O’Reilly XML.com

I really want the Semantic Web (SW) explosion to happen, and sooner rather than later. But a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach tells me that it’s still a long way off. And worse still, that the Web 2.0 momentum could push it further back. Let me explain.

Without getting into a protracted argument over the exact definition of “Web 2.0″, let’s go with the general consensus that it’s all about people. That’s it. It doesn’t care about technology or standards; use AJAX, SVG, FOAF, PHP, Ruby, XHTML, P2P or XSL – it doesn’t matter, just make sure that it’s people-oriented. Let people create, collaborate, share and interact. Who cares what the back-end uses, or how it does it – just give “Power To The People”, quickly and efficiently.

The Semantic Web is the polar opposite: standardise all your data in RDF; encode it in XML (OK, so there’s also N3, but it’s probably mostly going to end up as XML); create your OWL. And then, once you have all this standardised data, let the machines loose on it! Because this data is for computer consumption, the SW should be more or less transparent to its users.

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