The (SW | WS) Vision

The Semantic Web aims at transforming the Web into a completely machine-processable information space. Web services are aiming at enabling automated distributed computing on the World Wide Web. The work of this Working Group is essentially the provision of an ontology for Web services. -- Section 1.5, WSD-WG Charter

• The Semantic Web (weaselly version)
  • A global system of interlinked information
  • that programs can usefully process
  • with much less human intervention
  • "To do for KR what the Web did for hypertext"
  • "To facilitate human & computer communication"

• Web Services (tendentious version)
  • A global system of interconnectable programs
  • that can programmatically interact
  • with much less need for tedious human bookkeeping-style effort
  • (doesn't have to be programs, per se)
  • "To do for CORBA/COM what the Web did for hypertext"?