SEMANTIC TECHNOLOGY AND THE OPENTRAVEL ALLIANCE

April 27, 2011

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What is Semantic Technology?

Semantic technology adds meaning to data on the web to enable machines to understand, reason about and share data Understand: this is a traveler’s itinerary Reason: travel itineraries show booked

reservations this traveler has a booked reservation

Share: “Trip Plan” is the same as “Itinerary” Semantics use “ontologies” – formal

representations of concepts (e.g., a “car reservation”) Semantic Web standards are provided by W3C

(RDF, RDFS, OWL)

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Why semantics?3

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts Sharing. Common ontologies enable business rules to work

between and among disparate partners. Works when you can’t agree on structure No need for one-off exchanges of structured data Works outside of just travel vertical

Description. Semantic metadata enables members to universally self-describe offerings to search engines and other value-added intermediaries

Classification. Ontologies allow the creation of ‘synthetic categories’ to respond to customer-oriented views of offerings across suppliers (“Bargain Shopper” = do not offer first class or premium car / hotel)

Inference. Semantics enables inferences across partners; e.g., if the airline tells hotel that Sue is Joe’s daughter, and hotel knows that Joe is married to Kate, hotel can know that Sue is Kate’s daughter.

Chevy Cruze$34.95 / day

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What are some benefits to OpenTravel Members? Feeds the reservation funnel:

traffic relevant answers transactions fulfillment

Better governance of OpenTravel messages, capitalizing on OpenTravel 2.0 business objects, providing a consistent vocabulary while eliminating redundancy, improving interchange and limiting error – providing much more flexibility in messaging than exists today. 

Better search optimization and leverage through web search engines like Google and Yahoo, providing more relevant, high value results

Better marketing, CRM and analytics, providing members with the ability to more closely match customer preferences and profiles, and to brand supplier services in such as way as to distinguish them from ‘commodity-oriented’ portrayal

Improved intra-domain and cross-domain search functionality and analytics, providing more powerful and flexible user searching and product configuration.

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How can semantics be used?

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Today, travel providers are already pursuing trading partner objectives that semantics facilitate

Just as with messaging schema, ontologies provide economies of scale and interoperability

For example, merchandising ancillary services and in search …

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All Travels Verticals Can Benefit … Although the initial scope of this project

is limited to a Car Ontology… … and associated OpenTravel 2.0 Semantic

Search Business Objects/Type Library and enhancements to OpenTravel 1.0 Car schema

This project will provide a foundation for other travel verticals that are facing the same challenge.

How can it be used? Merchandising

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“Comfort-Oriented”

Flight

Attribute 1Attribute 2Leg RoomAttribute 4Attribute 5Attribute 5On-Off AccessAttribute 7Attribute 8Attribute 9Media OptionsAttribute 11Attribute 12Meal OptionsAttribute 14Attribute 15Time of DayAttribute 17Attribute 18Distance to GateAttribute 20Attribute 21Flight CharacteristicsAttribute N…

How can it be used?Aggregate Merchandising Across Partners “Romantic”

Cross-aisle seats 5 star hotel Convertible car

“Infant / toddler” Pre-boarding to back of plane Car seat rental suite

“Disability / Senior” Jetway? ADA Bathroom Scooter Rentals

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How can it be used? Search Enhancement Use search engines as a

front door to transaction

Enrich search results, adding ratings, video, prices, avails, amenities, locality etc.

Dramatically increase relevance by inclusion of more meaningful, synonymic tags

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How can it be used?Ancillary & Cross-sell

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“Business Trip w/ Family”• 2 adults• 2 children < 10 yrs• 1st class• Member OnePass +

Avis Premier• 3rd time to Orlando• Residence Zip Code

10011• 3 bags

1. Use of Standards2. Analyze and Enhance Ontology3. Couple the Ontology and 2.0 Business Objects4. Complete 2.0 Car Rental Usage Profile

What’s Next?11

1. Determine use of standards

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Determine how standards will be used with OpenTravel 2.0 car rental business objects

Review of existing semantic web standards will include, but is not limited to: Resource Description Framework (RDF) and RDFa, Web Ontology Language (OWL), SPARQL Query Language, Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) and

equivalents, and Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML).

2. Analyze and enhance existing ontology13

Use initial Car Rental ontology donated from Avis/Budget

Review the ontology and make modifications to suit their collective business requirements.

Establish naming and namespace conventions, policies for change management and other conventions governing ontology development and maintenance.

3. Couple Ontology with OpenTravel 2.0 business object schema

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Create OpenTravel 2.0 Car business objects that support the classes, roles and restrictions in the Car Rental ontology for inclusion in Car Search, Availability and Notification schemas.

Relate tags and associated content of select (existing 1.0) Car messages to elements in the Car ontology and vice versa

Extract tags and associated content from select Car messages and convert to 2.0 business objects, verifying validity with the Car Rental ontology

Interpret queries containing terms defined by the ontology. Translate and decompose these for resolution against existing databases, application services and the ontology.

4. Complete OpenTravel 2.0 Car Rental Usage Profile

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Create a Car Rental Semantic Search Usage Profile to be distributed with the 2.0 business object library and Car Rental ontology

Per OpenTravel guidelines, this Usage Profile will include: A business level description (with use cases) that explain the

benefits of implementing Car Rental semantic search A glossary of standardized terms and definitions Semantic search business object dictionaries; Sample WSDL and schema for implementing Car Rental

semantic search objects Guidelines and processes for OpenTravel implementers that

want to enhance Car Rental semantic search business objects and/or the Car Rental ontology

Questions16

Is it clear how you could apply this emerging technology to your business requirements?

Are there projects like this in your ‘IT roadmap’?

Are you using this internally (e.g., on your branded website) or as a service for your customers?

Other questions Comments

Join us at the Advisory Forum

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New Projects Roundtable Wednesday April 27th 9am to 10:30

Semantic Search / Ontology Project Working Meeting Thursday April 28th 8:30 to 10:30

Open to any attendee

THANK YOU18