Re: Use of Content Management Systems, ranking and usage in Semantic Web

2008/11/14 Sw-MetaPortal-ProjectParadigm <metadataportals@yahoo.com>:
> Dear Paola,
>
> Getting back to the root question of CMSs, I am having a hard time figuring
> out why so little semantic web functionality is built into the current most
> popular CMSs being used.
>
> The functionality of CMSs resembles to a large extent what intended users
> (web designers and users) expect of them in order to build sites, and
> semantic web issues apparently are not yet high on their agenda.
>
> As a mathematician and global sustainable development activist I had a hard
> time when I tried to come up with a practical approach based on existing
> infrastructure and ICT technology to see how the UN ICT Task Force tried to
> envision global empowerment of stakeholders in sustainable development
> through the use of ICT and the internet in particular.
>
> I came up with an obvious shortlist, the internet, open source software and
> toolkits, and open (internet) access digital repositories of knowledge and
> information.

I notice that the CMS systems you provide as examples (Drupal, Joomla,
etc) are all CMSs with semantic web extensions applied. While not as
popular, systems like Fedora are certainly gaining in popularly and
are built on Semantic Web structures from the outset. (I don't know of
others, but I'm sure they're out there). I hope you are including
these in your assessments.

While these systems may not meet the levels of Semantic Web
integration that you appear to be looking for, Paola has a very good
point in that it is much more important to meet people's needs than it
is to push Semantic Web concepts as far as possible. The Semantic Web
standards enable features to be easily implemented in software. I
don't believe they should be driving the features for the pure sake of
being more in tune with the "Semantic Web".

You might also question why the popular CMSs aren't built on semantic
web technologies, and why you have to look at less well known projects
to find this. I would say that it is due to ignorance about what the
semantic web has to offer. The Semantic Web may have been around when
Joomla was started, but did the developers of Joomla know how to use
the semantic web? Did the users know what kind of functionality would
be readily available if their CMS was built on top of semantic web
technologies?

Obviously these benefits are starting to be recognized now, with
semantic web modules becoming available for the well known systems,
and the lesser known systems like Fedora becoming more popular.

Regards,
Paul Gearon

Disclaimer: while I've never actually run Fedora, I *do* work for them.

Received on Saturday, 15 November 2008 07:46:59 UTC