If this is the Web 2.0, then what is the Semantic Web?

Frederick Giasson

I re-read the article wrote by Tim O’reilly about: What is the Web 2.0? If this is the Web 2.0, then, what is the Semantic Web? The article talk about:

1. The Web As Platform
2. Harnessing Collective Intelligence
3. Data is the Next Intel Inside
4. End of the Software Release Cycle
5. Lightweight Programming Models
6. Rich User Experiences

Tim talks about the importance of the data in the Web 2.0. The question he asks is: Who owns the data? It is a legitimate question, but is that really a question of the Web 2.0? Possibly, but the thing is that it is already a question of the Web 1.0.

Personally, I would ask the question: How to present that information? In the recent articles and blog posts I read about the Web 2.0, people talk about the openness of data available through hundred different APIs. It is certainly a good practice to gather the right information: much better than scrapping the HTML content of web sites. However, I do not think that this is the best way, a good way for sure, but not the best.

Why people do not talk about the semantic web: a way to present information in such a way that it is partially, even fully, processable by computers? This is even more powerful than hundred different APIs, no? Why is it much more powerful? Because these same applications could talk together without caring about the APIs’ protocols. I think that we should talk about the semantic web concepts much more than APIs when we talk about the place of the Data into the Web 2.0.

If I am wrong, then what is the Semantic Web?

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Who said that conferences are more and more useless? Web 2.0 conference 2005

Frederick Giasson

I read something some months ago saying that the conferences, symposiums, etc. are more and more worthless and useless considering their business evolution, etc, etc, etc. I do not know if he was right, but the only thing I know is that the Web 2.0 conference 2005 is not the case. In fact, people are more than enthusiast to follow it. Many discussions are emerging everywhere on the blogsphere about it, and about the subject it covers: the web 2.0. More than ever, people try to define what is the Web 2.0, a hype term that people use in any context.

I already tried to roughly define what is the Web 2.0; and Tim O’reilly wrote a beautiful essay on that subject. It is a must read for anyone wanting to follow the discussions that will emerge from that conference.

So, are these conferences worthless and useless? Follow the current and future discussions emerging from that conference and re-ask you the question.

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The future of Talk Digger

Frederick Giasson

I had a lot of time, in the last weeks, to think about the future of Talk Digger. What is the future the project belongs to? The semantic web.

Two months ago, I had the idea of Talk Digger. One month and a half ago, I built it. Now I think about the future of the project. The service appear to be reliable and people use and talk about it. I learned how the system could be use while talking with other users.

Now I have a better view of the system, a vision of how it could be used, and an idea of his potential.

The future of the Internet is the semantic web: a web where his documents are computer processable. It is in this web that Talk Digger will evolve and get his full potential.

Why? The current state of the semantic web is really exciting. Many technologies are already available and reliable to make the vision a reality. Now people have to use them to make it live. To make the semantic web a reality, we need to have access to a wide range of semantic web formatted documents. The only way to reach this state is that people and companies start to make their information available in these semantic web formats. It is in this direction that Talk Digger will evolve: make the information broadcasted by the service available, in RDF, to the semantic web agents. I will also create new sub-services that will (1) gather, (2) analyze, (3) process, and (4) display such information.

This vision is drove by a personal goal: make the semantic web a reality. This is ambitious and probably arrogant: I know. “Who dares win’ a SAS motto says. It is what I will do: dare.

Do I have a chance to reach my goal? I hope so, but I have no idea. The only thing I know is that it will be a reality only if everybody tries to do a little thing in that direction; there is the little things I will try do to:

  • Make Talk Digger results computer processable
  • Develop semantic web applications that will interact with the Talk Digger system
  • Write about the subject in such a way that any Internet users will understand
  • Educate people to this future reality through writings and oral presentations

This is the future of Talk Digger, my blog, and my professional carrier. As you know, I have been in Vancouver two weeks ago. The aim of this trip was to meet the guys behind Qumana, Lektora, and AdGenta. Last month I got a contract from them to develop a new feature in Lektora. Now, I got the contract to develop a new version of Lektora in the next months. Guest what? I will re-design it in such a way that I will be able to easily upgrade it to enter it into the semantic web era. In which way? Secret. But it is why I say that my new goal will also influence my professional career.

So what is next? The implementation of new search services such as Google Blog Search, Yahoo!, Altavista, and Alltheweb into Talk Digger.

After? I will come back on this later.

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Ajax and the Semantic Web

Frederick Giasson

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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Vancouver, Northern Voice 2006, and blogging

Frederick Giasson

For them who do not know, I am in Vancouver since four days, and I need to say that I love that city. I met a lot of really interesting people that work in the blogging and social software industry. This is probably The Canadian city for all the social software hype.

The second Northern Voice conference (the first and only Canadian blogging conference) will be, for the second time, in Vancouver this next February. If you want to meet great people with a lot of ideas related with social software, knowledge management, blogging, and the web 2.0; take 2 days and come to the meet them here. I hope and I will try to be there.

I leave for Banff tonight, so I am not sure if I will be able to post anything else for the next week, but it is sure that I will have a lot of stuff to write about the Web 2.0 and social softwares when I will come back home (the best time to think about such things is probably on a plane, don’t you think?)

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