

Ask HN: Any "semantic web" programmers here? What is the future of the Semantic Web? - glenstein

Specifically, do you think there will be widespread adoption of the standards being layed out by the W3C, with OWL, RDF, GRDDL and the rest? Who, what kinds of institutions are most likely to go along with it? Lastly, is it possible that this be the frontier of the next generation of hot new startups?<p>If it wasn't already obvious that I am a newbie to all of this, I am. My instinct, to the extent that I am allowed to have one on this, is that the success of RSS feeds is a sign of things to come. But I don't know exactly what.
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russell
I am a crank WRT the semantic web. Sure, there will be pockets of success, but
I think the whole concept is very 19th century. It is almost the opposite of
the network effect; it is not of much use unless a significant portion of the
sites on the web are marked up. Its whole search mechanism is logic based,
while much out there in non-logical. There is all that W3C navel gazing to
learn. Just about anything designed by a committee, in anticipation of a
revolution, fails.

I think the semantic web will fail because more revolutionary technologies
will pop up out of nowhere and surprise us all.

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cschneid
Alternatively, the pockets of success can be significant. I have zero hope of
it being "search engine" worthy, since it's too easy to fake (see meta
keyword).

But... in more controlled environments, it's a very powerful tool. Corporate
networks and Medical Research are two areas where it's getting bigger, and has
made significant advances.

I love the idea, but it's aimed wrong every time it's explained. Trust is a
big issue, and there's no way to prevent lies. But in the absence of trust
problems, it's incredibly powerful.

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jjguy
"semantic web" is a buzzword, too ill-defined to allow anyone to define
themselves with it label of "semantic web programmer."

The intellectual academics point at the rise of standards, structured
information and shout "the semantic web is here!"

The pragmatic implementers point at the reams and reams and reams of still
unstructured data and wonder where the academics point.

Save yourself the trouble; don't worry about what the semantic web is or
isn't. Don't worry about how to leverage it. Find a problem and just solve it.

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ieatpaste
Data-based startups will be implement internally before it hits popularity.
This is supported by semantic-esque elements have shown up in many APIs (such
as Amazon).

In my startup, we're using ARC (<http://arc.semsol.org/>) and microformats
internally; however, we're not doing it just for the sake of new technology -
data is managed better, databases can be designed well, and there is a
performance gain in some cases.

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trevelyan
Upmodded. My firm produces semantic analysis software for Chinese text:

<http://popupchinese.com/words/downloads>

The major issue hampering adoption is that unlike services based on pattern-
matching, services based on semantic/NLP analysis don't have a simple
mechanism to hide errors.

There is probably a threshold at which error rates are tolerable for consumer-
facing services, but we are not there yet. So the uses are largely on the
backend in areas with narrowly-defined problems where semantic tech can help
with automation and content processing and where people have an incentive to
improve performance over time by customizing the software itself. This is
happening, but you don't see glowing write-ups in Wired magazine since the
uses are extremely field specific and usually not terribly sexy.

