THESEUS

THESEUS is a research program initiated by the Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology (BMWi), with the goal to develop a new internet-based infrastructure in order to use better the knowledge available on the internet. For this reason, application-oriented basic technologies and technical standards are to be developed and tested within the THESEUS project. The expected results are innovative products, tools, services and business models for the World Wide Web as well as for the service and knowledge society of tomorrow.

The focus of the research program is on semantic technologies which determine content (words, images and sounds) not through conventional methods (e.g. combinations of letters) but which are able to recognize and place the meaning of content in its proper context. Using these technologies computer programs can intelligently comprehend the context in which data is stored. In addition, by applying rules and order principles, computers can draw logical inferences from the content and autonomously recognize and produce connections between various pieces of information from different sources.

Using the standards and basic technologies (“semantic toolbox”) developed by THESEUS on the internet, the users will also be able to produce and edit content, rules and structures on their own, as well as edit, collect and link multimedia content intelligently. Connecting today’s Web 2.0 and its open, interactive and social network philosophy with semantic methods will turn the web into the internet of the next generation (Web 3.0 = Web 2.0 + semantics).

Semantic technologies are transforming fundamentally the existing internet. In the increasingly chaotic data flood structured knowledge resources can bring in efficiency and, for the first time, complex knowledge can be reproduced as well. The internet of the next generation will provide easy access to the structured global knowledge and novel services and  will improve crucially the information quality of the relevant content needed at a given moment. In this new semantic infrastructure companies will also be able to communicate more efficiently with other companies and, what is more, with their customers ans prospective consumers.

In this process innovative digital goods and services will be developed whose safe utilization will be guaranteed by new rights-management tools. For example, in the future it will be possible to organize new business and production processes on the basis of internet-based and interoperable software modules in small and medium-size companies. In this respect, THESEUS is also contributing to the creation of a knowledge-and-IT-based service economy ("internet of services").

THESEUS is part of the “Information Society Germany 2010 (id2010)” program of the federal government. It was first presented at the German Chancellor’s IT summit in December 2006. For the government, new forms of gaining, searching and processing knowledge in the global competition has strategic significance. The research program intends to improve the competitiveness of Germany and Europe and to contribute toward their obtaining a leading position worldwide in the areas of information and communication technologies. Tapping future growth markets secures, and will even create, sustainable jobs in Germany and Europe. At the same time, THESEUS will contribute toward preserving cultural heritage and maintaining cultural diversity. With the help of THESEUS, cultural institutions in Germany and Europe will be able to prepare their cultural goods and artworks in an innovative and structured way, so as to make them electronically accessible to a wide audience.

THESEUS will be implemented in two phases. In phase 1, the first solutions and demonstrators are to be developed by 2008. Subsequently, these are to be involved further by additional partners coming predominantly from medium-sized businesses by way of an invitation to bid (Phase 2). Currently, 30 research institutions, universities and companies are involved in the THESEUS program with planned projects. The industrial and public research partners are cooperating closely. They are coordinated by empolis GmbH. Also involved are internationally recognized experts of the Fraunhofer Society, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the Research Center for Computer Science (FZI), the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) and Technical University (TU) in Munich, the TU Darmstadt, the University of Karlsruhe, the TU Dresden, and the University of Erlangen. The application scenarios are developed from the immediate research results and utilization interests of the leading partners German National Library, empolis, Lycos Europe, SAP, Siemens as well as the following additional partners involved: Deutsche Thomson oHG, Festo, Intelligent Views, m2any, Moresophy, Ontoprise, Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V. (VDMA), and the Institute of Radio Technology.

Background: the THESEUS project was brught into being out of the Quaero initiative suggested by a German-French industry study group in April 2005. In the wake of working out the details of the individual research projects, both sides realized that different focuses had evolved. Therefore, upon the request of France, the decision was made at the turn of the year 2006/2007 to continue with the two programs separately for the time being. THESEUS – as the German part has been called since – and Quaero complement one another and are closely interlinked through study groups which meet on a regular basis. The plans are to tap joint synergy and cooperation potentials.

Visit the THESEUS-Homepage at http://theseus-programm.de/front