Re: Semantic Web Activity page use case

Yes, that paragraph has been there for a long time; it is actually a
quote from a presentation or an interview from Tim. As far as I can
judge, microformats did not exist when that paragraph was put there.

The question is of course the audience. When you say that *this* use
case can be implemented by microformats, that means that you already are
way ahead of the crowd and you *know* what the usage of the web of data
is. The fact that it can be implemented by microformats is something you
know because you know about that stuff already... for lot of reader of
the page the very idea that there is a 'web of data' is new. (And if
people would also make an association with microformats, that by itself
is not so bad. In some way, I regard them to be part of the Semantic Web...)

I am not saying *at all* that you are wrong, and if the example could
indeed be extended a bit, that would be good. But we should not have
more than a paragraph there.

Ivan


P.S. As for wikipedia: I think there is a general idea that people do
not edit the page of 'themselves', so to say, ie, I, as W3C Team person,
should not edit that stuff...



Kjetil Kjernsmo wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> I'd like to raise an issue, namely what is communicated from the 
> Semantic Web Activity page. The current opening statement is this:
> 
> "The Semantic Web is a web of data. There is lots of data we all use 
> every day, and its not part of the web. I can see my bank statements on 
> the web, and my photographs, and I can see my appointments in a 
> calendar. But can I see my photos in a calendar to see what I was doing 
> when I took them? Can I see bank statement lines in a calendar?"
> 
> As it looks now, I think these use cases will be realized using 
> microformats, and that RDF will play a very minor role. I think there 
> is a very real risk that developers will think that all Semantic Web 
> uses cases can be satisfied with microformats and that the "complex, 
> academic stuff" that we're doing is nothing but a unnecessary 
> complication of something that can be done rather simply with 
> microformats. 
> 
> We need simple use cases to start with, but not the ones that will most 
> likely happen through other means. So, I think we have a problem here, 
> and that this paragraph will have to be rewritten. I don't know what it 
> should say, but I hope to start a debate.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Kjetil

-- 

Ivan Herman, W3C Semantic Web Activity Lead
URL: http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/
PGP Key: http://www.cwi.nl/%7Eivan/AboutMe/pgpkey.html
FOAF: http://www.ivan-herman.net/foaf.rdf