
Web 3.0: The Semantic Web, a short film - david927
http://kateray.net/film
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david927
I thought it was really interesting that Slava from RethinkDB mentioned in his
recent O'Reilly talk that the Semantic Web is something that people don't
really care about.

I was shocked; I think it's _everything_.

The Semantic Web is the big nut. Just because we don't have a way to crack it
yet, doesn't diminish it in terms of its importance. This video helps to hint
at why that is and what's at stake.

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Tichy
I just don't think people will be willing to add the semantic data. Instead of
the semantic web, I think we will see more and more services that can extract
information automatically.

For example, if you tweet or blog about a place, it seems doable to
automatically realize that it is a place. You don't have to tweet "Going to
<semantic:place>Joe's Bar</semantic:place>". From knowing your default
location, a clever computer could recognise "Joe's Bar" as a place, because
your city has a place called "Joe's Bar".

I think there are already examples of this cropping up here and there (and
Yahoo has a service for places you can use).

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david927
I couldn't disagree more. I see your viewpoint, but I think think that's
extrapolating based on our current perspective -- initiatives like LinkedData,
which don't work.

If you give people a tool that can do it clearly, flexibly and easily, they
will blow your mind.

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Tichy
What is the incentive for people to do it? It is work, so they should get
something in return.

Maybe SEO for Google, ie if Google said "we'll improve your rank dramatically
if you included semantic data". But even then - it would be an enormous amount
of work to update all (or the majority of web sites).

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david927
Why would they do it? To be found.

There are over a trillion web sites. Why did people put in so much work?
Because they had something that they wanted to be found/seen/known by someone
else.

The semantic web, in the form that it will come in, won't be nearly that much
work. Instead of each business creating a web site, they'll just fill out the
data of what makes them what they are and what makes them unique.

There are a trillion textual web sites, nearly all created in the last 15
years, most of which don't need to exist. My prediction: Very soon, they
won't.

Edit: I'm _not_ talking about current initiatives like LinkedData. If the SW
would only come like that, I would agree with you.

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elblanco
I think your reasoning about why people make web pages is error-prone.

Just another node on a semantic graph is not what anybody wants to be,
otherwise the web would be populated with HTML 1.0 pages. It's not like making
one of those is much harder than filling out a semantic form.

> most of which don't need to exist.

Who says that? I think my page on mauve socks should certainly exist. There's
an awful lot of stuff like that on the web. And the SW is no more useful for
finding that than search is.

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FabriceTalbot
I just shared the video on Twitter and LinkedIn. Great, informative video, if
you ask me. It depicts both points of view.

However, I do agree that the word "semantic" has become too much of a buzzword
and most people aren't really aware of it's true meaning.

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waterlesscloud
Well done short documentary on the promise and problems of the semantic web. A
lot of familiar names interviewed on the topic. Berners-Lee, Shirky, etc.

