{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]],"date-time":"2026-05-12T07:34:47Z","timestamp":1778571287324,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,17]],"date-time":"2018-08-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1534464000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Future Internet"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This article presents Tarsier, a tool for the interactive 3D visualization of RDF graphs. Tarsier is mainly intended to support teachers introducing students to Semantic Web data representation formalisms and developers in the debugging of applications based on Semantic Web knowledge bases. The tool proposes the metaphor of semantic planes as a way to visualize an RDF graph. A semantic plane contains all the RDF terms sharing a common concept; it can be created, and further split into several planes, through a set of UI controls or through SPARQL 1.1 queries, with the full support of OWL and RDFS. Thanks to the 3D visualization, links between semantic planes can be highlighted and the user can navigate within the 3D scene to find the better perspective to analyze data. Data can be gathered from generic SPARQL 1.1 protocol services. We believe that Tarsier will enhance the human friendliness of semantic technologies by: (1) helping newcomers assimilate new data representation formats; and (2) increasing the capabilities of inspection to detect relevant situations even in complex RDF graphs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/fi10080081","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,17]],"date-time":"2018-08-17T10:54:25Z","timestamp":1534503265000},"page":"81","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Interactive 3D Exploration of RDF Graphs through Semantic Planes"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1381-3807","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fabio","family":"Viola","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Engineering (DISI), University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy"},{"name":"Advanced Research Center on Electronic Systems \u201cErcole De Castro\u201d (ARCES), University of Bologna, 40125 Bologna, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1546-1574","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luca","family":"Roffia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Engineering (DISI), University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy"},{"name":"Advanced Research Center on Electronic Systems \u201cErcole De Castro\u201d (ARCES), University of Bologna, 40125 Bologna, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8173-8044","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Francesco","family":"Antoniazzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Engineering (DISI), University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy"},{"name":"Centro Nazionale per la Ricerca e Sviluppo nelle Tecnologie Informatiche e Telematiche (INFN CNAF), 40127 Bologna, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2993-0263","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alfredo","family":"D\u2019Elia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Advanced Research Center on Electronic Systems \u201cErcole De Castro\u201d (ARCES), University of Bologna, 40125 Bologna, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8934-3303","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cristiano","family":"Aguzzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Engineering (DISI), University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy"},{"name":"Advanced Research Center on Electronic Systems \u201cErcole De Castro\u201d (ARCES), University of Bologna, 40125 Bologna, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6877-5254","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tullio","family":"Salmon Cinotti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Engineering (DISI), University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy"},{"name":"Advanced Research Center on Electronic Systems \u201cErcole De Castro\u201d (ARCES), University of Bologna, 40125 Bologna, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"28","article-title":"The semantic web","volume":"284","author":"Hendler","year":"2001","journal-title":"Sci. Am."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu, L., and \u00d6zsu, M.T. (2009). Ontology. Encyclopedia of Database Systems, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-0-387-39940-9"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gyrard, A., Zimmermann, A., and Sheth, A. (2018). Building IoT based applications for Smart Cities: How can ontology catalogs help?. IEEE Internet Things J., 1.","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2018.2854278"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"437","DOI":"10.3233\/SW-160213","article-title":"Linked Open Vocabularies (LOV): A gateway to reusable semantic vocabularies on the Web","volume":"8","author":"Vandenbussche","year":"2017","journal-title":"Semant. Web"},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Chebotko, A., Lu, S., Jamil, H.M., and Fotouhi, F. (2006). Semantics Preserving SPARQL-to-SQL Query Translation for Optional Graph Patterns, Wayne State University. Tech. Rep. TR-DB-052006-CLJF."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"237","DOI":"10.1007\/s13740-014-0041-9","article-title":"Ontology integration for linked data","volume":"3","author":"Zhao","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Data Semant."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Asin, A., and Gascon, D. (2012). 50 sensor applications for a smarter world. Libelium Comunicaciones Distribuidas, Tech. Rep."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nguyen, V., Bodenreider, O., and Sheth, A. (2014, January 7\u201311). Don\u2019t like RDF reification?: Making statements about statements using singleton property. Proceedings of the ACM 23rd International Conference on World Wide Web, Seoul, Korea.","DOI":"10.1145\/2566486.2567973"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"D\u2019Elia, A., Perilli, L., Viola, F., Roffia, L., Antoniazzi, F., Canegallo, R., and Salmon Cinotti, T. (2016, January 20\u201322). A self-powered WSAN for energy efficient heat distribution. Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium (SAS), Catania, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/SAS.2016.7479818"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2281","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2015.2499118","article-title":"Impact of Interdisciplinary Research on Planning, Running, and Managing Electromobility as a Smart Grid Extension","volume":"3","author":"Viola","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Motta, E., Mulholland, P., Peroni, S., d\u2019Aquin, M., Gomez-Perez, J.M., Mendez, V., and Zablith, F. (2011). A novel approach to visualizing and navigating ontologies. International Semantic Web Conference, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-25073-6_30"},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Hern\u00e1ndez, D., Hogan, A., and Kr\u00f6tzsch, M. (2015, January 11). Reifying RDF: What Works Well with Wikidata?. Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Scalable Semantic Web Knowledge Base Systems (SSWS 2015), Bethlehem, PA, USA."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Roffia, L., Azzoni, P., Aguzzi, C., Viola, F., Antoniazzi, F., and Salmon Cinotti, T. (2018). Dynamic Linked Data: A SPARQL Event Processing Architecture. Future Internet, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/fi10040036"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Harary, F. (1969). Graph Theory, Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.","DOI":"10.21236\/AD0705364"},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"Gallego, M.A., Fern\u00e1ndez, J.D., Mart\u00ednez-prieto, M.A., and Fuente, P.D. (2011, January 29). RDF Visualization Using a Three-Dimensional Adjacency Matrix. Proceedings of the 4th International Semantic Search Workshop (SEMSEARCH2011), Hyderabad, India."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"214","DOI":"10.1109\/32.221135","article-title":"A technique for drawing directed graphs\u2216nA technique for drawing directed graphs","volume":"19","author":"Gansner","year":"1993","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1203","DOI":"10.1002\/1097-024X(200009)30:11<1203::AID-SPE338>3.0.CO;2-N","article-title":"An open graph visualization system and its applications to software engineering","volume":"30","author":"Gansner","year":"2000","journal-title":"Softw. Pract. Exp."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gansner, E., and Koren, Y. (2007). Improved circular layouts. Graph Drawing, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-70904-6_37"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"53","DOI":"10.7155\/jgaa.00198","article-title":"Efficient, Proximity-Preserving Node Overlap Removal","volume":"14","author":"Gansner","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Graph Algorithms Appl."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Binucci, C., Chimani, M., Didimo, W., Liotta, G., and Montecchiani, F. (2016). Placing Arrows in Directed Graph Drawings, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-50106-2_4"},{"key":"ref_21","first-page":"515","article-title":"Selected Open Problems in Graph Drawing","volume":"Volume 2912","author":"Liotta","year":"2003","journal-title":"Graph Drawing"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"733","DOI":"10.1109\/TVCG.2006.166","article-title":"Network visualization by semantic substrates","volume":"12","author":"Shneiderman","year":"2006","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gansner, E.R., Koren, Y., and North, S. (October, January 29). Graph Drawing by Stress Majorization. Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Graph Drawing (GD 2004), New York, NY, USA.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-31843-9_25"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ellson, J., Gansner, E.R., Koutsofios, E., North, S.C., and Woodhull, G. (2004). Graphviz and Dynagraph\u2014Static and Dynamic Graph Drawing Tools. Graph Drawing Software, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-18638-7_6"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gansner, E.R., Hu, Y., and Kobourov, S.G. (2009). GMap: Drawing Graphs as Maps, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-11805-0_38"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2320","DOI":"10.1109\/TVCG.2014.2346444","article-title":"GLO-STIX: Graph-Level Operations for Specifying Techniques and Interactive eXploration","volume":"20","author":"Stolper","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph."},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"Wu, E., Psallidas, F., Miao, Z., Zhang, H., Rettig, L., Wu, Y., and Sellam, T. (2017, January 8\u201311). Combining Design and Performance in a Data Visualization Management System. Proceedings of the 8th Biennial Conference on Innovative Data Systems Research (CIDR \u201917), Chaminade, California."},{"key":"ref_28","first-page":"361","article-title":"Gephi: An Open Source Software for Exploring and Manipulating Networks","volume":"8","author":"Bastian","year":"2009","journal-title":"Third Int. AAAI Conf. Weblogs Soc. Media"},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"Sayers, C. (2004). Node-Centric Rdf Graph Visualization, Mobile and Media Systems Laboratory, HP Labs."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dokulil, J., and Katreniakov, J. (2007, January 4\u20139). Visualization of Large Schemaless RDF Data. Proceedings of the International Conference on Mobile Ubiquitous Computing, Systems, Services and Technologies (UBICOMM\u201907), Papeete, France.","DOI":"10.1109\/UBICOMM.2007.6"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Deligiannidis, L., Kochut, K.J., and Sheth, A.P. (2007, January 9). RDF Data Exploration and Visualization. Proceedings of the ACM First Workshop on CyberInfrastructure: Information Management in eScience, Lisbon, Portugal.","DOI":"10.1145\/1317353.1317362"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lohmann, S., Negru, S., Haag, F., and Ertl, T. (2014, January 24\u201328). VOWL2: User-Oriented Visualization of Ontologies. Proceedings of the Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management: 19th International Conference, EKAW 2014, Link\u00f6ping, Sweden.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-13704-9_21"},{"key":"ref_33","first-page":"31","article-title":"Tfacet: Hierarchical faceted exploration of semantic data using well-known interaction concepts","volume":"817","author":"Brunk","year":"2011","journal-title":"CEUR Workshop Proc."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yee, K.P., Swearingen, K., Li, K., and Hearst, M. (2003, January 5\u201310). Faceted metadata for image search and browsing. Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/642611.642681"},{"key":"ref_35","first-page":"303","article-title":"Interactive relationship discovery via the semantic web","volume":"Volume 6088 LNCS","author":"Heim","year":"2010","journal-title":"Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)"},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Heim, P., and Lohmann, S. (2011, January 7\u20139). Semlens: Visual analysis of semantic data with scatter plots and semantic lenses. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Semantic Systems\u2014I-Semantics \u201911, Graz, Austria.","DOI":"10.1145\/2063518.2063543"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bier, E.A., Stone, M.C., Pier, K., Buxton, W., and DeRose, T.D. (1993, January 2\u20136). Toolglass and magic lenses: The see-through interface. Proceedings of the ACM 20th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, Anaheim, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/166117.166126"},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Heim, P., Schlegel, T., and Ertl, T. (2011, January 7\u20139). A Model for Human-Computer Interaction in the Semantic Web Categories and Subject Descriptors. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Semantic Systems, Graz, Austria.","DOI":"10.1145\/2063518.2063538"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.3233\/SW-160249","article-title":"Visualisation of linked data\u2014Reprise","volume":"8","author":"Dadzie","year":"2017","journal-title":"Semant. Web"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"87","DOI":"10.3233\/SW-160222","article-title":"Aemoo: Linked data exploration based on knowledge patterns","volume":"8","author":"Nuzzolese","year":"2017","journal-title":"Semant. Web"},{"key":"ref_41","unstructured":"Storey, M.A., Lintern, R., Ernst, N., and Perrin, D. (2004, January 6\u20139). Visualization and protege. Proceedings of the 7th International Prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Conference, Bethesda, Maryland."},{"key":"ref_42","first-page":"1","article-title":"Ontology visualization PROT\u00c9G\u00c9 tools\u2014A review","volume":"1","author":"Sivakumar","year":"2011","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Inf. Technol."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Storey, M., Musen, M., Silva, J., Best, C., Ernst, N., Fergerson, R., and Noy, N. (2001, January 20). Jambalaya: Interactive visualization to enhance ontology authoring and knowledge acquisition in Prot\u00e9g\u00e9. Proceedings of the Workshop on Interactive Tools for Knowledge Capture (K-CAP-2001), Victoria, BC, Canada.","DOI":"10.1145\/502716.502778"},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Klinov, P., and Mouromtsev, D. (2014). Creating Cognitive Frames Based on Ontology Design Patterns for Ontology Visualization. Knowledge Engineering and the Semantic Web, Springer International Publishing.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-11716-4"},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1274","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2016.2587380","article-title":"A semantic publish-subscribe architecture for the Internet of Things","volume":"3","author":"Roffia","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"57","DOI":"10.1007\/s13740-016-0073-4","article-title":"Constructing Event Processing Systems of Layered and Heterogeneous Events with SPARQL","volume":"6","author":"Rinne","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Data Semant."}],"container-title":["Future Internet"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/10\/8\/81\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T15:19:24Z","timestamp":1760195964000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/10\/8\/81"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,17]]},"references-count":46,"journal-issue":{"issue":"8","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,8]]}},"alternative-id":["fi10080081"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/fi10080081","relation":{},"ISSN":["1999-5903"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1999-5903","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,17]]}}}