Semantic Alliance: A Framework for Semantic Allies

We present an architecture and software framework for semantic allies: Semantic systems that complement existing software applications with semantic services and interactions based on a background ontology. On the one hand, our Semantic Alliance framework follows an invasive approach: Users can profit from semantic technology without having to leave their accustomed workflows and tools. On the other hand, Semantic Alliance offers a largely application-independent way of extending existing (open API) applications with MKM technologies. Semantic Alliance framework presented in this paper consists of three components: i.) a universal semantic interaction manager for given abstract document types, ii.) a set of thin APIs realized as invasive extensions to particular applications, and iii.) a set of renderer components for existing semantic services. We validate the Semantic Alliance approach by instantiating it with a spreadsheet-specific interaction manager, thin APIs for LibreOffice Calc 3.4 and MS Excel'10, and a browser-based renderer.