Re: Next steps (Action: all)

At 7:09 PM -0600 2/25/02, Pat Hayes wrote:
>>We need to begin several processes in parallel if we are going to
>>complete our work in time to get this language through the W3C
>>process before the window of opportunity closes -
>
>?? I wasn't aware of the imminent closure of the w.o.p..
>
>I find this puzzling. There seems to be a vague but all-pervading 
>sense among our leaders that we are in some kind of hurry, lest we 
>miss the boat. On the other hand, we are also being constantly 
>reminded of how hard it is to 'sell' the SW to the practical world, 
>the need for convincing examples, persuasive propaganda, the search 
>for the Killer Ap, and so on; all of which suggests that we are if 
>anything ahead of the curve rather than behind it.  So what window 
>is closing, what boat are we likely to miss, and why the hurry?
>
>Pat Hayes
>--

We're expected (see W3C process document) to publish a working draft 
every 3 months.  We're late on the first one, and we want to make 
sure we start to get a language document to start taking place by the 
A'dam meeting -- not necessarily a written document w/all the bells 
and whistles, but something that can be shown to the outside world 
(preferably by the WWW conference) to show we are making progress. 
We're not responsible for the whole of the sem web or for solving 
world peace, but we do have the responsibility to create a useable 
language that those folks moving forward with DAML, OIL, DAML+OIL, 
etc, can start to feel that they can rely on - and start to set 
expectations on what it will be like and when it will arrive.  Be 
nice if we have a pretty good feeling for where things stand coming 
out of the next f2f.

It may feel like we have lots of time, but as we've seen from 
experience, the details take a long time, and we've still not 
discussed many of our contentious issues.
  -JH
p.s. Besides, Tim Berners-Lee promised me a beer if we are done by 
Xmas of this year, and I don't want to miss out on that :->


-- 
Professor James Hendler				  hendler@cs.umd.edu
Director, Semantic Web and Agent Technologies	  301-405-2696
Maryland Information and Network Dynamics Lab.	  301-405-6707 (Fax)
AV Williams Building, Univ of Maryland		  College Park, MD 20742
http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/hendler

Received on Monday, 25 February 2002 22:14:21 UTC