M-FIRE: A Metaphor-Based Framework for Information Representation and Exploration

An open problem in the construction of an environment for visualizing and navigating information in the context of the Semantic Web is to guarantee a satisfactory compromise between expressivity and domain-independence. In this paper we first introduce M-FIRE, a configurable framework for instantiating visualization and navigation systems based on the adoption of custom metaphors: metaphors drive the process for obtaining a visual representation of a given piece of information and define how queries are generated upon user actions. Then, the paper describes in detail how presentation is achieved. The possible applications for our framework range from semantic browsing to ontology-enabled Web site design.