[wsfii-discuss] Intro gnowledge.org: a FII

Fri Sep 2 13:13:58 UTC 2005

Hi everybody!

I just joined the list, so I thought I may introduce the FII project
that I am currently working on.  I am basically a philosopher
(epistemology, ontology and philosophy of science), but also an activist
spreading the ideals of free software and free knowledge in India.  The
project is called the gnowledge project: www.gnowledge.org. This project
is supported by my employer (Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education,
http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, in
Mumbai, India.

Currently we are busy developing a gnowledge networking and organizing
system to semantically represent, retrieve, and manage gnowledge.  The
software part will have two components: GNOWSYS and gnowser.  The former
is a web server that doublesup as a hybrid database (gnowledge base:gb)
that is distributed, object oriented, and relational at the same time. 
It represents both procedural objects (for web services) as well as
declarative objects (for making semantic web enabled web sites.  We have
plans to export/import gb into standard schemes like OWL, XTM, CG etc.,
however unlike other semantic web applications we dont use XML for
computing on either the server side or the client side.  Gnowser is a
frontend to harness the distributed gnowledge that exists on the
Internet, and manage GNOWSYS. We intend to make this a universal desktop
based on semantics. Gnowser will also do visual programming (computing
without syntax).

All these above things have not fully taken shape, but we did several
test cases already and the technology is fast getting ready to serve. 

More importantly, I also wish to share with you the philosophical
aspects of gnowledge and its manifesto (not yet fully written).  You
will find a link on the www.gnowledge.org its outlines.  I intend to
have a full draft ready before this event, and if possible I would like
to make a presentation in the London Summit, or may be in the Mumbai Summit.

Nagarjuna