations lead to two requirements for the developments in MOWGLI: +

Information must be accessible with few basic rules an no central + authority (the web way).
Make extensive use of standard XML technology and tools, even when it would + be easier or more efficient just to develop an ad-hoc solution.

+ +

In this way, we put no barrier to third party development and, every time a +standard technology or tool is improved, we can simply benefit of the new +implementation with minimal effort.

+ +

The MOWGLI architecture is essentially based on three components, which are +distribution sites, standard browsers and plug-outs, and active components, +such as XSLT processors, to elaborate the information. Distribution sites are +simply HTTP and FTP servers, widespread throughout the world; user browsers +are HTTP clients and run on the user host. We do not require any other +components to run on a specific host. Active components must provide answers +to browsers, requiring an HTTP server interface; they must also ask data to +distribution sites, acting as HTTP clients. Hence, MOWGLI is essentially +conceived as an HTTP pipeline.

+ +

The module client of the distribution sites is the "getter", which maps URIs +to URLs and hence documents, offering functionalities similar to the APT +packet management system +(http://www.debian.org).

+ +

The main active component is the XSLT stylesheet manager, whose typical +functionality is the application of a list of stylesheets (each one with the +respective list of parameters) to a document. However, other components may be +added in a completely modular way. This is exactly the content-based +architectural design of future web system enabled by XML technology.

+ + +

4. The contributions from the participants

+ +

The concrete background for the work in MOWGLI is represented by the +activities at the participating institutions. Though details could easily be +obtained from the MOWGLI web-page +(http://mowgli.cs.unibo.it) some short +remarks on this background should be made here.

+ +

The Department of Computer Science at the University of Bologna is the only +educational institution in Italy to be affiliated to W3C. They care about the +coordination of the project. The HELM project (Hypertextual Electronic Library +of Mathematics, +http://www.cs.unibo.it/helm, see also +[12]) is active in +Bologna since 1999. It is one of the systems of reference mentioned in the +previous section.

+ +

INRIA (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique) is a +French institution located in Rocquencourt. They pursue two projects of +importance for MOWGLI: the Lemme project, introducing and developing formal +methods for use in writing scientific computing software, and the LogiCal +project, which developed the Coq proof assistant (see +[13]).

+ +

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is based in +Kaiserslautern and Saarbruecken. Its main mission is technology transfer, i.e. +to move innovations in Artificial Intelligence from the lab to the market +place. Its main MOWGLI-related prototypical product so far has been the +Web-based learning environment ActiveMath that integrates several external services.

+ +

The Subfaculteit Informatica of Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen hosts a +broad experience in logic, formal methods and theorem proving. They are +involved in several research activities in this domain as the EC sponsored +Network "TYPES", the FTA project (Fundamental Theorem of Algebra), the EC +Working group Calculemus which also deals with OpenMath et al.

+ +

The role of the Albert Einstein Institute (MPG, Golm) near Potsdam has been +described above already. They provide a test bed with the Living Reviews which +will represent the important link to the domain of mathematical publishing. +This also is the main concern of the partner TU Berlin which is formally +associated to AEI caring about the exploitation and information dissemination +for MOWGLI.

+ +

Trusted Logic makes the group complete. This is a French start-up company, +which offers a wide range of efficient and secure solutions of smart cards and +terminals in a wide range of areas. Their development methodology includes a +permanent concern of quality and security aspects.

+ +

As it is common for projects like MOWGLI the cooperation between the partners +is regulated by workpackages and a time schedule for the deliveries. But the +project started formally in March 2002. Hence these things are still theory, +and it will be subject of the next report on MOWGLI to describe, how theory +came into practise.

+ + +

BIBLIOGRAPHY

+ +

[1]: The Dublin Core Metadata Inititiative. http://purl.org/dc/
[2]: Living Reviews in Relativity. + http://www.livingreviews.org.
[3]: Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) 2.0 W3C Recommendation, 21 February +2001. http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML2/. +
[4]: Resource Description Framework (RDF) Model and Syntax Specification, W3C +Recommendation 22 February 1999. + /http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-rdf-syntax-19990222/
[5]: Resource Description Framework (RDF) Schema Specification 1.0, W3C + Candidate Recommendation 27 March 2000. + http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-schema/
[6]: SOAP Version 1.2 Part 0: Primer. W3C Working Draft 17 December 2001. + http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-soap12-part0-20011217.
[7]: Extensible Markup Language (XML) Specification. Version 1.0. W3C + Recommendation, 10 February 1998. + http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml +
[8]: XSL Transformations (XSLT). Version 1.0, W3C Recommendation, 16 November + 1999. http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt.
[9]: Asperti, A.; Padovani, L.; Sacerdoti Coen C.; Schena, I.: Formal +Mathematics in MathML. Proceedings of the First International Conference on +MathML and Math on the Web, October 20-21 2000, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
[10]: Asperti, A.; Padovani, L.; Sacerdoti Coen, C.; Schena, I.: Formal +Mathematics on the Web. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on +Libraries and Associations in the Transient World: New Technologies and New +Forms of Cooperation, June 9-17, 2001, Sudak, Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine.
[11]: Asperti, A.; Padovani, L.; Sacerdoti Coen, C.; Schena, I.: XML, +Stylesheets and the re-mathematization of Formal Content. Proceedings of +Extreme Markup Languages 2001 Conference, August 12-17, 2001, Montreal, Canada.
[12]: Asperti, A.; Padovani, L.; Sacerdoti Coen, C.; Schena, I.: HELM and the +semantic Math-Web. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Theorem +Proving in Higher Order Logics (TPHOLS 2001), 3-6 September 2001, +Edinburgh, Scotland.
[13]: B. Barras et al.:The Coq Proof Assistant Reference Manual, version 6.3.1, + http://pauillac.inria.fr/coq
[14]: Tim Berner's Lee: The Semantic Web. W3C Architecture Note, 1998.
[15]: G. Huet, G. Plotkin (eds): Logical Frameworks. Cambridge University
[16]: G. Huet, G. Plotkin (eds): Logical Environments. Cambridge University +Press. 1993.
[17]: Kohlase, M.: OMDoc: Towards an Internet Standard for the Administration, +Distribution and Teaching of mathematical Knowledge. Proceedings of Artificial +Intelligence and Symbolic Computation, Springer LNAI, 2000.
[18]: Kohlase, M.: OMDoc: An Infrastructure for OpenMath Content Dictionary +Information. Bulletin of the ACM Special Interest Group for Algorithmic +Mathematics SIGSAM, 2000.

+ +

+Prof. Dr. Andrea Asperti
+Dipartimento di Scienze dell Informazione
+Universita degli Studii di Bologna
+Via di mura Anteo Zamboni VII
+I - 40127 Bologna
+Italy +

+ +

+Prof. Dr. Bernd Wegner
+Fakultaet II, Institut fuer Mathematik
+TU Berlin, Sekr. MA 8-1
+Strasse des 17. Juni 135
+D - 10623 Berlin
+Germany +

+ + diff --git a/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/others/publication.dtd b/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/others/publication.dtd index 7b131f501..87efc8101 100644 --- a/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/others/publication.dtd +++ b/helm/mowgli/home/xml/publications/others/publication.dtd @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ - + @@ -11,3 +11,7 @@ + + + diff --git a/helm/mowgli/home/xsl/publication.xsl b/helm/mowgli/home/xsl/publication.xsl index f994ad30b..3bd290ec6 100644 --- a/helm/mowgli/home/xsl/publication.xsl +++ b/helm/mowgli/home/xsl/publication.xsl @@ -43,6 +43,9 @@

+ +

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