Running code

Dear all,

As mentioned in last week's teleconf, I think that what semweb needs is 
public-facing running code that has actual impact on how computers are 
used. 

As of now, there are quite a few things that run RDF-stuff on the 
backend, the Venice Project [1] I think will show there is a business 
case for RDF, there are Dave Beckett's backends for food.yahoo.com and 
tv.yahoo.com, there is ESA's Earth Observation Portal [2], and a few 
other. Then, there are large-industry developments, such as in the oil 
industry here in Norway.

However good these sites are, it doesn't provide many compelling reasons 
for others to get involved as it is mostly used on the backend, and the 
average web developer is never exposed to the large industry uses.

Of course, it is a problem that developers don't know about RDF and the 
tools that we have. I attended the Nordic Perl Workshop, where several 
invited talkers presented their shiny new backend frameworks. They had 
all reinvented some aspects of RDF, whether it was the triples, a 
directed graph, or similar. Only one were aware of RDF and had tried 
it. Pure outreach to these folks might help, but in my experience, the 
only thing that really impresses people is running code. It may be 
sketchy and rough, but it must do something useful and be an elegant 
solution to a problem that would be hard to solve by other means.

I think that at this point, running code is the most important outreach 
we can do. The long tail still thinks that semweb is an academic 
exercise, and they will not be awaken unless there is applications that 
actually does something practical. More theory will not have any effect 
on them, I believe. 

I think we should address those who are most likely to write running 
code. Writing code is not within the scope of this group, I guess, but 
to address the many web developers, I think finding ways to get running 
code is the most important thing we can do to attract attention.

I have two concrete proposals that I believe could have a good effect, 
but recruiting coders to an idea is a delicate business. Good coders 
prefer not to have an finished idea thrown at them with a "do this" 
attached. Making tools available and adding functionality that 
stimulates creativity is better. 

However, I think that many semweb-interested developers recognize the 
need to come together and get a community commitment towards a small 
number of projects to get some applications up and running. To get 
people talking and get consensus around building something would be 
important. 

 
Finally, we must also acknowledge that quite a few people have made an 
honest attempt at building a semwebby system but failed. Personally, I 
know a few, and there are two problems they usually quote: 1) That the 
free software tools we have do not perform well enough on larger scales 
(free software tools are critical since they represent a low-risk 
entry), and 2) validation of data, e.g. if you get user input, can you 
ensure within a pure-RDF framework that you the data your application 
needs for operation. This has often lead people to dump RDF in favor of 
custom XML. I think it is important for the community to address the 
concerns of those who try and fail in a timely manner.


[1] http://www.leosimons.com/2006/rdf-at-the-venice-project.html
[2] http://www.eoportal.org/

Cheers,

Kjetil
-- 
Kjetil Kjernsmo
Semantic Web Specialist
Opera Software ASA

Received on Monday, 18 December 2006 12:30:17 UTC