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Re: Syntax and semantics

• From: "Michael S. Brothers" <Michael.S.Brothers@E...>
• To: Paul Prescod <paul@p...>
• Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 10:01:23 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)

WE Perry:
> > That is where the value of the Semantic Web becomes 
apparent. One 
> > pair at a time, autonomous nodes can build the semantic
> > context within which they come to understand one another. I will
> > not elaborate on this process now; I have done it at plenty 
> > length elsewhere. 
Paul Prescod:
> 
> #1. Can you provide a reference?
> 
> #2. What do we do while we wait for the Semantic Web?
> 
> #3. How can the Semantic Web ever be complete until computers are
> artificially intelligence?
> 
> Consider: I have a purchase order database. The computer has no
> knowledge of what that means. It is just a database with fields. You
> send me a purchase order in an random vocabulary. I have no
> foreknowledge of the vocabulary or its semantics. The document must be
> sliced and diced so that it may go into my database. How can this be
> done without a human intervenor? How can the computer know that your
> company_name is what is in my database known as customer_name?
> 

Can we perhaps have the "semi-semantic" Web (in the meantime, until 
HAL is born) by actually assigning meaning (DTD, Schema, mapping info, 
whatever) to the namespace URI? I know this is a point that has been 
bloodied on these pages before, but several threads of late keep 
bringing that possibility back into mind. Autonomous, anonymous nodes 
can only communicate when meaning (semantics) is known to both parties. 
The namespace URI, though created soley for the purpose of 
deconflicting names, could take on the second purpose of providing the 
needed information to bridge the semantic gap.

Take Care,
mike brothers

-----------------------------------------
Michael S. Brothers
515-362-7473
"I like bacon. And ham. And pork chops."
"But Dad, those are from the same animal."
"Yes, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal."
-Homer Simpson




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