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Re: Semantic Web for the Masses, by the Masses

• To: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@m...>
• Subject: Re: Semantic Web for the Masses, by the Masses
• From: Frank Manola <fmanola@a...>
• Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 11:48:17 -0500
• Cc: XML Developers List <xml-dev@l...>
• In-reply-to: <B8415163A689094689542C617ECA0366611716@I...>
• References: <B8415163A689094689542C617ECA0366611716@I...>
• User-agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.6 (Windows/20050716)

Roger--

How do you see something like Google Base fitting into this approach?

--Frank

Costello, Roger L. wrote:
> *Semantic Web for the Masses, by the Masses*
> *                Roger L. Costello*
>  
> 1. To enriched the Web with semantics will require everyone pitch in to 
> add descriptions (semantics) to individual Web documents.
>  
> 1.1 Semantics will not be added by semantic gurus, but, rather, by the 
> common users.
>  
>       Example: A person (a common user) takes a JPG photo of 
> a coastline, and then annotates it with this description:
>  
>                     "This is a picture of the New England coastline."
>  
> 2. The barrier to entry must be low.  That is, the barrier to a common 
> user adding a description (i.e., semantics) to a Web document must be low.
>  
> 2.1 Complex ontology languages such as RDF and OWL are out of reach for 
> all but the semantic gurus, and are thus not used.  Even "vanilla XML" 
> is out of reach for the common user, and is thus not used.
>  
> 2.2 A Web document is enriched with semantics by the common user simply 
> writing a description, in a natural language such as English (see 
> above for an example of a description).
>  
> 3. The semantic web must be self-regulating.
>  
> 3.1 A description that is written by one common user may be edited by 
> another common user.  Presumably the later common user has more 
> knowledge and is thus able to correct or add to the description.
>  
>      Example. A second person with further information edits the above 
> description:
>  
>                    "This is a picture of the New England coastline, near 
> the Boston harbor."
>  
> 3.2 Common users regulate themselves - they ensure that all descriptions 
> of a Web document are consistent.
>  
> 4. The tool used by the common user to annotate a Web document with a 
> description (semantics) must be lightweight.
>  
> 4.1 A simple text box with a basic editor and versioning will suffice. 
>  
> 5. Advanced semantic machine processing are services provided by a 
> limited set of companies which employ Ph.D semantic gurus.
>  
> 5.1 Company XYZ is one of those limited set of companies.  It employs 
> Ph.D semantic gurus.  They write advanced code to process all the 
> descriptions written by the common users.  They use RDF and OWL, if they 
> desire.
>  
> Comments?  /Roger

• References:
  • Semantic Web for the Masses, by the Masses
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@m...>

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