Hackers have helped logging firms in Brazil evade limits on tree felling, says a Greenpeace report.
The hi-tech criminals penetrated a computer system designed to monitor logging in the Brazilian state of Para.
Once inside the system, hackers issued fake permits so loggers could cut down far more timber than environmental officials were prepared to allow.
Greenpeace estimates that 1.7m cubic metres of illegal timber may have been removed with the aid of the hackers.
Massive attack
Drawing on information released by Brazilian federal prosecutor Daniel Avelino, Greenpeace believes hackers were employed by 107 logging and charcoal companies.
“Almost half of the companies involved in this scam have other law suits pending for environmental crimes or the use of slave labour,” said Mr Avelino in a statement issued by Greenpeace.
Mr Avelino is suing the companies behind the mass hack attack for two billion reals (564m) - the estimated value of the timber illegally sold.
The Brazilian investigation of the hackers began in April 2007 and more than 30 ring leaders were arrested during the summer of that year. The ongoing investigation means that now 202 people face charges for their involvement in the subversion of the logging system.
The hack was made possible by a decision in 2006 to do away with paper forms to help monitor whether logging and charcoal firms were keeping to the quotas they were set.
Instead, the Amazon state of Para turned to a fully-computerised system that issued travel permits for the timber logging firms were removing. The intent was that travel permits would stop being issued once logging companies had reached their annual quota.
With the help of the hackers, Brazilian logging firms were able to issue fake permits allowing them to bust through these caps.
“We’ve pointed out before that this method of controlling the transport of timber was subject to fraud,” said Andre Muggiati, Greenpeace campaigner in Manaus. “And this is only the tip of the iceberg, because the same computer system is also used in two other Brazilian states.”
| By Murray Dick and Mark Ward |
The genesis of the world wide web, in a Swiss laboratory, to serve a multi-national team of physicists, might lead many to think that the network is blind when it comes to race, sex, creed and colour.
But some sites are taking steps to address shortcomings in the way that the web serves some sectors of the population. In October, Ask gave its search engine a fresh interface to help with its new-found focus on its core search audience, 60% of which were women. In the US, a search site aimed squarely at black Americans, launched in April 2008. Rushmore Drive’s creator, Johnny Taylor, said search results can be more relevant to some social groups than to others. He cited the example of Type 2 diabetes, which predominantly affects Afro-Caribbean and Asian people. He said: “If a user were to search for diabetes on Google, why would [Google] rank diabetes results as it pertains to black Americans early on in the result set, when only 14% of the US population is black?” Results ranking All search engines generate their results by looking at links leading to a webpage to get a sense of how important it is to web debate on that subject. In such a set ‘relevance’ is a quantitative rather than a qualitative measure, and it is a short step from the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ to the ‘tyranny of the majority’. Said Mr Taylor: “People can affect change on Google, but the black population has less of an influence on Google to affect the result rankings.” With Rushmore Drive, said Mr Taylor, “it is more a matter of optimising the relevancy ranking based on one’s cultural identity.” Rushmore Drive’s editorial team seeks out sites relevant to the black community, and uses a unique algorithm which weights “black results” higher. It also exploits user feedback to tweak the relevance of results. Aleks Krotoski, a social psychologist researcher at the University of Surrey, argued that such initiatives need to be seen in a wider sociological context. “Each community has its own social norms, its own mores which are part of how its members make sense of the world,” she said. “Technology isn’t a passive tool. It reflects the social norms and the mores of the people who developed it. “So, the results of any search come from the algorithms and databases of their cultural perspectives,” she added. “They may not speak to or reflect the identity or needs of the minority group, who would achieve much better results by developing their own system from the bottom-up rather than to use one imposed from the top-down,” she continued. Web ownership For Bill Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), there is no doubt that the web is a divisive force. “There’s still a relationship between using the internet and socio-economic status,” he said. “Those that have higher socio-economic status tend to be more likely to be online; that’s to do with having a PC in the home,” said Mr Dutton. “That’s a barrier.” Research in the early 90s by the OII suggested that those living in “distressed” inner-city areas tended to feel that in using the web they were using someone else’s technology. “With web use becoming more common among younger people, there is a greater sense of ownership,” he said. Also, he added, there was no doubt that the web was getting more representative as it started to include more languages. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo have already picked up on the trend towards more niche web use by providing the means to develop individual search engines via Custom Search and Search Builder sites. Yahoo’s BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) even allows developers to customise their own results ranking, and so create bespoke search engines which can reflect the needs and interests of a particular search community. “If the web community at large becomes niche-centric, then community search, for those people, could be much more effective than Google or any other search engine, said media consultant Mihaela Lica. Segregated knowledge? But, she pointed out, community-based search sites face problems when pursuing a relatively narrow audience. Ever-decreasing relevance, when drilling down within certain socio-demographic groups, is one factor. Once an algorithm is developed to appeal effectively to one sociological group, further subdivisions within that group become an issue; between male and female searchers, or young and old searchers, for example. Ms Lica said there were practical problems as sites letting their narrow groups help refine results. In the case of Rushmore Drive she said “How would they know that the user who gets involved in the rating, searching, refining process is actually a member of the black community?” And, she added, those who believe in the unifying power of the web may baulk at the notion of “black” and “white” search results. She said: “Online we have no colour - ’segregating’ knowledge is not something that gets my vote. Search results should be unbiased and impartial.”
| By Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent, BBC News |
Sky TV says it has made a significant step towards bringing 3D television to British viewers.
| Digital Planet Alka Marwaha BBC World Service |
A new information service to deliver news and public-interest information via land, mobile and internet phones is being trialled in Zimbabwe. The ‘Freedom Fone’ project is being run by a non-governmental organisation called Kubatana. Digital Planet, BBC World Service’s technology programme, spoke to Brenda Burrell who is the organisation’s technical director. “What we are trying to do with Freedom Fone is simplify the interactive use of voice response (IVR) for non-technical users”, said Ms Burrell. “IVR has been around for many years now and many people have used it when they hit an automated answering service that directs them to select certain numbers from their keypad to direct their call to the relevant place. “The aim of the project is to make IVR a means to which people can extend their information campaigns,” she added. Prototype Audio files are stored by Freedom Fone in a content management system, which is updated through a simple browser interface. These audio clips populate an IVR menu through which callers can navigate for information. “Essentially what you do is upload audio files, so they build these little audio menus, so that you can welcome someone to your service and offer them options that they can select,” said Ms Burrell. The target market for Freedom Fone is among development organisations or social groups in communities, who know that the best way to reach their audiences is through telephony rather than through tools like the internet and email. “The most common technology device they have is a mobile phone and many more people have access to those than they do to the internet and email,” said Ms Burrell. “We know that increasingly in some countries, more people have access to mobile phones than they do to television or radio,” she added. Although texting could be another way of delivering information, it does have its limitations. “One of the limits of SMS is there are only 160 characters that you can use to leave your message,” said Ms Burrell. Freedom Fone has been used as a prototype in a number of information campaigns, one of which was a sexual health campaign called “Auntie Stella”. “Young people have questions that they are often embarassed to ask, so we felt that this was an interesting way to deploy Freedom Fone - targeting an audience that typically has taken to mobile telephony,” said Ms Burrell. As the project is still in its early stages, every information campaign is providing new and creative ways of disseminating the information using IVR. “It could be information on where they could get themselves tested for HIV, or it could be a service that provides a very small minority with information in their own language,” said Ms Burrell. The future The feedback from those that have used Freedom Fone has been positive. “We found people to be quite inspired by the prospects of what could be done with the tool,” said Ms Burrell. “We have had people from the DRC contact us, they are interested in using the tool to provide support to women who have been the victims of sexual assault as a result of the unrest in that country. “We have also had people from Thailand, to help support sex workers because they are an audience that’s unlikely to access radio and will need to be producing their own support materials over time. “It’s just a question of re-directing information and how we package it,” she added. One of the major drawbacks of the phone information service is the cost. “Its major impediment is that people have to dial up and pay for information, or your service has to pay to dial or call back,” said Ms Burrell. The project is based in Harare, Zimbabwe, where news and information are heavily censored by the government, so the safety of those using and consuming information via Freedom Fone is an issue. “People can use Freedom Fone to convey whatever message and whatever content they need to,” said Ms Burrell. “However, this tool is going to make a difference to anybody reaching out in the health services or those working in disaster relief scenarios,” she added. Digital Planet is broadcast on BBC World Service on Tuesday at 1232 GMT and repeated at 1632 GMT, 2032 GMT and on Wednesday at 0032 GMT. You can listen or download the .
Search engine Yahoo is to cut the time it stores personal data from 13 months to three.
It is hoping its decision will provide a benchmark for industry. Currently Google stores data for nine months and Microsoft for six months.
International data protection officials have been urging firms to do more to protect the data of users.
Privacy advocates have welcomed the move and challenged rivals to go even farther.
“I would challenge industry to move to 30 days across the board. People should demand that their information is expunged as rapidly as possible,” said Simon Davies, head of Privacy International.
Business needs
A recent rash of data leaks has left users concerned and organisations embarrassed, he said.
“The less time data is online means less risk that rogue companies can establish dangerously comprehensive profiles on users,” he added.
Yahoo said its decision to cut the time it stores information gathered from web surfing came about following a “review of its data practices”.
“This policy represents Yahoo’s assessment of the minimum amount of time we need to retain data to respond to the needs of our business while deepening our trusted relationship with users,” said Anne Toth, Yahoo’s head of privacy.
As well as anonymising user log data, the policy will also apply to page views, page clicks and ad views and clicks.
But the search giant has reserved the right to keep data for up to six months if fraud or system security are involved.
Privacy campaigners have argued that firms are currently keeping data unnecessarily. Mr Davies is sceptical about what he described as “mixed messages” from industry.
“Only last year, firms were saying that they couldn’t go below 15 months but the logic of what Yahoo has done suggests there is no reason why they can’t go even lower,” he said.
| By Geoff Adams-Spink Age & disability correspondent, BBC News website |
As the Christmas rush goes into top gear for the final week of shopping, spare a thought for those who have a disabled child to buy for: many of the hi-tech toys available are unsuitable - or at least they were until now. AbilityNet - a charity whose mission is to make technology accessible to people with all sorts of disabilities - has launched a range of toys suitable for children whose motor skills and dexterity are limited. They range from a collection of soft toys that sing songs and move in time to the music to a head-mounted controller for games consoles and battery-powered cars and boats. There is also a range of arcade-style computer games that can be played using a single key or an external switch. Inclusive Christmas AbilityNet has formed a partnership with Excitim Ltd - a company that uses technology originally created to help a young boy who was paralysed from the neck down in a car accident. The Dream-Products range is being marketed through the charity’s website, and it uses any money it makes to subsidise its free services for disabled people. “For many children, play options are severely limited by their condition,” said AbilityNet’s development director, David Banes. “Play is critical to the social, psychological and educational development of our young people, as well as their well-being and self confidence.” Mr Banes - a former special school headteacher - says that he hopes the toys will create “a truly inclusive Christmas for disabled youngsters”. The soft toys - which cost just under 40 - are brought to life by using an external switch. Mastering consoles For children who are non-verbal, switches are likely to play an important role in their ability to interact with the world around them. So establishing a link between cause and effect at an early age is crucial to a child’s development. At the Willow Dene special school in south-east London, the children in the nursery class use switches for a variety of activities - interacting with a computer, operating a fan or a lamp and animating a toy in a group storytelling session. Assistant-headteacher, Claire Barnes, says that the soft toys are a welcome addition. “At this level, a lot of the children are developing an understanding of cause and effect…and that’s a really key part of learning to communicate,” she told the BBC. “They [the soft toys] are fantastic - they really motivate the children…almost all of them can gain something from the responses the toys make when they hit the switch.” Older disabled children have often found computer and console games difficult to master because several buttons have to be operated simultaneously. Barrie Ellis from Billericay in Essex runs a website called oneswitch.org.uk that is a resource for developers of one-switch games and those looking for new titles. He says that, all too often, games publishers adopt a “one size fits all” approach. “It is a fairly common problem that a lot of game developers don’t give a lot of consideration to,” he said. “But there are certainly a lot of alternatives out there now.” One-switch PC titles include Frogger, Whacka Monty Mole (which should appeal to those who like hitting things) and an “on rails” space shoot-em-up called Aurikon. Mr Ellis also believes that, with a bit of imagination and perhaps some help from friends or family, games consoles also lend themselves to use with a switch interface. “You can play as a team - you could have one person using the traditional joypad controller while another person uses a switch.” Fancy headgear The Dream Gamer incorporates tilt switches into a baseball cap to provide a joystick-type interface for the Playstation. With the right adapter, it can also be used with other consoles. And the same concept is behind the Dream Racer: a tilt of the head - up, down, left or right - will operate a remote-controlled model car or boat. At around 160 for the Dream Racer (depending on which radio-controlled model is chosen) and 120 for the Dream Gamer, these are certainly not cheap options. But for disabled children who have had to watch as friends and siblings enjoy the fun, there is now an alternative.
| By Jason Palmer Science and Technology reporter, BBC News |
I’m in a simulated altitude chamber under the watchful eye of Des Connolly of QinetiQ’s Human Performance division, and they’re about to suck most of the air out.
It’s all perfectly safe - for much of my simulated journey into the skies I’ll be wearing a mask that provides air, much like the one fighter pilots wear. But for four minutes, I’ll drop that mask and see how it feels to breathe the thin air at 7,600 metres (25,000 feet). QinetiQ carries out such tests on fighter pilots to instruct them on the effects of hypoxia, or oxygen starvation. They also use the chamber to test life-support systems for high-flying jets such as the Typhoon, systems which are designed to whip into action in the event of sudden depressurisation. The symptoms are mild, and they rob the mind of the ability to reason, so if it sneaks up on you, hypoxia will have you unconscious and then dead before you notice a thing. At the altitudes that a Typhoon can fly, that time could be as little as five seconds. Luckily, I’ve got physiologist and pilot Tim D’Oyly at my side in the chamber to watch over the proceedings. Last gasp The problem is that there’s less oxygen at higher altitudes (and less nitrogen and less of everything else). At 5,500 metres, there is just half as much as at sea level. As a result, passenger planes are kept pressurised - but only to an equivalent altitude of around 2,000 metres. Building a plane that could maintain full, sea-level pressure inside with drastically decreased pressure outside at altitude would make them bulkier and more expensive. Which means that if you’ve flown by plane, you’ll have experienced the same symptoms I did: ears popping and the need to clear them (that sort of yawning that one does to equalise the pressure across both sides of the eardrum, I learned, is called the Frenzel manoeuvre). But as the air was sucked noisily out of the chamber and we quickly ascended to an equivalent altitude of 7,600 metres (25,000 feet), I encountered first-hand experience of the ideal gas law that relates temperature, pressure, and volume: it got cold. Once we reached cruising altitude, I dropped the mask and got immediately to work on a number of tasks as my blood used up the oxygen floating around in my blood and the tiny amount in the air. My time without the mask on was called out in 30-second, and then later, 15-second intervals. I wrote down my address, tried a spot-the-difference exercise, and was asked to remember a four-digit number. When I started hyperventilating, my body’s attempt to take in more air, I didn’t even notice. Apparently I had taken on a sickly grey colour, as had my fingernail beds, and my blood oxygen level plummeted from 99% before the exercise to just 61%. I, however, felt like I was doing pretty well. The worst I felt was a bit of a warm flush, as if much of me was blushing. Near the four-minute mark, I found myself literally trying to put a square peg in a round hole; this child’s toy is a popular test of cognition in hypoxic scenarios such as this. The result? My handwriting went way downhill, I didn’t spot the differences very well, and only remembered two of the four digits when I was asked later. When I put the mask back on and got my first blast of blessed sea-level air, I had the worst case of seeing stars I’ve ever experienced. I think it safe to say that until I’ve had much more training, no one should put me in the cockpit of a fighter plane. But I’ll keep at it.| By Ewan Spence, Paris |
“Starting up a business is similar to falling in love,” said Loic Le Meur, organiser of the Le Web conference that brought the cream of Europe’s web developers together in Paris this week. “When you start a business you’re obsessed with it,” he said. “When it goes well you are very happy, but if it goes bad you fail with it. By learning about love, you can use that passion to help cultivate your ideas and improve your own businesses.” That love for entrepreneurship was the theme of the conference - now in its fifth year - which was upbeat about the prospects for new firms despite the economic downturn. Seen and heard Many speakers rejected the notion that tough times were bad. Instead many reflected on why the downturn was a good thing for entrepreneurs. “Markets fail, but they are rebuilt, and in this there are great opportunities for entrepreneurs,” said Dan’l Lewin, corporate vice president from Microsoft, who pointed out that a number of successful internet companies, such as HP, Apple and Google, were founded during previous recessions. Nikesh Arora, Google’s senior vice president, also had words for those building their businesses, He said: “If you can ride out the next twelve to eighteen months, then your business will be in good shape.” He added: “The economic climate does not determine success or failure, it creates a way to focus your mind.” But he also issued a warning to European start-ups to evangelise themselves and become more visible around the world. One company using Le Web to gain that visibility is Erepublik. Based in Ireland, developed in Romania and managed from Spain, Erepublik mixes social media and strategy gaming to meld the real with a virtual world. “We started Erepublik with a mirror of the real world, but with no rule book,” said Alexis Bonte, head of Erepublik. “Where many modern games are scripted, we are letting the players decide where to go next, and the worlds have drastically diverted.” Soon after the game started, America invaded Canada, which promptly formalised an alliance with Spain to supply mercenaries who successfully repelled the marauders from the south. Those joining the game choose a country, and through the publishing of social media, communicating with other players, working for gold or hiring others, they build a power-base in their chosen nation and can then declare war on other countries. Provided they can prove their worth to lead the country be that through fair means, or foul. Erepublik brings together many tools people love to use. By aggregating content in the same way as the real world, it gives a depth to the gaming world that Mr Bonte and his team hope will lead to more players joining the game. Site seeing Another company that can help bestow that visibility is San Francisco based Techmeme. Founder Gabe Rivera was one of many American delegates who flew in for the conference. “It’s nice to get out of the San Francisco bubble,” he said. “This is my way of meeting the European side of the web.” What’s next for Rivera? He gave nothing away but did admit that the next news vertical he’ll curate will “probably be a site with an international flavour”. Visibility is all well and good but often what people are saying needs to be managed - not least because that public output, such as comments made on blogs and in discussions groups, can easily found on the web. This transparency is often seen as one of the strengths of the internet and Web 2.0, but can sometimes hold back the free exchange of ideas (especially if you know your parents, employers or significant others read your comments or blog). Gabe MacIntyre is looking to address that with his anonymous Twitter project. By allowing people to post messages to Twitter without being identified as the author, he hopes to answer the question of what it means to Twitter, and to hopefully see how these social tools are used when the results are not tied to a digital identity. “When people can post anonymously, interesting things start to happen,” said Mr MacIntyre. “This isn’t for myself, it’s an outlet for anyone to let off steam. Twitter is more interesting than blogs, it boils everything down to short, concise, ideas,” he said. “This project is for the love of people.”
| By Flora Graham BBC News |
Iceland is one of the world’s original democracies - its parliament, the Althing, is the oldest one still in use. So it is perhaps no surprise that the game world of EVE Online, developed in Iceland, has become the world’s first virtual democracy. The Council of Stellar Management, created by the game’s developer, CCP, just had its second election. A group of nine players, elected by their peers, will be brought to Iceland for two weeks of meetings and debate. Their decisions will influence the direction of the game. Campaign season Like in the real world the democratic movement grew from corruption and scandal. In 2007 a CCP programmer, who was also a player, used his insider status to enrich his online allies. The outrage that followed could have destroyed the game, but the company quickly put anti-cheating measures in place. It also created the Council so that players could vet the new rules. Rebuilding trust between players and the company was vital. Online multiplayer games are social–an empty virtual world is no fun for anyone. If game companies don’t keep the players happy, their virtual world becomes a ghost town. The Council election was advertised within the game, and candidates used websites and blogs to publicise their manifestos. “I got hints from watching old seasons of the West Wing,” said Andrew Cruse, who won the popular vote and the leadership of the council in the first election. It was a close race: Mr Cruse won by only 45 votes, running on a platform supporting small groups who don’t want the game dominated by large alliances. Petur Oskarsson, who led the development of the Council for CCP, said that the company was very impressed with its input. “The elected representatives were awesome. The quality of the feedback was extremely good,” he told the BBC. Mr Cruse was equally satisfied with CCP’s openness to the Council’s suggestions. “They did absolutely everything that I could have expected, and more,” he said. Power politics But the game is more like a benevolent dictatorship than a real democracy. Although the council is elected democratically, CCP is not obliged to approve their requests. “They have a voice, not a vote,” explained Mr Oskarsson. CCP must be autocratic because there are technological limits to what the developers can do, said Jim Rossignol, the author of This Gaming Life, who writes about the role of videogames in society. “There’s always going to be a certain element of antagonism between the developers and the players,” he said. “Players’ imaginations always exceed what developers are actually capable of.” Mr Oskarsson had the difficult task of designing EVE’s democratic system. “My main goal was to make it as transparent and as simple as possible,” said Mr Oskarsson. “I got into political philosophyI read Thomas Hobbes, Jacques Rousseau and Emmanuel Kant.” But he didn’t use Iceland’s ancient parliamentary system as a guide. “I used that, but mostly to find out what not to do,” he said. Mr Oskarsson focused on term limits to make representatives more responsible to their voters - terms in EVE Online last only six months. Democracy looks unlikely to spread to other virtual worlds. For one thing, in most online multiplayer games, the players are split between multiple “servers”: separate independent versions of the game. Although a game like World of Warcraft has hundreds of thousands of players, only a few thousand play together on each of the dozens of servers. In EVE Online, and a few others such as Second Life, all 200,000 players are in it together. “EVE is just a single server; a single galaxy,” said Mr Rossignol. “To have a council representing them makes a lot of sense, because an issue that effects one person on that server is going to effect everyone.” EVE also differs from online multiplayer games where players can choose to avoid interacting with other people. “CCP calls those kind of games ‘massively single player’ because they end up being a solo experience that you lose yourself in,” explained Mr Rossignol. “In EVE’s case, the philosophy has always been human interaction.” EVE’s democracy suffers from the same problem seen in the real world: voter apathy. Turnout was down from 11% in the first election six months ago, to 8.5% this time. Mr Cruse suggests that turnout was down because a lot of the hot-button issues had been resolved by the first Council. Mr Oskarsson is looking into ways to keep the Council exciting and relevant. “That’s the next challenge,” he said. He also said that creating the system changed his perspective on democracy in the real world. “I put into place a democratic framework where there was none. Seeing that play out is very enlightening.” Mr Rossignol agrees that there’s a message in EVE Online for real-world society. “Even if CCP aren’t voted in, [they’re] at least answerable to someone directly face-to-face. That’s healthy for governments generally.”
| By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News |
Sometimes using a search engine can be maddening. Especially when the keywords you expect to lead straight to the pages detailing what you seek turn out to be only tangentially related to that subject. Completing the task means finding the words a search engine associates with a subject, rather than those used by ordinary folk to describe the same thing. The slipperiness of language is at the heart of such troubles. Many expect that improvements in the way the web works and, in particular, greater use of the so-called semantic web will make those frustrations a distant memory. Early work on the semantic web stressed the importance of tagging - labelling all the elements on a webpage so computers can work out what they are for and how they inter-relate. But, said Dr Christian Hempelmann from semantic search engine Hakia, that approach has its limitations. “It works well on pre-structured data,” he said. “It works well in limited domains where the corpus of tags that exists is very well defined. “But,” he added, “it does not do well with the free rein of language.” What scuppers the approach is the ambiguity of language and the fact that people rarely tag consistently. “It has to try to represent the dirtiness of natural language,” he said. Making meaning Instead some are using semantic technology in a way that does not try to impose meaning on data. Instead it teases out the sense by seeing how it is used. “It’s all about trying to find a way to give data a consistent meaning,” said Keith Walker, spokesman for semantic web firm Metatomix. Some of the first users of this novel application of semantic technology have been large corporations and organisations that generate huge amounts of data as they go about their business. Workers can be stumped when searching through that pile of data for the information they need, said Mr Walker. “It’s not easy to find what you are looking for when you are bombarded with raw data and too little understanding,” he said. To help with that, Metatomix builds a database known as a semantic ontology, which attempts to capture how all the different parts of an organisation understand a particular thing. Some courts in the US have become the first users of semantic ontologies to help all those involved in the judicial process manage the information collected about the people that pass through the courts. Mr Walker said a “criminal” means very different things to the police, defence lawyers, prosecution team and victims - even though it is the same person under scrutiny. Understanding that ambiguity can help smooth the flow of data across formerly incompatible computer systems and ensure that nothing is lost as a case comes to a conclusion. A more tangible example is aerospace giant Airbus, which has created a semantic ontology to help it understand what a wing means to the different groups of engineers engaged in making new aircraft. For Airbus, data about a wing is generated by many different groups involved in modelling and design. “Airbus has no formal way of consistently sharing information across these different disciplines today,” said Mr Walker. “There’s a need to share so it optimises designs and short circuits the design life cycle which is hugely long and complicated,” he added. Early work using semantic technology to understand the knock-on effects of design choices has helped Airbus work out which will be the most costly, said Mr Walker. And, he said, sharing that data is not just about helping to cut costs. There are other benefits to developing a greater understanding of what a “wing” means. “Engineers tend to take design choices they have already done as opposed to investigating alternatives,” said Mr Walker. “However, innovation comes from iterating around design choices.” Smarter web John Davies from telecoms giant BT said this semantic technology could make search engines far more useful. Rather than typing in a few keywords, the semantic technology will be able to glean the meaning behind the query and reach accordingly, he said. “It’s an information-centred approach in a form you want rather than leaving you to do the analysis when you get the list of links back,” he said. Typing a restaurant name could return a link to a website, add maps, reviews, user ratings and recommended dishes from the latest menu. The search engine will be hard to fool and should be able to discern, much more readily, the intent behind search terms. For Dr Hempelmann from Hakia this use of semantic technology goes further than just helping companies get to grips with the mountains of data they produce. “We are giving the machine knowledge and that knowledge enables the machine to understand and act on that,” he said. Applying this technology could mean machines achieve significant insights into the way people understand the world. It could feed a breakthrough in an area of science that has long frustrated mankind. “What we are talking about is AI,” he said. “After all, to fool a true semantic web engine means fooling a human-like intelligence.”