Re: Semantic Web Interest Group now closed

On Mon, 15 Oct 2018, 12:32 Ralph Swick, <swick@w3.org> wrote:

>
>
> On 2018-10-15 11:09 AM, David Booth wrote:
> > On 10/15/2018 10:49 AM, xueyuan wrote:
> >  > This message is to inform you that the Semantic Web Interest Group
> >  > is now closed, [ . . . . ]
> >  > With the introduction of Community Groups we now encourage the
> >  > participants in the IG forum to
> >  > establish Community Groups to continue the conversations.
> >
> > Given that the semantic-web@w3.org email list has served the community
> > very well, I think it would be helpful for continuity if a Community
> > Group could take over the existing email list.  Is this possible?  And
> > if so, does this mean that we should now create such a community group?
>
> Ivan and I have been in conversation with DanBri for some time as the
> formal closing of the Interest Group was pending.  This specific
> question was part of that discussion; whether to continue the big
> semantic-web distribution list as a Community Group resource or use the
> opportunity to do some housekeeping.
>
> Ivan and I decided to let the community decide -- and those discussions
> are welcome on the list.
>
> And again, I can't overstate our appreciate to DanBri for his gentle
> facilitation of the discussions on this list, jumping in as the IG chair
> and list moderator only when it was critical to do so.
>

Thanks Ralph. I had hoped to propose a new followup Community Group last
week but got swept up in f2f discussions during the ISWC conference.

Both SW and Linked Data have rather prescriptive overtones (1-star, 5-star,
#-/ redirects etc.). My suggestion to Ralph, Ivan and team was to go back
to the original name we used prior to creation of 1999's RDF Interest
Group. It was "RDF-DEV" originally, named in tribute to XML's now
decades-spanning XML-DEV community.

Clearly we have accumulated many technologies, slogans and acronyms over
the years around RDF, but things are still playing out broadly according to
the original W3C Metadata Activity vision. At ISWC it became clear to me
that memories of that era aren't so much fading as largely non-existent
amongst many in the Semantic Web and Linked Data world. I like the idea of
an RDFIG/SWIG successor Community Group that offers some continuity with
those times, and with the RDF(etc.) project's origins in "technology and
society", metadata, browser and digital library concerns.

Fortunately, the W3C Community Group mechanism is open and decentralized.
Anyone can propose a group, and we already have many around more specific
RDF-based technologies (like SPARQL, OWL, ShEx, schemas, etc.).

So, that is my proposal for a followup group. There may be others, and that
is not necessarily a bad thing.

"RDF-DEV, for developments relating to W3C RDF, including collaboration
around applications, schemas, and past/present/future related standards."

Dan



> -Ralph
>
> > My one hesitation in continuing with the existing list is that the
> > choice of the name "Semantic Web" has long been recognized as a
> > marketing mistake, so perhaps it is time to say goodbye to it.  "Linked
> > Data" is a substantially better term.
> >
> > Thoughts?
> >
> > David Booth
> >
>