The future of the 'Semantic Web'

OK people, let's take stock. 
I've been following the threads of conversation recently that allude more to
the applications of RDF for the 'semantic web', and less to the actual
syntactical issues associated with it and its serialisation. Its obvious we
are looking at two distinct, but intrinsically linked domains. Firstly, we
have the traditional domain of RDF in which the syntactic and semantic
issues are thrashed out in an attempt to resolve all the many - very
important - issues relating to the nuts and bolts of the language.
Secondly, we are increasing seeing more interest from non-technical people,
or people who don't necessarily want to get bogged down in the
technicalities of the language, but want to be able to use it for what its
worth nevertheless. Personally, I'm probably more a resident of the latter
group, since my visions tend to be more of the 'big picture' as apposed to
the micro-world of syntactics.
I also believe that there is no case for argument as to the validity of
these two threads of interest: both have their relevance to the future of
the domain. I do believe, however, that we must decide the course of these
discussions before they become so entwined that semantic discussions
interfere with syntactic discussions - and visa-versa. The blanket name of
'rdf-interest' group encompasses both disciplines, but seems less relevant
in a time when RDF has secured its foothold, and now needs to flourish and
grow.
Maybe the bods in W3C who run these groups could sporn a new group
specifically for those interested in the applications of RDF and keep this
group for thrashing out 'language' related issues?
 
Comments?
CraigP
Research
Content Technologies

 


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