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RE: Success factors for the Web and Semantic Web

• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• To: Paul Tchistopolskii <paul@q...>, xml-dev <xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 11:09:42 -0600

We're drifting away from ontology and 
the semantic web because I have a hard 
time believing people have the motivation 
to create false ontologies, but I've 
been fooled before and have to remember 
those hate sites out there which use 
any distortion to recruit members 
and by dint of creating their own 
authorities, can game.

Cheating on indexes of citation is 
easy.  The heart of propaganda is  
to make the lie of truth by repeating it often 
enough to people who will then repeat it 
for you.  The term is "gaming" and it is 
done every day by "shills".  You must have 
never been in a rock band working a circuit 
or looked at how hard mp3.com has to work 
to stop it and they aren't that successful. 
In the music business, you can buy your way to 
the top ten of the music charts although a 
number one is too expensive to justify it.  

Expense is the problem of using gaming and 
that makes citation indexes one of the more 
reliable metrics, not that it is intrinsically 
more reliable but that it is expensive to 
cheat.  The web is probably a cheaper medium 
for gaming, but only money matters.

Who believed those who predicted 
quite accurately that buying position in a 
ranking was the cheapest way to get hits? 
When the dot.coms started to starve, the 
membership email lists, all the traffic 
they could trap and track, email, the 
works went on the auction block.  Google 
can use tech over dollars, but they have 
to eat too, so we still have to check.  

That is why authority and credentials 
are so important as you note.  Even then, 
unless one pays attention, one can game that 
too.  You are right about the need to 
use multiple means of verification.

"Trust but verify" is a Russian proverb 
I read somewhere.  When my son and I 
worked on the Enola Gay article, two 
different topics returned the most hits: 
actual pages on the aircraft, its history 
and crew, and a rock band in North Carolina.

Len 
http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard

Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h


-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Tchistopolskii [mailto:paul@q...]


"Index of citation" works because it is almost impossible to abuse it.
Any company can spend money on banner ads, verbose 'meta'-based 'hooks'
e .t.c, but usually only really important pages ( scientific publications )
are quoted by other  pages ( publications ) !

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