Calais automatically creates semantic metadata for web content

manager Thu, 08/06/2009 - 11:03

The OpenCalais Web Service automatically creates rich semantic metadata for the content you submit – in well under a second. Using natural language processing (NLP), machine learning and other methods, Calais analyzes your document and finds the entities within it. But, Calais goes well beyond classic entity identification and returns the facts and events hidden within your text as well.

The tags are delivered to you; you can then incorporate them into other applications - for search, news aggregation, blogs, catalogs, you name it.

If you're not familiar with OpenCalais, the Document Viewer is a way to get a quick peek at OpenCalais output. Paste a chunk of text into the Document Viewer window, submit it, and see the resulting OpenCalais tags.

Calais has three major components:

  • The Calais Web Service is the core and provides for the automated generation of rich semantic metadata in RDF format.
  • A series of sample applications demonstrate how the Web Service can be utilized and serve as a starting point for other development activities.
  • Active support is provided to developers who want to incorporate Calais capabilities in their applications and web sites.

The Calais initiative is sponsored by Thomson Reuters and built on ClearForest technology.