xml-dev - Re: RDF, the "semantic web", and the nadir of AI (was RE: Realist icprop

["Thomas B. Passin" <tpassin@home.com>]

How about "Associative Web" instead of "Semantic Web"? I
think that "associate" probably covers everything everyone's
brought up, but at the same time is more specific and
evocative than "semantic".  Services associate a provider
with a consumer.  You could associate a meaning with a term
or resource (if you could figure out how to specify it).
And assigning a property/value pair to something can easily
be looked upon as asserting an association.

When I first heard the term "Semantic Web", I immediately
thought of Tony Buzan's Mind Maps.  I use mind maps a lot.
They work by associations.  It's interesting, but they
aren't really edge-labeled graphs as we usually think of an
edge-labeled graph, nor are they the node-centric style
either.  A mind map has one node, in the center, and edges
radiating out from the central node and branching.  Branches
can be cross-linked.  The nodes are invisible at the branch
points, and never contain any content.

A lot of human thinking seems to be done through
association.  "Associative Web" suggests, to my mind,
something that augments my thinking and creativity.  Just
what I'm hoping for!

Cheers,

Tom Passin