Re: Developers don't use the Semantic Web

On 11/22/18 11:17 AM, ajs6f wrote:
> . . .
 > SemWeb technologies show their strength when crossing
 > boundaries (between disciplines, between organizations, even
 > between technical stacks or individual data sources). Most
 > developers don't do that for a living. They work within
 > relatively tightly-focussed areas, like building a single app
 > for mobile phones that works off a single API, or a website
 > that caters to one organization's users, or a management
 > system for one business unit. RDF tooling delivers no value
 > to such teams and costs a fortune compared with simpler
 > approaches. Why would they use it? They shouldn't!

I think that's overly pessimistic.  I think there are *many*
more applications in between those two extremes that *could*
benefit from RDF *if* it were substantially easier to use.

 > . . .
 > All is all, my claim is that working to get a great
 > bulk of developers using semantic tech may not the right
 > problem to work on. Working to get the much smaller number
 > of developers with really on-point needs using (or able to
 > use) semantic tech  is a better task, and one for which this
 > community is truly fitted.

I disagree.  While I agree that making RDF accessible to
the middle 33% may be a bit of a stretch goal, I think it is
nonetheless a worthwhile target.  Even if we fall short and
"only" make RDF accessible to the top 33% it would still be
a vast improvement over the current situation.  Furthermore,
any progress we make toward easier RDF will benefit *all*
RDF teams -- not just the middle 33%.


David Booth

Received on Sunday, 25 November 2018 20:46:26 UTC