EdTech blog by Alexander Mikroyannidis

The Semantic Web in our mailboxes

By Alexander Mikroyannidis12 March 200924 May 2020Semantic Web

Can the Semantic Web improve the way we send and receive email? Yes, according to researchers from the University of Stanford. They propose a novel approach in defining email addresses, called Semantic Email Addressing (SEA). SEA replaces traditional email addresses with ‘semantic’ ones. The idea is that semantic information, such as the Friend-of-a-Friend (FOAF) Resource Description Framework (RDF), should be used to identify individuals and groups as email recipients. For example, if I want to receive updates about the Lost series, all I have to do is add this to my interests in my FOAF file. The Stanford team claims:

“In a sense, SEA is the opposite of spam. Although both SEA and spam might involve unsolicited emails, spam goes to everyone, whereas SEA is targeted toward those who’ve publicly announced their interest in the SEA mail topic. SEA is a marketer’s dream come true. Moreover, unlike mailing lists, it requires no discovery for either the sender or the receiver”.

Professional biography

Dr. Alexander Mikroyannidis is a Senior Research Fellow (Associate Professor) in the Knowledge Media Institute of The Open University, UK. He holds a Ph.D. in Informatics from Manchester Business School, an M.Phil. in Computation from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), and a B.Eng. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece.

Research interests

Dr. Mikroyannidis has more than 10 years of research experience in the field of Technology-Enhanced Learning and specifically in personalised learning, self-regulated learning, lifelong learning, open educational resources and rich interactive learning materials, as well as applications of blockchain technology and decentralisation in education. He is the author of over 120 articles that have been published in peer-reviewed journals, conferences and books and have received over 1,500 citations according to Google Scholar.

Teaching interests

Dr. Mikroyannidis has extensive experience in developing Open Educational Resources (OERs), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Badged Open Courses (BOCs) for OpenLearn and OpenLearn Create, as well as rich interactive learning materials as eBooks published in the OU’s iTunes channel. Some highlights from this work are the following:

Impact and engagement

The work of Dr. Mikroyannidis has led to strategic partnerships with key technological companies, most notably with Cisco and its global educational network, the Cisco Networking Academy, which has over 1 million students worldwide. Within this partnership, Dr. Mikroyannidis is in charge of the design, development and deployment of PT Anywhere, a novel educational tool for teaching computer networking skills by performing network simulations on any device. PT Anywhere has played a vital role in remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been featured in the UK government’s Digital Skills Toolkit, which is offering essential digital skills to job seekers.

Dr. Mikroyannidis has recently led a succesful pilot for facilitating lifelong learning using blockchain technologies, in the context of the QualiChain Horizon 2020 project. In particular, he has been in charge of deploying and evaluating decentralised education and employment qualifications with learners and educators within various lifelong learning contexts. The results of this pilot have provided valuable insights into the different aspects of lifelong learning that require support, as well as into the guidance and training needs of the education community related to the use of decentralisation technologies.

External collaborations

Dr. Mikroyannidis has been driving significant educational technology initiatives at an international level, by establishing a network of collaborators inside and outside the Open University and acquiring external funding, in order to implement and evaluate novel educational solutions in real-life settings and with real users. He has been awarded and worked on a wide range of European and nationally funded research projects, including QualiChain, DEL4ALL, OpenLang Network, Open Networking Lab, Institute of Coding, SlideWiki, EDSA, HUB4NGI, FORGE, weSPOT, EUCLID, ROLE, OpenScout, CASPAR, and PARMENIDES.