Comments on: The Dark Side of the Semantic Web http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/ Weblog for the Mindswap research group at University of Maryland Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:35:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.10 by: r-echos » Blog Archive » My “Outdated View” of the Semantic Web http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-21023 Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:09:11 +0000 http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-21023 [...] If you look at what I’ve been writing since 2001 (in the Semantic Web article in Scientific American, coauthored w/Tim Berners-Lee and Ora Lassila) through my recent posts on the ‘Dark side of the Semantic Web‘ - I, and many others, have not been arguing for controlled ontologies - rather, we designed the Semantic Web technologies, and especially OWL, to encourage linking and reuse. We do believe there will be some carefully controlled ontologies in high value areas (such as the Cancer ontology which the national cancer institute maintains) but that much use would be by extension and linking to these…. [...] […] If you look at what I’ve been writing since 2001 (in the Semantic Web article in Scientific American, coauthored w/Tim Berners-Lee and Ora Lassila) through my recent posts on the ‘Dark side of the Semantic Web‘ - I, and many others, have not been arguing for controlled ontologies - rather, we designed the Semantic Web technologies, and especially OWL, to encourage linking and reuse. We do believe there will be some carefully controlled ontologies in high value areas (such as the Cancer ontology which the national cancer institute maintains) but that much use would be by extension and linking to these…. […]

]]> by: Felix Van de Maele » Blog Archive » Lightweight Ontology Matching and Mediation on the Semantic Web http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-12272 Tue, 23 Jan 2007 13:39:16 +0000 http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-12272 [...] Like the web, the Semantic Web will be distributed en heterogenous. It is an utopy to expect that all similar data on the Semantic Web will use the same ontologies. It has been sufficiently showen that ontology engineering for a large community is very hard and time-consuming. I am therefore convinced that, at least to bootstrap the Semantic Web, lightweight ontologies are the way to go. This process can also be witnessed in the Semantic Web Communtiy. More and more people are convinced that heavyweight ontologies where proof and logic are key, might be not the way to go, at least for now. A very interesting post by Jim Hendler describes it as “the dark side of the Semantic Web“. [...] […] Like the web, the Semantic Web will be distributed en heterogenous. It is an utopy to expect that all similar data on the Semantic Web will use the same ontologies. It has been sufficiently showen that ontology engineering for a large community is very hard and time-consuming. I am therefore convinced that, at least to bootstrap the Semantic Web, lightweight ontologies are the way to go. This process can also be witnessed in the Semantic Web Communtiy. More and more people are convinced that heavyweight ontologies where proof and logic are key, might be not the way to go, at least for now. A very interesting post by Jim Hendler describes it as “the dark side of the Semantic Web“. […]

]]> by: James Hendler http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-7339 Fri, 15 Dec 2006 05:34:13 +0000 http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-7339 Mark - if you look at the slides I linked to this you'll see hwta i have in mind -- the idea is that you can build a web app which is HTTP-GET, server uses Sparql to create the response from a triple store, and then return is XHTML - thus the front part is pure REST and a standard Web app, but the backend part is now Sparql instead of SQL - many web apps use SQL in this role now, new ones can use SPARQL in a similar way... Mark - if you look at the slides I linked to this you’ll see hwta i have in mind — the idea is that you can build a web app which is HTTP-GET, server uses Sparql to create the response from a triple store, and then return is XHTML - thus the front part is pure REST and a standard Web app, but the backend part is now Sparql instead of SQL - many web apps use SQL in this role now, new ones can use SPARQL in a similar way…

]]> by: Mark Baker http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-7332 Fri, 15 Dec 2006 03:58:03 +0000 http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-7332 Nice article Jim, but I'd just point out - since you mention it - that SPARQL has some <a href="http://www.markbaker.ca/blog/2006/08/09/sparql-useful-but-not-a-game-changer/" rel="nofollow">definite issues</a> from a REST (and Webarch, for that matter) POV. Nice article Jim, but I’d just point out - since you mention it - that SPARQL has some definite issues from a REST (and Webarch, for that matter) POV.

]]> by: James Hendler http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-7299 Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:18:04 +0000 http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-7299 I think SIOC (and ping the Semantic Web) are definitely steps in the right direction - I'm definitely a fan. I think SIOC (and ping the Semantic Web) are definitely steps in the right direction - I’m definitely a fan.

]]> by: John Breslin http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-7270 Thu, 14 Dec 2006 13:53:43 +0000 http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-7270 Nice explanation Jim, it's good to promote the fact that Semantic Web has moved on from just data to things that can now use and transform this data... Some nice examples are given by <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/" rel="nofollow">Kingsley Idehen</a> in <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1095" rel="nofollow">this post</a> / <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/DAV/home/kidehen/gallery/my_photos/sparql_qbe_sioc_skos_shot1.png" rel="nofollow">image</a>, and of course in the SIOC Project we now have some paths from data to useful applications (see <a href="http://sw.deri.org/~jbreslin/presentations/20061123a.pdf" rel="nofollow">most recent presentation</a>). Nice explanation Jim, it’s good to promote the fact that Semantic Web has moved on from just data to things that can now use and transform this data…

Some nice examples are given by Kingsley Idehen in this post / image, and of course in the SIOC Project we now have some paths from data to useful applications (see most recent presentation).

]]> by: Internet Alchemy » AI it aint http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-7251 Thu, 14 Dec 2006 08:49:12 +0000 http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2006/12/13/the-dark-side-of-the-semantic-web/#comment-7251 [...] It’s great to see someone like Jim Hendler get it: …you use a small amount of Sem Web (think Foaf or Skos) to add a bit of organizational knowledge (and to webize with URIs) to tagging sites, microformats, and etc. It is the realization that the REST approach to the world is a wonderful way to use RDF and it is enpowered by the emerging standards of SPARQL, GRDDL, RDF/A and the like. [...] […] It’s great to see someone like Jim Hendler get it: …you use a small amount of Sem Web (think Foaf or Skos) to add a bit of organizational knowledge (and to webize with URIs) to tagging sites, microformats, and etc. It is the realization that the REST approach to the world is a wonderful way to use RDF and it is enpowered by the emerging standards of SPARQL, GRDDL, RDF/A and the like. […]

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