Re: explain semantic web to your gran

"How would you explain the Semantic Web to your grandparents?"

I don't personally think this in itself is much of a challenge, unless 
the grandparent in question -

a) associates SW notions with pre-web ("failed") AI, or
b) is an XML developer and assumes RDF/XML is the defining part of the 
technologies

The easiest solution by far would be to point to a selection of end-user 
applications that fully interoperate using SW technologies and make 
significant use of RDF/OWL inferencing. This still isn't possible yet, 
despite the large number of tools now available. There really isn't much 
visible for the end user.

btw, what would be a very difficult challenge, in my own case at least, 
would be to receive feedback over whether the explanation had been 
understood. I propose a simple XML application, After Life ML, 
consisting of two constructs:

<knock/> for true
<knock/><knock/> for false *

This would of course use the Jabber IM (Immortal Messaging) protocol.

Perhaps the Device Independence WG could be tasked with creating a Ouija 
Board-based HTTP client.  In this case the medium truly would be the 
message.

Cheers,
Danny.

* Not to be confused with the Horse Enumeration Markup Language:

<clop/> = 1
<clop/><clop/> = 2 etc.

PS. Sorry.

-- 

Raw
http://dannyayers.com