Let’s Talk Semantic (Web)

The Semantic Web is a web of data. There is lots of data we all use every day, and it is not part of the web. I can see my bank statements on the web, and my photographs, and I can see my appointments in a calendar. But can I see my photos in a calendar to see what I was doing when I took them? Can I see bank statement lines in a calendar?

Why not?

Because we don't have a web of data. Because data is controlled by applications, and each application keeps it to itself.

The Semantic Web is about two things. It is about common formats for integration and combination of data drawn from diverse sources, where on the original Web mainly concentrated on the interchange of documents. It is also about language for recording how the data relates to real world objects. That allows a person, or a machine, to start off in one database, and then move through an unending set of databases which are connected not by wires but by being about the same thing.
Source

The notion isn’t something far fetched nor is it impossible to realise as the functional aspect of semantic web does already exist on many levels albeit much smaller scales. The purpose here is a ‘global vision’. Yes, it’s very utopian, and probably shares the same loft with fair minded people that want nothing more than to get rid of the 7 sins of man (biblical it’s not). The complexities however are way too huge to even consider as of yet, having much ado because of factors like consumerism, commercialism and industrialization.

So I suppose unless we revert to a free trade system or pin a conglomerate superstructure to control society, economy, nation-states and every other aspect of everydaylife (EDL), the feasibility of semantic web should (probably) encompass a large network of organizations that will need to share information in order for it to work.

But that’s only a credited concern for our economic powerhouses. The real power of semantic web comes from the ability of computers to actually be able to ‘read’ information and present it to users. The piece de resistance will be the total absence of human intervention. Nifty, right? Just a click of a button and your life journal comes gushing out in a neat package. The fear? Information hacks, something no one can really prevent, regardless of code.

Are you really ready to receive (give) your information(away)?

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