GoodRelations & RDFa for Deep Comparison Shopping on a Web Scale: Can the Web of Data Reduce Price Competition and Increase Customer Satisfaction? See http://purl.org/goodrelations/ for the official page. These are my slides from the Zurich and Chicago Semantic Web Meet-up presentation.

1. GoodRelations & RDFa for Deep
Comparison Shopping on a Web Scale
Can the Web of Data Reduce Price Competition
and Increase Customer Satisfaction?
Semantic Web Meetup Chicago
December 7, 2009,
Chicago, IL, USA
Prof. Dr. Martin Hepp
http://www.unibw.de/ebusiness/

2. http://purl.org/goodrelations/
Twitter: mfhepp
Skype: mfhepp
2Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

3. GoodRelations: A Unified View on
Commerce Data on the Web
3
Product Model
Master Data Shop
Offerings Auctions
Spare Parts &
Consumables
Warranty
Delivery
Payment
Retailers
Manufacturers
Arbitrary Query
Extraction
and Reuse
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

4. Part I: Diversity in Markets
The specificity of exchanged
goods has kept on growing...

5. Specificity
How much you loose when you can‘t
use a good for what it was designed.
5Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

6. Growth in Specificity
Reason # 1: Division of Labor
6Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

7. Growth in Specificity
Reason # 2: Technical Advancement
and Innovation
7Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

8. Growth in Specificity
Reason # 3: Logistics
Temporal Constraints etc.
8Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

9. Growth in Specificity
Reason # 4: Wealth
Abraham H. Maslow (1908-1970)
A Theory of Human Motivation (1943)
9Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

10. Examples
10Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

11. Examples
11Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

12. Examples
12Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

13. Specificity Increases the
Search Space
13Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

14. Multi-Dimensional Trade-Off Problems
• Product Features
• Price
• Services
• Logistics
• Business Partners
• Etc.
14Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

15. Part II: E-Commerce on the Web

16. Search for Suppliers, 2009
16Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

17. Limitations of the Web, 2009

18. No Unified View: Jumping Back and Forth
Across Data Silos
18
Site
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Site
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Page
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Page
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Page
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SearchEngineResults
SearchEngineResults
SearchEngineResults
SearchEngineResults
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

19. We know the best hits only when done.
19
Site
1
Site
2
Site
3
Page
1
Page
2
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3
SearchEngineResults
Page
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Page
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Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

20. Specificity vs. Keyword-based Search
• Synonyms
• Homonyms
• Multiple languages
• No parametric
search
20Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

21. Limited Ability to Reuse Data
21Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

22. The Web: A Bottleneck for Sharing
Product Data
22Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

23. Challenge: Web-wide Product Search
• Find all MP3 players
that have a USB
interface and a color
display, and sort them
by weight (lightest
first).
...on a Web Scale!
23Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

24. Today: Loss of Variety and Detail
24Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org
Many Different
Products
Variety in
Preferences
Manufacturers &
Retailers
Consumers
Web Search

25. What’s the
Consequence?
25Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

26. Effect: Overly Price Competition
26Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org
Only 1 – 2 Product Models Considered
Comparison Shopping on the Small Subset

27. This will change soon.
Actually, very soon.

28. Deep Comparison Shopping
28Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org Site
1
Site
2
Site
3
Page
1
Page
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Search Engine Results

29. Part III: E-Commerce on the Web of
Linked Data

30. E-Commerce on the Web of Linked Data
30Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

31. GoodRelations Principle: Small Data
Packets Inside Your Page
31Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

32. RDF2RDFa: RDFa in Snippet Style
32Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org
RDF2RDFa: Turning RDF into Snippets for Copy-and-Paste
Independent RDFa Snippets
RDFa by design allows differences between the literals used as property values and the literals
being displayed using the “content” attribute [1], e.g.
<body>
<div property="vcard:tel" datatype="xsd:string"
content="+49-89-6004-0">
+49-89-6004 ext. 0
</div>
</body>
This is particularly useful if the formatting of the data for humans and machines differs, e.g. in the
case of date and time information (“2009-04-24T00:00:00+01:00”). It is possible to exploit this to
create XHTML snippets that just contain the meta-data and insert it for instance at the bottom of
the page:
<body>
<!-- Content for humans -->
<div>+49-89-6004-0</div>
<!-- RDFa rich meta-data -->
<div property="vcard:tel" datatype="xsd:string"
content="+49-89-6004-0">
</div>
</body>
The potential advantages of this approach are that (1) we disentangle the markup and that (2)
respective snippets for simple copy-and-paste can be provided by form-based tools like FOAF-a-
Matic [2]. As compared to publishing a separate RDF/XML file on the server, the advantages are
that (1) RDFa data is considered by Yahoo! SearchMonkey and other services, (2) one still has
to maintain a single file only (reducing the likelihood of outdated, forgotten meta-data files), (3)
the content creator does not require access beyond being able to edit the page. Also, note that
literal values will often have to be encoded in RDFa “content” attributes anyway, because the
string for the presentation is not suitable as meta-data content (e.g. dates or country codes).
In a nutshell, the proposed approach can be a powerful way of publishing non-trivial RDF meta-
data suitable for broad audiences. Imagine e.g. if eBay sellers were able to put detailed
GoodRelations [3] meta-data directly into the free markup part of their product description in the
system.
Abstract
In this demo and poster, we show a conceptual approach and an on-line tool that allows the use of RDFa for embedding non-trivial RDF models in the form of invisible div/
span elements into existing Web content. This simplifies the publication of sophisticated RDF data, i.e. such that goes beyond simple property-value pairs, by broad
audiences. Also, it empowers users with access limited to inserting XHTML snippets within Web-based authoring systems to add fully-fledged RDF and even OWL. Such is
a frequent limitation for users of CMS systems or Wikis.
Example: N3 as RDFa Snippet
RDF2RDFa Tool
References
[1] RDFa in XHTML: Syntax and Processing. A collection of attributes and processing rules for extending XHTML to support
RDF. W3C Recommendation 14 October 2008, available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-rdfa-syntax-20081014.
[2] FOAF-a-Matic, available at
http://www.ldodds.com/foaf/foaf-a-matic.
[3] Hepp, M.: GoodRelations: An Ontology for Describing Products and Services Offers on the Web. 16th International
Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management (EKAW2008), Acitrezza, Italy, Springer LNCS Vol.
5268, 2008, pp. 332-347.
[4] RDFa Distiller, available at http://www.w3.org/2007/08/pyRdfa
Martin Hepp
E-Business & Web Science Research Group,
Universität der Bundeswehr
Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39
D-85579 Neubiberg, Germany
+49-89-6004-4217
mhepp@computer.org
Roberto García
Computer Science and
Engineering Department
Universitat de Lleida
Jaume II, 69, E-25001 Lleida, Spain
+34-973-702-742
roberto@rhizomik.net
Andreas Radinger
E-Business & Web Science Research Group,
Universität der Bundeswehr
Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39
D-85579 Neubiberg, Germany
+49-89-6004-4218
andreas.radinger@unibw.de
Limitations of Popular RDFa Usage
With the RDFa syntax for embedding RDF data in XHTML attributes being a W3C
Recommendation, there is a standard way of adding RDF to Web content by inserting additional
mark-up [1]. However, the current usage of RDFa in the community is dominated by (1) using
simple property-value pairs rather than complex graph structures and (2) a close coupling
between page content for rendering and the literals attached to properties. For example, a typical
recipe would be to augment a phone number in a page by making it the literal attached to the
vcard:tel property:
<body>
<div property="vcard:tel" datatype="xsd:string">+49-89-6004-0
</div>
</body>
The key reason for the popularity of this approach is that there is no data redundancy, i.e. what is
shown in a browser is always identical to what an RDF-aware application will extract.
While this is appropriate for very lightweight annotations, it becomes very complicated if (1) more
sophisticated RDF models are to be embedded or (2) the content or organization of the
information for humans on one hand and for machines on the other hand differ. Also, the
interweaving of existing Web content for humans with non-trivial RDF models requires a lot of
expertise, in particular if many nodes in the RDF model have no visual counterparts. In those
cases, the initial goal of avoiding data redundancy clashes with the goal of the separation of
concerns, and the XHTML+RDFa markup gets hard to read and difficult to maintain because it
closely couples presentation and data. For examples, see http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/wiki/
Rdfa4google. Most of all, it is not possible to provide users with XHTML snippets to be simply
inserted into Web resources, without the need to manually integrate them with existing XHTML
markup.
N3
foo:myCompany
a gr:BusinessEntity ;
gr:hasLegalName "Hepp Industries Ltd."^^xsd:string ;
gr:hasDUNS "012345678"^^xsd:string ;
gr:hasPOS foo:myShop ;
rdfs:seeAlso <http://www.heppnetz.de>.
foo:myShop
a gr:LocationOfSalesOrServiceProvisioning ;
rdfs:seeAlso <http://www.heppnetz.de/shop> ;
gr:hasOpeningHourSpecification foo:Workdays.
foo:Workdays
a gr:OpeningHoursSpecification ;
gr:opens "08:00:00"^^xsd:time ;
gr:closes "18:00:00"^^xsd:time ;
gr:hasOpeningHoursDayOfWeek
gr:Monday, gr:Tuesday, gr:Wednesday, gr:Thursday,
gr:Friday .

33. Discovery Effort
33Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

34. Both Sides Can Help Build a Bridge
34Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

35. What Do We Need?
• Vocabularies
– Product or service
types
– Businesses
– Offerings
• Data Sets
– Product model data
– Businesses, contact
details, opening hours
– Offering data
• Tools
• Applications
35Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

36. Part IV: The GoodRelations
Vocabulary and Data Space

37. GoodRelations: A Unified View on
Commerce Data on the Web
37
Product Model
Master Data Shop
Offerings Auctions
Spare Parts &
Consumables
Warranty
Delivery
Payment
Retailers
Manufacturers
Arbitrary Query
Extraction
and Reuse
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

38. On the Shoulders of Giants
38
A Unified View of Commerce Data
on the Web
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

39. The GoodRelations Vocabulary
• A universal and free Web
vocabulary for adding
product and offering data
to your Web pages.
• Compatible with all relevant
W3C standards and
recommendations
– RDF
– OWL
http://purl.org/goodrelations/
39Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

40. GoodRelations Design Principles
• Keep simple things
simple and make
complex things
possible
• Cater for LOD and OWL
DL worlds
• Academically sound
• Industry-strength
engineering
• Practically relevant
40
Lightweight
Web of Data
LOD
RDF + a little bit
Heavyweight
Web of Data
OWL DL
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

41. Others Do Care: Pick-up in Industry
• BestBuy
• Smart Information Systems
• ebSemantics
• Yahoo! SearchMonkey
• Virtuoso Sponger Cartridges for Amazon, eBay, and
• Major German mail order companies
• etc.
41Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

42. Yahoo Enhanced by SearchMonkey
42Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

43. BestBuy
43Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

44. Incredible Success
44Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

45. GoodRelations #2 of all Web Ontologies
45
…and this does not yet include the > 10 Mio. offers
from Amazon and eBay!
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

46. GoodRelations #2 of all Web Ontologies
46Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

47. Albert Einstein on Schema Design
"Make everything as simple as possible, but
not simpler.“
Albert Einstein
47Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

48. Basic Structure of Offers
48
Agent 1
Object or
Happening
Promise
Agent 2
Compensation Transfer of
Rights
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

49. Data, Standards, Ontologies
49Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

50. GoodRelations: License
• Permanent,
royalty-free access
for commercial and
non-commercial use.
http://purl.org/goodrelations/
50Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

51. Domain Structure and Use Cases

52. The Minimal Scenario
• Scope
– Business entity
– Points-of-sale
– Opening hours
– Payment options
• Suitable for
– Every business
– E-commerce and
brick-and-mortar
52Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

53. The Simple Scenario
• Scope: Minimal scenario plus
– Range of products or services
– Business functions
– Eligible regions or customer
types
– Delivery options
• Suitable for
– Any business: E-Commerce and
brick-and-mortar
– Specific products or services
53Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

54. GoodRelations Annotator
54
http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/tools/goodrelations-annotator/
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

55. GoodRelations in MediaWiki
http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/wiki/RDFaInMediaWiki
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org
55

56. The Comprehensive Scenario
• Scope: Simple scenario plus
– Individual products or services
– Product features
– Pricing, rebates, etc.
– Availability
• Suitable for
– Any business: E-commerce and
brick-and-mortar
– Specific products or services
– Structured product database
56Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

57. GoodRelations CookBook
http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/wiki/GoodRelations#Recipes_and_Examples
57Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

58. osCommerce Extension
http://code.google.com/p/goodrelations-for-oscommerce/
58Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

59. Joomla/VirtueMart Extension
http://code.google.com/p/goodrelations-for-joomla/
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org
59

60. GoodRelations in Oxid eSales
• Popular shop
software
• Free recipe for adding
GoodRelations,
developed by Daniel
Bingel
http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/wiki/GoodRelations4Oxid
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org
60

61. • Testshop
– http://www.la-mousson.de/
• Extension:
– Uwe Stoll, http://www.semantium.de/
GoodRelations in Magento

62. Google Product Feed Converter
http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/tools/google-product-feed-converter/
62Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

63. BMEcat2GoodRelations
• Converts complete catalogs from the popular
BMEcat XML Schema into GoodRelations
http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/tools/bmecat2goodrelations/
63Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

64. Product Model Data Scenario
• Scope
– Individual product
models
– Quantitative and
qualitative features
• Suitable for
– Manufacturers of
commodities
64Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

65. Linked Open Commerce Dataspace
http://loc.openlinksw.com/sparql
65Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

66. Linked Open Commerce Dataspace
http://loc.openlinksw.com/sparql
66Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

67. Conclusion

68. Today: Loss of Variety and Detail
68Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org
Many Different
Products
Variety in
Preferences
Manufacturers &
Retailers
Consumers
Web Search

69. 2010: Point-to-Point Commerce
69Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org
Many Different
Products
Variety in
Preferences
Manufacturers &
Retailers
Consumers

70. Why Should I Bother?
• Web Shops: Better visibility in latest generation
search engines (e.g. Yahoo)
– Same holds for any business that has a Web page,
from A as in Amusement Park to Z as in Zoo.
• Manufacturers: Allow your retailers to reuse
product feature data with minimal overhead at
both ends.
• Software Developers: Help your customers to
use and generate Semantic Web data. It’s easy!
70Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

71. What Should I Do?
• Web Shops: Create a GoodRelations data dump of
your range of offers (rather simple)
• Vendors of Web Shop Software: Create
GoodRelations import and export interfaces (we can
help you with that)
• Every Business: Ask your webmaster to create at
least a basic description of your range of products or
services
• Entrepreneurs: Invent new business models based
on GoodRelations data
71Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

72. Part V: The Sky Is the Limit
Semantics in Affiliate Models,
Serendipity, Matchmaking

73. http://igoogr.appspot.com/

75. GoodRelations as a Global Schema

76. Thank you!
http://purl.org/goodrelations/
Prof. Dr. Martin Hepp
Chair of General Management and E-Business
Universitaet der Bundeswehr University Muenchen
Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39
D-85579 Neubiberg, Germany
Phone: +49 89 6004-4217
Fax: +49 89 6004-4620
http://www.unibw.de/ebusiness/
http://purl.org/goodrelations/
mhepp@computer.org
76Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

77. Bonus Track: Tools and Resources

78. Additional Information
• Web Page
– Ontology
– Language Reference
– Primer
– Recipes
– Wiki
http://purl.org/goodrelations/
78Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

79. GoodRelations User‘s Guide („Primer“)
79
http://www.heppnetz.de/projects/goodrelations/primer/

80. GoodRelations Cookbook:
Recipes & Examples
80Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org
http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/wiki/GoodRelations#Recipes_and_Examples

81. GoodRelations Annotator
81
http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/tools/goodrelations-annotator/
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

82. GoodRelations Validator
82
http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/tools/goodrelations-validator/
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

83. RDF2dataRSS Tool
83
http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/tools/rdf2datarss/
Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org

84. Growing Interest of Developers

85. Thank you!
http://purl.org/goodrelations/
Prof. Dr. Martin Hepp
Chair of General Management and E-Business
Universitaet der Bundeswehr University Muenchen
Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39
D-85579 Neubiberg, Germany
Phone: +49 89 6004-4217
Fax: +49 89 6004-4620
http://www.unibw.de/ebusiness/
http://purl.org/goodrelations/
mhepp@computer.org
85Martin Hepp,
mhepp@computer.org