Go3R.org - Semantic Search Meets Animal Rights

PETA goes for shock and awe, COK aims for compassion, and IDA defends and protects. These are just a handful of animal rights groups who have pioneered the animal rights field. They’ve saved, rescued, fed, thrown paint at fur wearing socialites and fashionistas, and have brought light some of the most horrific animal cruelty videos known. Following in their footsteps is a new venture brought to you by the Germans behind GoPubMed, called Go3R. Go3R is a semantic search engine for alternative methods to animal experiments and testing. The name comes from the Three R’s Principle which posits the principle ways inhumanity can be removed: Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement. Enter a search term, and filter by various methods, including top categories, time and place. A slew of medical articles will populate and you have your choice of reading.

“The project aims at developing a knowledge-based search engine for alternative methods to animal experiments in order to provide optimal search options for alternatives to animal experimentation. The first step consists of developing an ontology for the knowledge domain of alternative methods to animal experiments. Such an ontology represents a system of knowledge which permits logical deductions as a result of the numerous relationships between terms describing alternative methods it contains - in rough analogy to the possible connections between synapses in the brain.”

Go3r provides a useable tool and is an interesting branch of the semantic web concept. It has a noble cause that may prove helpful in stopping animal testing. If anything, it provides a wealth of information regarding health and experiments.

Is Go3R’s goal achievable? How will a semantic search engine help realize this goal? The articles provide interesting fodder, buy many are actually cover animal experiments. How will animal rights view it?