Semantic Web
for the Masses, by the Masses
Roger L. Costello
1. To enriched the
Web with semantics will require everyone pitch in to add descriptions
(semantics) to individual Web documents.
1.1 Semantics will
not be added by semantic gurus, but, rather, by the common
users.
Example: A person (a common user) takes a JPG photo of
a coastline, and then annotates it
with this description:
"This
is a picture of the New England
coastline."
2. The barrier to
entry must be low. That is, the barrier to a common user adding a
description (i.e., semantics) to a Web document must be low.
2.1 Complex ontology
languages such as RDF and OWL are out of reach for all but the semantic
gurus, and are thus not used. Even "vanilla XML" is out of reach for the common user, and is
thus not used.
2.2 A Web document
is enriched with semantics by the common user simply writing a description,
in a natural language such as
English (see above for an
example of a
description).
3. The semantic web
must be self-regulating.
3.1 A description
that is written by one common user may be edited by another common user.
Presumably the later common user has more knowledge and is thus able to correct
or add to the description.
Example. A second person with further information edits the above
description:
"This is a picture of the New England
coastline, near the Boston harbor."
3.2 Common
users regulate themselves - they ensure that all descriptions of a Web
document are consistent.
4. The tool used by
the common user to annotate a Web document with a description (semantics) must
be lightweight.
4.1 A simple text
box with a basic editor and
versioning will suffice.
5. Advanced semantic
machine processing are services provided by a limited set
of companies which employ Ph.D semantic gurus.
5.1 Company XYZ is one of those limited set of
companies. It employs Ph.D semantic gurus. They write
advanced code to process all the descriptions written by the common users.
They use RDF and OWL, if they desire.
Comments?
/Roger
