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Re: RDF, the "semantic web",and the nadir of AI (was RE: Realisticpropos

• From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>
• To: xml-dev@l...
• Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 14:25:17 -0400

At 10:18 AM 10/18/00 -0700, Ronald Bourret wrote:
>Then I looked at XML and thought, "This is the answer and it's pretty
>obvious, just not all that technically exciting." You throw out the AI
>bit and go for the human solution: ask everybody to cooperate and tell
>the world what kind of data is on their Web page. It might sound like a
>hard sell, but it really isn't, no more than getting people to post Web
>pages in the first place.

Exactly!  I think it's reasonable to suggest starting small, let people
develop their own 'semantic networks', and build from there.

I guess I have no shame in picking up the phone or using other out-of-band
communications (email, Web pages) to find out what something means.

I'd rather that we figure out how to label and structure our information
before focusing on how to communicate the meanings of those labels to
everyone, including computers.  Automation is exciting, but I'm not sure I
want it driving activity at every single stage of development.

XML is a big improvement over its predecessors on the Web, IMHO, and I'd
like to see us figure out how to use those capabilities before binding them
permanently to 'higher' goals.

Simon St.Laurent
XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
XHTML: Migrating Toward XML
http://www.simonstl.com - XML essays and books

• References:
  • RE: RDF, the "semantic web", and the nadir of AI (was RE: Realistic proposals to the W3C?)
    • From: Robin Berjon <robin@k...>
  • Re: RDF, the "semantic web",and the nadir of AI (was RE: Realistic proposals to the W3C?)
    • From: Rick JELLIFFE <ricko@g...>
  • Re: RDF, the "semantic web",and the nadir of AI (was RE: Realisticproposals to the W3C?)
    • From: Ronald Bourret <rpbourret@r...>

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