

Ask YC : Could Rails build the Semantic Web? - Readmore

This is just an idea that I wanted to throw out to the community.  Everyone talks about how to build the underlying structure into the web to allow the Semantic Web 'flourish'. What if web app frameworks, like Rails or Django, could build in the structured information in the same way that Java Docs build out documentation for Java Code.<p>Maybe there is a very good reason why this won't work but I'm sitting in a meeting and wanted to throw this out there. What do you think? Could you build in Semantic Web structure at development time, or DB insert time, etc. Instead of trying to build some program that infers it from existing web pages?
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thomasswift
Rails could. It gives you an api for free and there are plugins/gems that you
could modify to fit into the semantic web.

BUT, I don't think this 'semantic web' is ever going to be achieved. Most of
the big players want you to give the information to them. Sure they give you
an API, but it's against the terms of service to take your data
out(Youtube,Facebook). I think when those barriers break we could get closer
to it, but how are they going to make money?

Maybe I am wrong.

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Readmore
That's true, but my thought here is that if something like Rails automatically
generated semantic web structure when it serves the pages then as people build
web apps we get the semantic stuff for free.

Think if Scribd had something like that when they built their site. Then all
of those documents could have extra data, pulled from the database and the
document itself, embedded in the page.

I guess what I'm thinking of is an extension to something like ActiveRecord
that pulls that information out of your models and database to embed in your
pages.

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bct
> Could you build in Semantic Web structure at development time, or DB insert
> time, etc.

Sure; just use a triple store rather than an SQL database. Take a look at
ActiveRDF.

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pius
Yes, absolutely. All it takes is the right defaults.

