Ajax and the Semantic Web: currently two buzz terms; one that describe a new way to create interactive web interface; the other that describe documents in such a way that computers could “understand” their semantic meaning.

Tim Berners-Lee wrote something interesting: RDF-AJAX: 7 letters that open a window on a new world. We have two layers: one that shows things (Ajax), and the other that describe, by their semantic meaning, things (Semantic Web document).

You have to see the interactions of these two layers as the man-machine interactions. The Ajax layer will read a Semantic Web Document (RDF, for example) and make it human readable. The document will be computer readable by other software agents.

Big deal, you are thinking? Think about it. Right now, databases information is serialized in HTML files to help human to read and understand its information. Good, however, what happen if I wish to create a software agent to help me to automate some processes? There is the big deal. What I want is to serialize the databases information in Semantic Web formats, like RDF, instead of HTML. That way, the information help in these databases will be computer readable and understandable. Then, the problem is that I will not be, anymore, able to read and understand these big chunks of RDF documents.

There is the utility of the Ajax layer: to make RDF, or any other Semantic Web format, documents human readable. We could use an Ajax library that would understand RDF documents, and display their content in a browser. That way a single web page could be both processed by computers and humans. The Web would not be composed of HTML documents anymore, but Semantic Web formats ones.

There is another view of the future Web.

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