xml-dev - Re: Success factors for the Web and Semantic Web

["Sean B. Palmer" <sean@mysterylights.com>]

> - Will it be easy and cheap to implement and use?  This is where the
> SW advocates have got, as near as I can tell, an unbridgeable chasm
> between them and the real world.

To me, TimBL's vision is clear but the process isn't. Let's clarify thet:
There are just a few problems with the Semantic Web vision that need to be
solved (not moaned at, or used as evidence to show how the SW will fail!):-

     1. A Namespace is not definitive. Two different langauges point
          to the same NS, but it has no Schema - which one is correct?
          (Action: make sure that namespaces are dereferencable)
     2. A Namespace is still not definitive. Tim's example was of a URI
          for Zip codes. There could be hundreds of them: no one is going
          to use the same one!
     3. There is no current way to ascribe structure to extended RDF.
(Action:
          create a way!)

That's for the short term. I disagree with you that the SW vision is not
clearly defined. It is much better set out than the WWW vision was, but it
is just having teething problems becuse the world is a different place than
it used to be. THe best actions to create a Semantic Web IMO are (based on
Tim's ramblings):-

     1. Create XML to RDF extraction tools.
     2. Create notepad databases of RDF
     3. Link ontologies to real world problems
     4. Create GUIs for the RDF model
     5. Stop moaning about it and get to work!

I hope to discuss these much further in my "WWW Notes" document (don't know
when I'll publish it). I've been trying to follow the points above, but I'm
not sure how much impact my efforts are having:-

http://uwimp.com/ with Wiliam Loughborough
http://www.mysterylights.com/xhtmltordf/ XHTML to RDF extractor
http://infomesh.net/swnotes/rdfinxhtml.html notes about adding RDF to XHTML
http://www.mysterylights.com/sbp/adotsw/ notes about SWI
http://infomesh.net/swdemo/ a demo version of the Semantic Web!

Kindest Regards,
Sean B. Palmer
http://uwimp.com/
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ [ERT/GL/PF]
"Perhaps, but let's not get bogged down in semantics."
   - Homer J. Simpson, BABF07.