[Hplusroadmap] Re: [DataPortability-Public] [OT] "State of the Semantic Web" - personal opinions?

[Bryan Bishop]

On Monday 30 June 2008, Danny Ayers wrote:
> [I already sent this to semantic-web at w3.org (so big apologies if you
> get it more than once), but it's since occurred to me that to get a
> broader picture I should canvas a handful of other
> groups/individuals]
>
> In brief, some time soon I'm planning to do a moderately
> comprehensive, fairly non-technical write-up on this topic (for
> Nodalities [1] - has quite a large & varied readership (including
> Planet RDF :-)
> I'd like to try to be as objective as possible (personal
> ideosyncracies aside). But I'm really hesitant... I want to do the
> topic justice, but am totally ignorant of a vast amount of what's
> been happening in the field of late (and have a terrible memory!). So
> I would very much like to draw on other people's knowledge and
> experience, different perspectives, even vague intuitions on this. In
> short, he-elp!
>
> Please reply on-list if it's on-topic there and ok for direct
> publication (include your homepage URI if you want quoting), or
> probably better still mail me personally - if you have off-the-record
> comments  I won't mention source.
>
> The inspiration - last month I had the pleasure of attending a talk
> by Ivan Herman entitled "State of the Semantic Web" [at 2, most
> recent slides at [3]]. Great material, but clearly he was there
> primarily in his role as semweb lead at the W3C, though to his credit
> he went far deeper than mere cheerleading.
>
> (I too do semweb stuff as a profession, but I'm fortunate enough that
> the company I work for encourages speculative exploration - if I
> asserted "the semweb sucks!", it'd just lead to further discussion
> ;-)
>
> Ok, so for this as-yet hypothetical write-up, I'd like to include a
> few success stories, as well as an example or two of things that
> *haven't* worked.
>
> A few random areas I'd love to hear thoughts on - some of them
> involve prognostication, but I'll interpolate backwards (!)...sorry,
> lots more bullets than I initially intended - please just pick any
> that you feel strongly about! -
>
> * Obviously Semantic Web technologies potentially have a big role
> within the corporate Intranet. How are things going there?
> (Personally I'm not comfortable with distinctions between "Public
> Web" and er, "HTTP on the LAN" or even "Our Lovely Inference Engine",
> but for present purposes I'll keep my mouth shut :-)
>
> * Money! What's the current status of funding for semweb research in
> academia? Inside big corps? Gov. orgs? Funding from VCs etc?
>
> * What's the range of application of RDF like nowadays? (Obscure
> examples would be nice)
>
> * What is the significance of recent interest in Semantic
> Technologies (those without necessarily having any tie to the Web)?
>
> * How far does RDF+SPARQL (+RDFS) get us? Where might OWL(2) take us?
> Is there any conflict between these directions?
>
> * How have the Linked Data initiatives changed perceptions in the use
> of RDF?
>
> * How's the chicken? How's the egg?
> (aside - we seem to have a decent supply of data now - but where are
> the UIs/hooks into existing UIs/never-before-considered
> applications?)
>
> * Has the role of the W3C changed in this context over the past few
> years?
>
> * Can we still speak of "The Semantic Web Community" as a
> (reasonably) unified whole? Should it be?
>
> * Have the attitudes of the developer community at large changed much
> towards the Semantic Web? (Did SWEO help?)
>
> * How has/will blogging influenced the Semantic Web?
>
> * Initially the Web 2.0 'movement' had little or nothing to do with
> the Semantic Web (beyond the lower layers of the stack) - is there
> any evidence of change there?
>
> * Slightly tangential - where do you see social networking going?
> (Possibilities off the top of my head - unification of services;
> general loss of interest through another fad coming along; descent
> into the Web infrastructure)
> - supplemental: assume the fad prognosis - what'll be next?
>
> * Is there yet any compelling, user-friendly application that is
> solidly based on the Semantic Web (and within that definition I'll
> include linked data and suchlike broad Web connectivity)?
>  - bonus: if I want to show Mom how cool the semweb is, without
> blinding her with triples, where do I start?
>
> * Of the old layer cake, we seem to approaching the point where some
> of the upper layers don't seem far off being ready for prime time:
> Rules, Logic, Proof. Too optimistic?
>
> * Again with the cake: we know we need Trust - but whatever happened
> to Signature, Encryption?
>
> * Named graphs are the future?
>
> * (Summary of the last few) - are we done with new specs yet?
>
> * Any impact anticipated from HTML5?
>
> * If there was (is?) a Web 2.0 cake, no doubt it would now include
> OpenID and OAuth - how compatible are these/can these be with the
> semweb tech we know & love?
>
> * Not unrelated, there's a fair bit of similarity between OpenID
> Attribute Exchange and RDF, as well as what appears to be a parallel
> stack to the (Semantic) Web with XRDS/XRI/XDI etc. Is independent
> invention of this nature a good thing or not?
> (My mouth remains firmly shut :-)
>
> * There's always been a Semantic Web roadmap - has its destination
> changed?
>
> * What obstacles are there?
>
> * Event/comm-related things - IM, XMPP, Twitter even - where's the
> semweb in all that?
>
> * Mobile Semantic Web - how're we doing?
>
> * Ubiquitous Semantic Web - how're we doing?
>
> * Jim Hendler's question: where are the agents?
>
> * What are the best next actions to carry this Grand Project (tm)
> forward?
>
> * Loose question - while it doesn't make much sense to say when the
> Web was/is finished (2 hosts? 2 billion?), but barring disasters, on
> what kind of timescale do you think we'll see a significant
> qualitative difference in the Web at large due to Semantic Web
> technologies?
>
> * Anyone noticed any serendipity recently?
>
> * What questions did I miss? :-)
>
> Cheers,
> Danny.
>
> [1] http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/
> [2] http://www.semantic-conference.com/session/723/
> [3]http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/CorePresentations ,
> http://www.ivan-herman.net/professional/CV/Pres.html
>
> --
> http://dannyayers.com
> ~
> http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/this_weeks_semantic_web/


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