Re: [ontoweb-list] Re: A discussion: Is semantic web an old fashioned idea? Is it bubble, unworthy or an interesting research area - Post your comments

Nick, Miltiadis,

I like this kind of discussion which probably was the same when the
railroad invention passed the horses !

To be more serious let me add some personal thoughts:

1. There is an enourmous business need for solutions which are based on
semantic web technologies
     In essence the business need is for:

     -  semantic based integration / interoperation of systems which shall
enable an "on demand integration" capability,
        (you can call this a "super TIBCO and similar" solution).
       A solution for this problem would tackle in minimum 20% of the IT
budget spending of today
    -  semantic based search for information on the web , you can call this
the "ONE QUESTION  > ONE ANSWER" capability
        (name it a "Super Google and similar" solution)
       A solution for this problem would influence the search and
e-business behaviour of most of the WEB users of today significantely

2. Giving this the discussion if semantic web ist "it" or not is a
discussion which is valid, but to my judgement cannot be discussed on the
XML PROLOG,
     HYPERTEXT etc. level only because this would be a discussion on the
parts of the iceberg which is under the water only.
3. The direction I would appreciate the discussion to go, or at least I
would see value add in,is on

     HOW and WHAT are we doing in research to approach the needed solutions
for the two items named in point 1
     WHEN could we tell potential SW vendors, customers , companies that
the base for a solution will be there

I see lots of efforts going in this direction,and I think this problem and
the solution for ,is at least one magnitude
more complex than the build up of the Web (which IS a prerequesit, of
course) .

Giving the enormous economical impact and benfit of those named "Semantic
Web Based Solutions " I would encourage "us"
to focus our brightness more toward this for sure rewarding goal.

regards

Peter

Peter F. Smolle
Net Dynamics Internet Technologies
www.netdynamics-tech.com



                                                                                                                                      
                    Nick Gibbins                                                                                                      
                    <nmg@ecs.soton.ac.uk>                   To:     Miltiadis Lytras <mdl@eltrun.gr>                                  
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                    16.06.2004 18:42                        Subject:     [ontoweb-list] Re: A discussion: Is semantic web an old      
                                                            fashioned idea? Is it bubble, unworthy or an interesting research area -  
                                                            Post your comments                                                        
                                                                                                                                      



Miltiadis Lytras wrote:

>   1. In 6 years time with ZERO hype and an insignificant
>      amount of funding, the WWW evolved from a couple
>      of lonely programmers to Netscape and the essential
>      features of what we see on the web today.

>   2. In 6 years (1998 to 2004) with ENORMOUS hype and
>      funding, the semantic web has evolved from Tim BL's
>      book to a few prototype applications, which are less
>      advanced than technologies of the 1970s such as SQL,
>      Prolog, and expert systems -- and they're doing it
>      with XML, which is far less advanced than LISP,
>      which was developed in the 1950s.

While I have some sympathy with his cautious attitude towards the Semantic
Web, Sowa misses the rich history of hypertext systems that the WWW draws
on. A different characterisation of the growth of the Web might be:

    1. In 6 years (1989 to 1995) with some hype and not
       insignificant EU and US funding, the WWW evolved from
       Tim BL's original proposal to a widespread but simple
       system which is less advanced in certain ways than
       previous hypermedia systems, such as the Hypertext
       Editing System, Xanadu, NLS, OWL-Guide and Hypercard

--
Nick Gibbins                                            nmg@ecs.soton.ac.uk
IAM (Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia)             tel: +44 (0) 23 80598347
Electronics and Computer Science                   fax: +44 (0) 23 80592865
University of Southampton
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Received on Monday, 21 June 2004 11:19:55 UTC