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

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

Robin Berjon wrote -

>
> That's why I think Uche is right when he says that there probably wasn't a
> "real" need for the www when it was created. The thing was there, some
> people started having ideas on how to use it, and only then did the true
> need arise. Yes it does make a lot of things easier/better, but I'm not
> sure many of those needs were formulated _before_ something was made of it.
>
Remember, almost no one saw a "real" need for the copy machine before Xerox
developed one.  Market research (and intuition) said it wasn't need, and Xerox
(it wasn't called that back then) couldn' get financial backing.  One
potential backer (might have been IBM) is reputed to have said "If we need
more copies we'll just put more carbons in the typewriter.  Why do we need a
copy machine?"

Of course, IBM is supposed to have said at one time that there would only be a
need for ten computers in the whole world, too.

I think anything Semantic-Webish that may arise is going to have to be able to
grow from a small seed, or many small seeds growing together.   Then we'll
probably discover what the uses really are.

Cheers,

Tom P