Semantic Web Connects Families in War-torn Colombia

The evolving intelligence of the World Wide Web is experiencing a quantum leap in the form of so-called "Semantic Web" technology. The Semantic Web gives meaning to Web-based data, previously only relevant in its association with search terms or within its own database, "making it possible for the Web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the Web content," in the words of Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee.

It likely will bring about brave new applications for Web 2.0 platforms like Facebook, but an international team of researchers has found a truly important use for the Semantic Web -- reuniting Colombians (capital city Bogota pictured above) displaced by years of civil war. An estimated 4.3 million Colombians, or 10 percent of the population, went missing by the end of 2008, according to an article about the project by BBC News.

The problem computer scientist Juan Sequeda and his team hope to remedy is the disconnect between several incompatible databases, akin to the impossible task of sharing information among a room full of people all speaking a different language.

Various organizations, including the International Red Cross, set up databases with the names and relevant information of individuals missing from the South American country's civil conflict. But very few of these databases can communicate with one another. Using what is called a "semantic knowledge layer," information such as name, date of birth and last known address will be linked among these otherwise incompatible data sets.

"It's all about how you integrate data," Sequeda told the BBC.

It could prove wildly successful, but its efforts will be well worth it if only one family is able to reconnect in the wake of such devastation.

Photo courtesy of Matthew Riche, via Wikipedia