Re: The future of the 'Semantic Web'

I would like to support the various calls for an RDF application Interest 
group.

I also think that Seth Russel's points (see Re: RDF An opportunity) touched 
on pertinent examples of possible RDF applications. I quote:

"Well there is a group of user friendly tools that will allow the Semantic 
Web to flourish:

1) A tool that take in a Web page, has a dialogue with it's author, and 
outputs a web page with an authentic RDF description included.
2) A tool that has a user friendly dialogue with a designer to produce 
authenticated templates for (1) above.
3) A browser plugin that allows you to navigate the Semantic Web in English 
from any Web page - reading the RDF descriptions produces by (1), (4), and 
(5).
4) Search engines that index based on RDF meta descriptions.
5) RDF feeds (see recent suggestion by danb)
6) Personal Semantic Memory applications that read and write RDf to support 
all of the above."


Basically, everyone on the Interest Group mailing list would like to see RDF 
succeed, and if possible, to contribute to that success. However, success is 
dependant on a combination of things.

The first is that (1) it works! Obviously there are some extremely 
intelligent developers getting to the nitty gritty of this, to which the 
Interest Group e-mails bear witness.

The second condition is that (2) it is actually USED by people.

To be able to say that it works is not enough. To actually witness it 
improving the way most people search for information is to see RDF's 
potential being fulfilled.

Both these criteria need to be met to achieve success.

Creating an Application Interest Group would not only allow developers to 
continue to concentrate on the vital, vital task of getting RDF right 
without the distractions of vaguer e-mails such as this one, but it would 
also mean that the second condition of RDf success, that "it is actually 
USED by people" is given the attention it deserves.
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Received on Monday, 9 October 2000 11:49:58 UTC