# KEHOME/knowledge/applications/SemanticWeb/TAP/WhyUseTAP.html
# Aug/12/2003
Why use the Stanford TAP KB?
Paraphrasing the
Stanford TAP KB philosophy :
- the KB contains a little bit of knowledge
about many popular things;
- the KB complements systems such as Cyc which have
a lot of common-sense knowledge about many everyday things;
- the KB complements "Upper Ontology" systems which have
a lot of knowledge about a few abstract things.
In practical terms, this means that:
- The KB can provide answers to a lot of simple questions.
For example:
- Who plays for the Boston Celtics?
- Where is Carleton College?
- When the KB doesn't have the answers, it may provide details
(for example: amazonMap, dmozMap, ebayMap, looksmartMap)
which facilitate finding the answer with systems such as
Google,
Amazon.com,
TicketMaster,
etc.
For example:
- Who is the CEO of Microsoft?
- What is the average cost of a meal at Sardi's?
- Where can I get Panofsky and Phillips' textbook?
- When does Los Angeles play Sacramento?
- The KB will not be able to answer questions which require
common-sense reasoning; OpenCyc will have to be used.
For example:
- How do I get from my house to the airport?
- Why did the chicken cross the road?
Now let's find answers to the above questions
using
MKE,
TAP,
Google,
Amazon
and
OpenCyc.