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

[Alnisa Allgood]

Personally, I believe the semantic web to be about far more than moving data
around more easily. Data portability is just one of the benefits from the
semantic web school of thought. The semantic web is about having machines
make inferences that typically only humans make.
Microformats, RSS, and even structured blogging are just initial forays into
the world of semantic web.

Alnisa

On 1/9/08, Benjamin Daeuber <ben at bendaeuber.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 1/9/08, Alnisa Allgood <alnisa at nonprofit-tech.org> wrote:
>
> > Actually the semantic web is a thing of the future, while there is a
> > bunch
> > of theory, ideas, and even some sample applications, I don't believe
> > there
> > are any robust or basic readers or content generators for it (besides
> > manual).
>
>
> Really, the semantic web is just about moving data around more easily.
>
>  There are a number of "real" initiatives. They include RSS, Structured
> Blogging, unAPI and COinS, among others. They all do different things:
>
> RSS is, essentially, a semantic web technology, if a very simple one. It's
> an implementation of RDF for regularly retrieving updated content. Moving
> web page reading from the web into a reader.
>
> Structured Blogging has a WordPress plugin that allows you to create
> certain kinds of blog entries that will then create proper microformats. For
> example, an "Event" entry can create an hCal feed.
>
> COinS allows you to embed metadata in the webpage. WorldCat uses COinS to
> embed book information in their catalog. This is useful for creating OpenURL
> implementations using WorldCat.
>
> unAPI is a way of getting at and moving this information around. It's very
> simple, but a good set in getting semantic data from one place to another.
>
> So I would say there are real implementations of it out there. Just not
> ones we think about when we think semantic.
>
>
>
> Ben
>
>
>
> > Obviously, XML, RDF, and OWL hold some of the components, but they
> > aren't
> > full solutions as of yet; and they probably won't move one away from
> > mark-up
> > language, but use existing or generate new mark-up—after all,
> > the semantic web is really data about data, which at the most basic
> > level
> > means classification.
> >
> > WHile they are not the definitive source on the semantic web, they
> > are readable by the average person, so give Read/Write Web a look,
> > especially these articles:
> >
> > • http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_road.php
> > •
> >
> > http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_difficulties_with_classic_approach.php
> > • http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_top-down_semantic_web.php
> >
> > That said, some of the components that could be easily moved fro theory
> > to
> > practice are available for use, such as microformats :
> > http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_top-down_semantic_web.php
> >
> > And of course, even maximizing HTML/XHTML to its full extent can be
> > helpful—adding definitions, links, alt tags, using proper structural
> > mark-up, etc.—all adds meta-data or data about data to encourage both
> > human
> > and machine connections and relationships for the data provided; for
> > those
> > not mathematically inclined.
> >
> > Alnisa
> >
> > On 1/9/08, 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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