That's am extremely salient perspective. Data of itself is a nonsense without reference frameworks. Data -> information -> knowledge. It's transition interfaces which are vital to the user such that the interface mechanisms are transparent.
I see the W3C as an aggregate experience born of necessity. I have neither the mental agility, focus luxury or - importantly - financial comfort cushion with which to pursue pure vision to a goal. Which is why I will trust my more fortunate and adept peers to guide and set global standards -- which I will adopt in good faith. The need to rationalise a coherent, global information interchange mechanism has, I believe, been largely addressed by W3C and X(HT)ML (SOAP excluded). Boy do I wish such standards were more than merely emergent in 1996. I had to drive and develop a 1/4 billion forecasting system, viable and proved across mainframe/pc/cellphone and laptop environments. My solution: CSV, comma separated variable files. For all of our discussion on standards and the interpretation of the letter of the compliant law, we still must deliver cross-spectrum applications to disparate hardware and software. The minutia is very interesting; but my clients' eyes glaze. Mike Pepper (knackered) Accessible Web Developer www.seowebsitepromotion.com Administrator www.gawds.org -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Trusz, Andrew Sent: 08 July 2004 19:25 To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: RE: [WSG]headers -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lee Roberts Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 12:10 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [WSG]headers Let's look at the Introduction to the Semantic Web. [quote] Facilities to put machine-understandable data on the Web are becoming a high priority for many communities. The Web can reach its full potential only if it becomes a place where data can be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people. For the Web to scale, tomorrow's programs must be able to share and process data even when these programs have been designed totally independently. The Semantic Web is a vision: the idea of having data on the web defined and linked in a way that it can be used by machines not just for display purposes, but for automation, integration and reuse of data across various applications.[/quote] Now, let us examine the last sentence of that quote. [quote]The Semantic Web is a vision: the idea of having data on the web defined and linked in a way that it can be used by machines not just for display purposes, but for automation, integration and reuse of data across various applications.[/quote] =========================================================================== How about we look at the second sentence of the first paragraph "The Web can reach its full potential only if it becomes a place where data can be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people." You insist on making this about machines when even the w3c which is primarily concerned with how to make the machine end of it works keeps inserting people. Yes the machines and applications will process data, writ large, but it will be done as a result of the value-chains and proofs requested by the humans. More Lee: Prior to RDF, XML and the like it was virtually impossible to share information across platforms and applications. Well, it was not exactly impossible; it was more a security risk. So, now we have the Semantic web that allows a shopping cart owner to send an XML feed to Froogle. Or, we have RSS which allows us to share news feeds between news sources. Even weblogs allow RSS feeds to occur now. All that joined together allows computers to use the same information for various applications. Even business data can be shared without the concern that the database would be hacked and confidential information released. ===================================================================== We'll have a semantic web which allows the shopping cart user to check the bona fides of the merchant and to check the reliability of the product using rdf and xml perhaps rendered in xml, html, or xhtml. And we can check other "proofs" from self selected "trusted sources" to evaluate the content of the RSS news feed. It isn't about just shuffling data it's about evaluating the data, giving it human related meaning. It is about humans using an effective, efficient tool which employs common taxonomies and inference rules to make an effective ontology. Data has no meaning with interpretation. Make a pile of data. It does nothing. It says nothing. It's inert until it's interpreted. The semantic web both gets the data based on shared rules and then possibly applies additional human chosen interpretive filters. It is, to use an overworked and usually misapplied word, a synergistic process. But then many things involving people have unanticipated results. drew ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ***************************************************** ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help *****************************************************
