Semantic Web: publicity and some misinformation...

This item [1] turned up the ACM "TechNews" mailing list...

(It's shame about the claim to "supplant the current Web".  I'd have hoped 
ACM might be better informed.  Oh well.)

#g
--

[1] http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0730w.html#item15

# "The Future of Human Knowledge: The Semantic Web"
TechNewsWorld (07/28/03); Koprowski, Gene J.

An international team of scientists is defining and devising standards, 
protocols, and technologies that will form the foundation of the Semantic 
Web, a more context-aware version of the Internet envisioned as an online 
source for the collective scientific, business, and artistic knowledge of 
the human race. The Semantic Web, which optimistic forecasters believe is 
just a few years away, will be able to conduct searches based on ordinary 
language rather than keywords. The project is being spearheaded by the 
World Wide Web Consortium; participants include researchers at computer 
companies and major academic institutions such as Kyoto University, 
Stanford University, and MIT, while the Pentagon's Defense Advanced 
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a Semantic Web underwriter. Maturing 
technologies thought to be the strongest candidates for implementing the 
Semantic Web include DARPA agent markup language, resource description 
framework (RDF), and Web ontology language (OWL). Many businesses are too 
impatient to wait for the Semantic Web to emerge and are investigating 
other stop-gap solutions, such as the automation of routine e-commerce 
tasks by software agents. Meanwhile, niche search engines that seek out 
data based on user preferences are being fleshed out by Penn State 
researchers and others. Extreme Logic strategic consultant Steve Woods 
notes that analysts expect the Semantic Web to supplant the current Web 
within two years, although his firm considers 2010 to be a more realistic 
projection for such a development.
http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/31199.html


-------------------
Graham Klyne
<GK@NineByNine.org>
PGP: 0FAA 69FF C083 000B A2E9  A131 01B9 1C7A DBCA CB5E

Received on Thursday, 31 July 2003 04:09:18 UTC