RE: A discussion: Is semantic web an old fashioned idea?

Hi Dan,

I don't agree that SW representation is such a burden. Yes, the syntax
is ugly and sometimes confusing. 
But hey, this is a programmer's problem i.m.h.o! Our task as
technologists is to create the tools and the applications which make all
this complexity invisible or irrelevant to other developers and
high-level applications. We may have data integration, supply-chain
applications which may use SW standards underneath. Those who develop
those applications don't need to see the XML underneath! Just like most
of the IDE tools today offer easy ways to develop Web services without
requiring developers to know the details of SOAP envelope.

My main concern is that I see much of the effort from our community
going to "new syntaxes", "new representations", "new query languages"
while we have already standards for that! I think what it lacks is focus
on applications which deliver real value and bring real value. 

HTML was the standard and people just accepted it and started creating
web pages based on business models. Again, standard compliance is
CRUCIAL! 

Regards,
Rodrigo

> [...] 
> All good in principle, but it can make the 
> finished product hard to present and hard to comprehend.
> To understand how to read and write OWL documents, you need 
> to know XML level stuff (entities, elements/attribute rules, 
> charset issues), as well as RDF's convention for encoding 
> binary relations in XML, as well as OWL's convention for 
> encoding Description Logic constructs in RDF.
> That's the price we're currently paying, "well, I wouldn't 
> start from here".  I find it livable with, workroundable, and 
> more realistic than imagining we can reinvent an entire Web 
> Version 2.0 from a nice clean blank slate... 
> 
> Dan

Received on Thursday, 17 June 2004 08:30:48 UTC