A very useful video on the semantic web... What is the semantic web? Web 3.0? Enabling humans and machines to better communicate. Most of the web and knowledge out there is not meaningful in itself. A computer cannot understand what is on a web page. The semantic web seeks to create a language that will allow computers and software to understand the data that is represented, stored and displayed, or communicated. This is a way of giving meaning to the data.
Currently websites are displayed with HTML. This describes how to present the information, knowledge or data on the web. It doesn't however define or describe what the data represents. For example, if I put up a web page that represents my resume. In typical HTML, I have tags that describe how to display the information. In the semantic web, using XML tags, I'll be able to represent or describe the fact that the data represents a resume, my resume, about me. The challenge is to create a vocabulary, an ontology that will allow different agents, that is different computer systems (hardware and software) to communicate and understand this vocabulary. Think of the challenge of an English speaking person looking at a resume written in an Asian, eastern language, say Chinese.
Bruce Whealton
