Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

The Challenges of the Semantic Web

Filed under: — Daniel Lemire @ 15:18

eWeek has an audio podcast on the Challenges of the Semantic Web. There is quite a lot of content. Stephen Downes is also part of the podcast and he makes an interesting point: proprietary data and its protection will prevent the Semantic Web from taking off. I am not sure I agree with Stephen on this one. After all, companies like Amazon already give you access to all of their metadata for free. However, I agree with Stephen on the fact that Tim Berners-Lee comes across as a bit hopeful. Proponents of the Semantic Web have a strong tendency to answer objections with the help of technobabble. “We wil XSLTize the problem away!” No, you won’t. You can’t resort to technobabble for ten years. Not unless you are a Star Trek writer.

I find it amazing how we have exactly the same problem at two ends. From SOAP to Semantic Web. Both are plagued by fundamental overestimates of the power of knowledge representation in IT.

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