When I first learned to drive, I could only navigate through my town by way of my parents’ house.  If I wanted to go from my high school to a soccer field, I’d have to go by way of my house, even if it took twice as long, since it was the only way I knew to go.  It was a hub-and-spoke system with one hub through which I passed to go anywhere.  Even today, my parents still joke with me that I can get lost in my own house…and I wish I could disagree with them.

So, in theory I understand and sympathize with why people interested in the Semantic Web and ontologies care about ontology visualization tools; you know: those nifty graphical ontology explorers that center on whatever node you’re looking at and allow you to follow edges of the graph and move things around.  When you’re dealing with lots of classes, such views help you find your way around the chaos and not get lost.  And I love not getting lost.

In practice, however, I have yet to see a real use case for one.  In all the implementations of Semantic Web-based solutions that we’ve done over the years, starting back in 2003 at IBM, I’ve yet to see a legitimate, real-world use case where an ontology visualizer is used for something more than a pretty demo.

The only thing that comes close in my experience is the Palantir solution for Intelligence Analysts.  But it’s not exactly what I’m talking about here as it’s not visualizing ontologies, but rather using the network visualization metaphor to enable intelligence analysts to see how many individuals and companies are related to each other visually.  It’s really cool looking, and, unlike every other network visualization use case I’ve seen, it’s actually USED…not just useful in theory, but actually USED.

This frustrates me somewhat as we still have to carry the capability around because it’s requested in every single corporate RFP that is Semantic Web-related.  It seems to have become a checkbox feature that those pursuing real-world projects with Semantic Web technologies feel that they require, and I’m not so sure that it deserves to be such.  It demos well, and is often ultimately not useful.

So here’s my question to the community: what real value do ontology or network graphical tools give to users?  What successes have you seen?  Do you know anyone that regularly uses such a tool as part of his or her day-to-day job?  Please share it here; I’m very, very curious.

Image Courtesy: Flickr / Andrea_44

 

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