Exercise: LOD questions (R)†was ( Do we need another list(s)? )

Giovanni

Great answers! I really hope other people will start commenting on this
questions, giving answers, or making more answers.

You are right, maybe education is not the right word. However I do think we
need to do outreach. With respect to the brainstorming that you suggest; I
think this is what we are doing now. I truly believe that this community
should brainstorm more about how we should do the outreach :)

I propose to create a FAQ about Linked Data (hopefully on the official
linked data web site). But to do so, we need the frequently asked questions!
Hopefully we can start putting this together.

Juan Sequeda, Ph.D Student
Dept. of Computer Sciences
The University of Texas at Austin
www.juansequeda.com
www.semanticwebaustin.org


On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 6:01 PM, Giovanni Tummarello <
giovanni.tummarello@deri.org> wrote:

> i agree on all your comments and believe me by talking to actual web
> 2.0 people you're way ahead.
> i'll try to answer some of your questions
>
> > I then asked if they new the value of Linked Data. The answer I got was
> > "well, i would think that my site would be easier to find right? i mean,
> i
> > would link stuff on my site better"
>
> lets see the key point here:
>
> * There is a site
> * There are human visitors as HUMANS Bring money/business not machines
> * There is a perception that metadata can help to find things better.
>
> >
> > Question 2: Would my site be easier to find then using Linked Data?
>
> Answer: no, matter of fact you open your data to being used without
> getting any visitors.
>
> >
> > Question 3: So are microformats in my pages doing Linked Data?
>
> they are not doing "linked data" but in practice the do answer the
> questions above or practically go well in that direction. see next one
>
> >
> > Question 4: By what method are these things linked?
> >
>
>
> 2 pages have the same vcards = you can link them. They have a me link
> = they are linked they have 2 events on the same date, same city =
> they should be grouped they might be interesting to show together to
> the user.
>
> They are in practice linked by simple, practical use cases which
> involve finding/related pages (real sites which want to get traffic)
> for users (real people who want to get pages)
>
>
> > After explaining somebody what linked data was, and giving them the
> existing
> > links about it, question 5 came up:
> > Question 5: "I see value in the data and the data being linked together
> but
> > i don't see practically how i would use it"
>
> big technical barrier in using it with the Lod model.
>
> on the other hand querying Freebase is infinitely simpler solving :
>
> * the access problem . a single language accesses all the datasets
> they have integrated, no hopping around, very fast
> * the data omogeneity and quality problem, they care about the dataset
> and import only clean stuff
> * identifiers omogeneity, big efforts are made to smush things together
> * Ontology issues: both a clear taxonomy is defined AND all the
> sources that are integrated are harmonized to it.
> * the multiple points of failure problem
>
> So since i believe querying large datasets of structured, matched data
> is in fact very useful once one gets a slightely bit creative i think
> they'll have success. Could i buy some of their shares i would do it
> :).
>
> I dont think its a coincidence that some of the smartest people who
> worked on semantic web now work for them.  (but of course there is
> much more than a good idea for a successful business so they might go
> bust anyway obviously)
>
> >
> > A final quote "people like me don't a) know about this and b) don't
> > understand how to use it once they do? I would say some additional
> education
> > is necessary to make this understood... i would also say that in a
> broader
> > sense the semantic web message has gotten lost under a mass of acryonyms
> and
> > theory"
>
> for a more articulate attept at an explanation of what happened i
> agree a lot with this post
>  http://inamidst.com/whits/2008/technobunkum by Sean Palmer
>
> I dont think "more education" is needed Juan, one really should teach
> something if .. the answer is known else its called brainstorming or
> handwaving (according to weather you're in  good faith or not)
>
> note that this is all but a bashing on the power of handling loosely
> structured data and RDF. I think on the other hand RDFa will triumph
> and so people will be probably making their own little vucabolaries..
> but starting from the web 2.0 approach and practical "how do i bring
> visitors, how to do simple site to site integration" use cases.
>
> Giovanni
>