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   Re: [xml-dev] Statistical vs "semantic web" approaches to making sense o

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From: "Mike Champion" <mc@xegesis.org>
>
> I just find it interesting that there seem to be two routes to the
> "semantic web" functionality, one via RDF/ontologies/metadata, and the
> other via the kinds of things that Google and Autonomy do.  So far the
> latter approach seems to be yielding useful results much faster than the
> former, but it it's very interesting to think about how they could be used
> together.

Part of the reason that the Google/Autonomy route is more successfuly right
now is that it relies on heuristics to extract semantic bits out of a very,
very messy web.  Heuristics can take you only so far.  RDF et al., on the
other hand, requires that the web be clean to start with.  But this requires
a lot of up-front work.  Once heuristics hit their practical limits, Google
will only be able to go further if the web becomes a bit more clean. (After
all, my current "desktop filing system" can only take me so far. Eventually,
if I want to keep finding the things I need, I had better start organizing
this stuff).  Conversely, strict adherence to RDF will only contribute to
the SW's lack of success.  The RDF-based SW will have to loosen its necktie
and relax a bit if it's going to go further (or at least learn to live
side-by-side with the non-RDF world), just as Google will have to start
paying more attention to the more formalized SW metadata.  And, as a result,
this sort of vulcan mind-meld of RDF and Google you speak of does look
likely.  I would even go so far as to say that it's the only real
possbility...

---
Seairth Jacobs
seairth@seairth.com





 

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