A Semantic Web Blackboard System

In this paper, we propose a Blackboard Architecture as a means for coordinating hybrid reasoning over the Semantic Web. We describe the components of traditional blackboard systems (Knowledge Sources, Blackboard, Controller) and then explain how we have enhanced these by incorporating some of the principles of the Semantic Web to produce our Semantic Web Blackboard. Much of the framework is already in place to facilitate our research: the communication protocol (HTTP); the data representation medium (RDF); a rich expressive description language (OWL); and a method of writing rules (SWRL). We further enhance this by adding our own constraint based formalism (CIF/SWRL) into the mix. We provide an example walk-though of our test-bed system, the AKTive Workgroup Builder and Blackboard(AWB+B), illustrating the interaction and cooperation of the Knowledge Sources and providing some context as to how the solution is achieved. We conclude with the strengths and weaknesses of the architecture.