Myths of the Semantic Web – Jeff Pollock
Over the years there have been a lot of persistent myths about the Semantic Web. Really, I can’t blame people too much. The ‘new’ Web has a pretty cryptic name, it’s been a long time coming, and the benefits of this 3rd generation Web infrastructure take some pretty serious geek-cred to really understand. But despite all these good reasons for regular folk to be confused about the Semantic Web, it’s the people who should know better and still spread mis-truths that really get me frustrated!
When I wrote the Semantic Web for Dummies, I knew I just had to have a chapter dedicated to the myths surrounding the Semantic Web – it’s a very target-rich environment to shoot those myth down. Like the erstwhile Adam and Jamie from the Discovery channel show Mythbusters, I decided to have my fun in the book and try to bust those Semantic Web myths!
Myth: THE SEMANTIC WEB IS SCIENCE FICTION
Truth: Far from it! I spend a lot of pages in this book describing the real-deal, functional, here-today, make-your-life-better-now Semantic Web applications and Web sites that you can use today. You don’t need Asimov to enjoy the Semantic Web!
Truth: Far from it! I spend a lot of pages in this book describing the real-deal, functional, here-today, make-your-life-better-now Semantic Web applications and Web sites that you can use today. You don’t need Asimov to enjoy the Semantic Web!
Myth: THE SEMANTIC WEB IS FOR TAGGING WEB SITES
Truth: Tagging Web sites is about 1% of the power of the Semantic Web. Yes, you can do it, you can do it manually, you can do it using automated engines, you can even have Web 2.0 style crowd generated tags in Semantic Web format… but that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine all the different Web site tags in the world linked up automatically to all the best online reference databases in the world…connected to the data on your harddrive and your business’ enterprise software systems like for business intelligence… yeah, folks are already building that today.
Truth: Tagging Web sites is about 1% of the power of the Semantic Web. Yes, you can do it, you can do it manually, you can do it using automated engines, you can even have Web 2.0 style crowd generated tags in Semantic Web format… but that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine all the different Web site tags in the world linked up automatically to all the best online reference databases in the world…connected to the data on your harddrive and your business’ enterprise software systems like for business intelligence… yeah, folks are already building that today.
Myth: THE SEMANTIC WEB WILL PUT GOOGLE OUT OF BUSINESS
Truth: Google is a wildly successful win-at-all-costs Ad company. The Semantic Web is a technology vision for how our global Internet infrastructure will evolve to accommodate semi-structured data on the Web. Even if the Semantic Web utopian vision could magically appear tomorrow (it can’t), and all the old non-Semantic Web data disappeared (it won’t), we’d still need Google (or something like it) for all sorts of Web applications. All those startups looking to shoot down the Google-star with Semantic Web are barking up the wrong tree!
Truth: Google is a wildly successful win-at-all-costs Ad company. The Semantic Web is a technology vision for how our global Internet infrastructure will evolve to accommodate semi-structured data on the Web. Even if the Semantic Web utopian vision could magically appear tomorrow (it can’t), and all the old non-Semantic Web data disappeared (it won’t), we’d still need Google (or something like it) for all sorts of Web applications. All those startups looking to shoot down the Google-star with Semantic Web are barking up the wrong tree!
Myth: THE SEMANTIC WEB IS TOO COMPLEX TO SUCCEED
Truth: A little semantics goes a long way. For those who really understand the Web, and data, we know that our current Internet is still interoperating on 20 year old infrastructure, 30 year old protocols, and 40 year old ideas. The full vision of the Semantic Web doesn’t have to be adopted for it to “succeed” – even a little bit better meaning in our data relationships, or a wee bit better ways to put some structure to our Web data can be a game-changer in the decades long evolution of the Web. Take the long-view folks, things don’t change overnight.
Truth: A little semantics goes a long way. For those who really understand the Web, and data, we know that our current Internet is still interoperating on 20 year old infrastructure, 30 year old protocols, and 40 year old ideas. The full vision of the Semantic Web doesn’t have to be adopted for it to “succeed” – even a little bit better meaning in our data relationships, or a wee bit better ways to put some structure to our Web data can be a game-changer in the decades long evolution of the Web. Take the long-view folks, things don’t change overnight.
Myth: THE SEMANTIC WEB IS A CATALOG SYSTEM
Truth: What’s so bad about having a way to catalog all that data on the Web? Sure, the Web isn’t some kind of giant library, with a gi-normous card catalog system cross-referenced by author, title and subject…would that be so bad? Anyway, calling the Semantic Web a “catalog system” is like saying that Melvil Dewey invented numbers. There isn’t any inherent subjects, data model, or ontology defined in the Semantic Web, it’s just a way of modeling data, any data, about Web sites, your business’ finances, or your mom’s knitting club.. the Semantic Web just gives data modelers a way to make better models.
Truth: What’s so bad about having a way to catalog all that data on the Web? Sure, the Web isn’t some kind of giant library, with a gi-normous card catalog system cross-referenced by author, title and subject…would that be so bad? Anyway, calling the Semantic Web a “catalog system” is like saying that Melvil Dewey invented numbers. There isn’t any inherent subjects, data model, or ontology defined in the Semantic Web, it’s just a way of modeling data, any data, about Web sites, your business’ finances, or your mom’s knitting club.. the Semantic Web just gives data modelers a way to make better models.
Well, those are the first 5 myths (I’ll cover the next five later). Of course the book accounts for a much more complete and entertaining Mythbusters process on these persistent myths, but you should be able to get an idea of where I’m headed next. You see, for all the bad information that’s out there on the Semantic Web, you need a little good information too. So, the Semantic Web isn’t all motherhood and apple pie – that would be pollyanna – instead it is just like any other ground-breaking, mind-blowing, incredibly life-altering new technology: you should take it all with a grain of salt and do your own hands-on research before believing pundits like me!
