Re: Exact Search

On Mar 18, 2006, at 10:43 PM, Drew McDermott wrote:

>>> [me]
>>> If you've been following the recent debate about the prospects for
>>> extending WSDL (but not standing too close, I hope), you can see that
>>> a key issue is how to build on what already exists in getting to a
>>> "semantic" web.  For some people the slightest departure from the
>>> current WSDL path ordained by Microsoft and IBM is suicide (even if 
>>> we
>>> don't know what the path is yet!).
>
>> [Bijan Parsia]
>
>> Who are these people? I mean, where has this been articulated?
>
> I'm alluding to this message from Roger Cutler on Mar 16 --
>
>> I assume it has not escaped your notice that Microsoft is not
>> playing in this Semantic Web space at all.  What does this mean?
>> I'm not really sure, but one thing it means to me is that I think
>> you don't have five years to come up with something deployable.  I
>> know that Microsoft is quite capable of making abrupt U-turns and
>> picking up on things in a big way, but I don't think that they are
>> very likely to do so unless it's something with quantifiable value
>> that can be deployed immediately.  Why should you care?  Well, I
>> suspect that if Microsoft does NOT make such a U-turn that they are
>> perfectly capable of putting something into the market within the
>> next few years that will seriously blindside the Semantic Web
>> efforts.
>
> I don't mean to disparage this point of view at all.

Except that I don't see your rephrasing as accurate. Earlier in the 
message, he basically says, "Don't reinvent WSDL, even if you can make 
substantive improvements. *Build* on WSDL; add *extra* functionality". 
Here, he's not saying *follow* Microsoft, but hurry up and get 
something concrete while MS isn't into this space.

>  Roger's message
> makes me want to drop what I'm doing and go take a .NET certification
> course!

Well, then, continue in your misreading!

> It'll probably position me better for future participation in
> SOA development than working on OWL-S. :)

And you won't have to work on polishing your OWL DL verification skills 
:)

Cheers,
Bijan.

Received on Sunday, 19 March 2006 03:58:40 UTC