- From: Lee Feigenbaum <lee@thefigtrees.net>
- Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:22:13 -0400
- To: Danny Ayers <danny.ayers@gmail.com>
- CC: "semantic-web@w3.org" <semantic-web@w3.org>, Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org>
In the spirit of LOD and http://infomesh.net/2002/swhaiku/ Semantic Web state? Web flourishing with data: Serendipity. Lee Danny Ayers wrote: > In brief, some time soon I'm planning to do a moderately comprehensive, > fairly non-technical write-up on this topic (for Nodalities [1] - has > quite a large & varied readership, including Planet RDF :-) > I'd like to try to be as objective as possible (personal ideosyncracies > aside). But I'm really hesitant... I want to do the topic justice, but > am totally ignorant of a vast amount of what's been happening in the > field of late (and have a terrible memory!). So I would very much like > to draw on other people's knowledge and experience, different > perspectives, even vague intuitions on this. In short, he-elp! > > Please reply on-list if it's ok for direct publication (include your > homepage URI if you want quoting), mail me personally if you have > off-the-record comments - if I use I won't mention source. > > The inspiration - last month I had the pleasure of attending a talk by > Ivan Herman entitled "State of the Semantic Web" [2] (apologies Ivan, > the most recent version of your slides I could find online are last > year's at [3], but I think those carry the gist). Great material, but > clearly he was there primarily in his role as semweb lead at the W3C, > though to his credit he went far deeper than mere cheerleading. > > (I too do semweb stuff as a profession, but I'm fortunate enough that > the company I work for encourages speculative exploration - if I > asserted "the semweb sucks!", it'd just lead to further discussion ;-) > > Ok, so for this as-yet hypothetical write-up, I'd like to include a few > success stories, as well as an example or two of things that *haven't* > worked. > > Now a few random areas I'd love to hear thoughts on - some of them > involve prognostication, but I'll interpolate backwards (!)...sorry, > lots more bullets than I initially intended - please just pick any that > you feel strongly about! - > > * Obviously Semantic Web technologies potentially have a big role within > the corporate Intranet. How are things going there? > (Personally I'm not comfortable with distinctions between "Public Web" > and er, "HTTP on the LAN" or even "Our Lovely Inference Engine", but for > present purposes I'll keep my mouth shut :-) > > * Money! What's the current status of funding for semweb research in > academia? Inside big corps? Gov. orgs? Funding from VCs etc? > > * What's the range of application of RDF like nowadays? (Obscure > examples would be nice) > > * What is the significance of recent interest in Semantic Technologies > (those without necessarily having any tie to the Web)? > > * How far does RDF+SPARQL (+RDFS) get us? Where might OWL(2) take us? Is > there any conflict between these directions? > > * How have the Linked Data initiatives changed perceptions in the use of > RDF? > > * How's the chicken? How's the egg? > (aside - we seem to have a decent supply of data now - but where are the > UIs/hooks into existing UIs/never-before-considered applications?) > > * Has the role of the W3C changed in this context over the past few years? > > * Can we still speak of "The Semantic Web Community" as a (reasonably) > unified whole? Should it be? > > * Have the attitudes of the developer community at large changed much > towards the Semantic Web? (Did SWEO help?) > > * How has/will blogging influenced the Semantic Web? > > * Initially the Web 2.0 'movement' had little or nothing to do with the > Semantic Web (beyond the lower layers of the stack) - is there any > evidence of change there? > > * Slightly tangential - where do you see social networking going? > (Possibilities off the top of my head - unification of services; general > loss of interest through another fad coming along; descent into the Web > infrastructure) > - supplemental: assume the fad prognosis - what'll be next? > > * Is there yet any compelling, user-friendly application that is solidly > based on the Semantic Web (and within that definition I'll include > linked data and suchlike broad Web connectivity)? > - bonus: if I want to show Mom how cool the semweb is, without blinding > her with triples, where do I start? > > * Of the old layer cake, we seem to approaching the point where some of > the upper layers don't seem far off being ready for prime time: Rules, > Logic, Proof. Too optimistic? > > * Again with the cake: we know we need Trust - but whatever happened to > Signature, Encryption? > > * Named graphs are the future? > > * (Summary of the last few) - are we done with new specs yet? > > * Any impact anticipated from HTML5? > > * If there was (is?) a Web 2.0 cake, no doubt it would now include > OpenID and OAuth - how compatible are these/can these be with the semweb > tech we know & love? > > * Not unrelated, there's a fair bit of similarity between OpenID > Attribute Exchange and RDF, as well as what appears to be a parallel > stack to the (Semantic) Web with XRDS/XRI/XDI etc. Is independent > invention of this nature a good thing or not? > (My mouth remains firmly shut :-) > > * There's always been a Semantic Web roadmap - has its destination changed? > > * What obstacles are there? > > * Event/comm-related things - IM, XMPP, Twitter even - where's the > semweb in all that? > > * Mobile Semantic Web - how're we doing? > > * Ubiquitous Semantic Web - how're we doing? > > * Jim Hendler's question: where are the agents? > > * What are the best next actions to carry this Grand Project (tm) forward? > > * Loose question - while it doesn't make much sense to say when the Web > was/is finished (2 hosts? 2 billion?), but barring disasters, on what > kind of timescale do you think we'll see a significant qualitative > difference in the Web at large due to Semantic Web technologies? > > * Anyone noticed any serendipity recently? > > * What questions did I miss? :-) > > Cheers, > Danny. > > [1] http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/ > [2] http://www.semantic-conference.com/session/723/ > [3] http://www.w3.org/2007/Talks/0223-Bangalore-IH/ > > -- > http://dannyayers.com > ~ > http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/this_weeks_semantic_web/
Received on Tuesday, 1 July 2008 16:24:24 UTC