Talk and discussion | reboot11
Will the Web ever be Semantic?
There's been much talk, much research and many standardization efforts now for a long time, but not many mainstream applications. Still, the Semantic Web project is certainly not dead. When - if ever - is it going to happen, and what's it going to be like?
The Semantic Web is about making knowledge on the Web more accessible to automatic processing. (Eg. filtering, sorting, reasoning...) To this end, the Web standardization organization W3C (The WorldWide Web Consortium) has recommended a range of technical specifications. After approximately 10 years, the specifications are somewhat mature and together form a large framework for the new wonderful Web.
Many things can be said against the project, headed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee - the inventor of the ordinary Web. One problem is that it is simply too complex. Not many people understand even the basic ideas, and implementing the standards is usually a large and expensive project. Another problem is the chicken-and-egg situation. To give Semantic Web application implementors a return on their investment, a critical mass of interesting data is needed, but to give data contributors ROI, some great Semantic Web applications are needed.
Today, however, people are providing semantic data to the web at increasing speeds, using tools such as Facebook and Twitter (!). And the W3C re-branded the project into "Linked Data". A nice start at reducing complexity.
I will give an overview and hopefully we can have a discussion about how semantic the Web is going to be in the coming years.
