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

• From: Francis Norton <francis@r...>
• Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 20:36:33 +0100

> Jonathan.Robie@S... wrote:
> 
..
>
> The problem with semantic networks in the 1970s was not that it is
> hard to reason about databases of assertions. The problem was that it
> was not in anybody's interest to type in all the assertions you would
> like to be able to base your reasoning on. The web has a huge amount
> of data in machine readable form, but a similarly large database of
> assertions does not yet exist. If you can come up with a business
> model or some kind of ego incentive to make people supply the missing
> networks of assertions, then software can use the network of
> assertions an a number of useful ways.
> 
My expectation is that even non-b2b data will be increasingly namespaced
and schematized for things like small-ads or biztalk-compliant resumes;
and that maybe RDF will do a similar job for web-sites - for example any
standard for directing visitors to your contact, product or reference
site pages might well take off.

The more data is available to be processed in intended ways the more it
will be possible to process it in unintended ways. 

"I'm feeling bullish this morning - find me some hot-looking British
dotcoms to invest in."

	-	selecting all companies mentioned in the DMOZ ontology under internet
or sub-categories
	-	sub-selecting those with UK contact pages
	-	sub-selecting those with recent foreign reference sites
	-	matching company names to stock price feed
	-	view results?

It's a dream yet, but I think semantic precision could be the
intermediate step that builds critical mass towards a rather interesting
new environment.

> 
> Also, I don't think the term "semantic" is necessarily equivalent to
> "voodoo". Each namespace identifier can identify the language in which
> its data is encoded, and what is semantic for the web as a whole may
> be syntactic in the language associated with a namespace. 

Yes - the idea of a semantic web which tells you *how* to process all
its data probably is voodoo. A semantic web which tells you where to
find the data you already *know* how to process seems both possible and
probable. 

Francis.
-- 
Francis Norton.

why not?

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  • RE: RDF, the "semantic web", and the nadir of AI (was RE: Realist ic proposals to the W3C?)
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