Smart-M3

Key takeaways

Smart-M3 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Smart-M3 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Smart-M3 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Smart-M3 is a name of an open-source software project that aims to provide a Semantic Web information sharing infrastructure between software entities and devices. It combines the ideas of distributed, networked systems and semantic web. The ultimate goal is to enable smart environments and linking of real and virtual worlds. The key idea in Smart-M3 is that devices and software entities can publish their embedded information for other devices and software entities through simple, shared information brokers - a push-based information sharing model rather than specific publish-subscribe. The understandability of information is based on common ontology models common data formats. Another key idea is that Smart-M3 is device, domain, and vendor independent. It is free to use, open-source solution available in BSD license. So, Smart-M3 refers to a piece of software technology, several software products encoding this software technology, a computing platform that the software products make available, and any computing system that has been developed and deployed by using this computing platform. The Smart-M3 software technology is an evolving development of the Semantic Web with some specialized properties. The Smart-M3 software products are open-source software. They are available at SourceForge. The Smart-M3 software products enable implementation of a Smart-M3 computing platform. The Smart-M3 computing platform allows to store and retrieve information based on tuple space mechanisms. Like in Linda (coordination language), a small defined set of semantically based interaction capabilities exists. A programmer can develop pieces of software that will make use of these interaction capabilities. A number of Smart-M3 software products are available that support such software development. Any such software must comply to the defined interface of the Smart-M3 computing platform, the defined communication protocol and the general design principles. A Smart-M3 system is existing when such pieces of software have been built and deployed together with the Smart-M3 computing platform. The Smart-M3 is being developed at Nokia Research Center within Artemis JU programme in Sofia (smart objects for intelligent applications) and in Finnish national DIEM (Device interoperability ecosystem) research projects.

Technology Smart-M3 takes aim of the multi-vendor, multi-device and multi-part issue (that's where the term M3 comes from). This M3 issue means that many kinds of devices shall interact with each other, for instance a mobile phone, a television set and a laptop. A device may be composed of parts that are considered as individual partners for interaction with another device. For instance, a user makes use of the keyboard of a desktop computer for typing input to a mobile phone. Further, the user shall be free in choosing the manufacturer. Any piece of software engaging this M3 issue must at least be able to work properly in an environment constrained by these issues. Moreover, the Smart-M3 technology allows to build pieces of software that are able to take advantage of the opportunities such an environment offers. When humans make use of the Web, they produce and consume human readable information and exchange this information based on the paradigm of 'persistently publish and actually read'. A piece of software executing in a device used by humans may transform, render, analyze and index that human readable information, but this software will not understand the information. Also the technology of the Smart-M3 approach does not make such human-human communication machine-understandable. Instead, Smart-M3 follows the principle of the Semantic Web that machine-understandable information has to be prepared explicitly for software reasoning. However, instead of specifying explicitly the means of interaction between a piece of software producing data and sending it across the internet to a piece of software consuming that data, Smart-M3 follows exactly the human-human interaction paradigm of 'persistently publish and actually read' also when software interacts with software across the internet. While the notion of the Semantic Web embodies the vision of a single, universal web of machine-understandable information, Smart-M3 organizes the machine-machine communication by setting up in the Web many distinct spots of information exchange. At each spot a number of pieces of software executing in potentially many devices of potentially many kinds may publish and read information. This information has been prepared not only explicitly in machine readable form but also explicitly for each particular spot. Any particular spot of information exchange has a particular purpose or focus. All information that a particular spot of information exchange makes available will be dedicated to the particular purpose or focus of that spot. The number of pieces of software exchanging information at a particular spot is consequently limited to those that share this dedication. At the core of the M3 issue is the issue of interoperability. The Smart-M3 approach deviates direct point-to-point interoperability because it applies the 'publish and read' mechanism at dedicated spots of information exchange in the Web. The publishing entity does not need to be interoperable with the reading entity. In fact the two even do not need to know about each other. Instead, Smart-M3 simply takes means that the publisher is able to publish at the selected spot of information exchange and the reader is able to read there.

System decomposition Figure 1 shows a top view of a single system based on the software technology of the Smart-M3 approach. At the heart of the system is the corpus-M3 which decomposes further into a semantic information broker (SIB) and the real physical storage of data. Of course, this corpus-M3 must be hosted by a device. A number of devices hosts many M3-agents, including optionally the device already hosting the corpus-M3.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Smart-M3

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Smart-M3 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Smart-M3 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Smart-M3 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Smart-M3

In research: Smart-M3 appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Smart-M3 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Smart-M3 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Semantic Web, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Smart-M3 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Smart-M3 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Smart-M3 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Smart-M3 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Smart-M3 in simple terms?

Smart-M3 is a name of an open-source software project that aims to provide a Semantic Web information sharing infrastructure between software entities and devices. It combines the ideas of distributed, networked systems and semantic web.

Why does Smart-M3 matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Smart-M3?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Smart-M3.