[Web4lib] How do I create a semantic web site?

[Casey Bisson]

John

As a previous respondent alluded to, this is an area that is seeing a  
lot of evolution. However, there are things you can do now. Among the  
best of them (and one that will always deliver value), is to make sure  
your site is marked up meaningfully. I know this sounds simple, but  
it's surprising how few data-rich library sites take advantage of it.

Example:
if you want all the titles of works on a page to be bold, don't use  
the <b> tag, instead, use a semantic class name like <class = "title">  
and use CSS to make it look like you want.

The cost and benefits of semantic markup have been argued on this list  
and others in the past, but it's worth noting that we no longer  
substitute i for 1 or O for 0 on our keyboards.

It's also worth looking into Microformats, a way of encoding semantic  
details into the data we use every day, using the tools we already have.

http://microformats.org/
http://tantek.com/presentations/2007/04/microformats/

One huge difference between the Microformats crowd and semantic  
webbers is the issue of human usability. That is, Microformats are  
built for humans first, machines second, in part because we just don't  
have good and well distributed tools to use data that's not formatted  
for human use, but also because it helps clear up errors and prevent  
gaming.

More comparisons of Microformats to Semantic Web:

http://tantek.com/presentations/2004etech/realworldsemanticspres.html
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_road.php

I've been working on some of these challenges myself, and have worked  
hard to make content presented in Scriblio semantically clear. Take a  
look at some of the markup in this example:

http://library.plymouth.edu/read/222334

All the bibliographic data is represented inside an unordered list and  
is parsable as XML. Here's an excerpt of the ISBNs:

<li class="isbn"><h3>ISBN</h3>
	<ul>
		<li>1586421158</li>
		<li>9781586421151</li>
	</ul>
</li>

Casey Bisson
__________________________________________

Information Architect
Plymouth State University
Plymouth, New Hampshire
http://MaisonBisson.com
ph: 603-535-2256


On Jan 9, 2008, at 11:35 AM, <jfitzgibbon at galwaylibrary.ie> <jfitzgibbon at galwaylibrary.ie 
 > wrote:

> Hi,
>
> How do I create a semantic web site?
>
> I know I have to use either RDF or OWL but do I use either of these to
> create a mark up language which I then use to create the web site  
> or, with
> the semantic web do we move away from mark up languages altogether?
>
> Am I right in thinking that OWL and RDF do not contain any  
> information on
> how the document is to be displayed or presented? They do not seem to
> allow for style sheets.
>
> Is the creation of a semantic web site completely different from  
> anything
> that has gone before and I am stuck in an old way of looking at the
> problem? Are mark up languages a thing of the past as far as the Web  
> is
> concerned?
>
> Any clarification would be much appreciated.
>
> Regards
> John
>
> John Fitzgibbon
>
> p: 00 353 91 562471
> f: 00 353 91 565039
> w: http://www.galwaylibrary.ie
>
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