Curating Semantic Linked Open Datasets for Software Engineering

A typical software engineer spends a significant amount of time and effort reading technical manuals to find answers to questions especially those related to features, versions, compatibilities and dependencies of software and hardware components, languages, standards, modules, libraries and products. It is currently not possible to provide a semantic solution to their problem primarily due to the non-availability of comprehensive semantic datasets in the domains of information technology. In this work, we have extracted, integrated and curated a linked open dataset (LOD) called LOaD-IT exclusively on this domain from a variety of sources including other LODs such as Freebase and DBPedia, technical documentation such as JavaDocs and others. Further, we have built a technical helpdesk system using a semantic query engine that derives answers from LOaD-IT. Our system demonstrates how productivity of the software engineer can be improved by eliminating the need to read through lengthy technical manuals. We expect LOaD-IT to become more comprehensive in the future and to find other related practical applications.