We want everybody to communicate freely by crossing the barriers of language differences and cultural variety. This is the commonly agreed upon ultimate goal of the Semantic Web. How we are to realize the Semantic Web in particular is, however, another story. Typically, there are two thoughts on how to achieve this common goal. One thought is to build a web of data; the other is to build a web of agents. Nevertheless, these two thoughts approach the same goal and represent two different philosophies. This philosophical difference may eventually determine the fate of these two approaches.

Continue reading Abandon Babel, Welcome Society: The Philosophy Behind Semantic Web Approaches

In Part 1 of this series, we introduced the Semantic Web vision set forth by Tim Berners-Lee. We also took a look at the famous layer cake diagram illustrating key technologies that make it possible. This week, we'll be munching around the bottom of the layer cake with a few important points about Unicode, URI, and XML. Below, you may notice that we are presenting a slightly different illustration of the layer cake than last week. The intent is not to confuse you, but rather to point out that there are a variety of interpretations floating around the Web.

Continue reading Introduction to the Semantic Web Vision and Technologies - Part 2 - Foundations

Before I started researching the Semantic Web I spent a few years as a hobbyist game developer. In fact, if you'd asked me 4 years ago what I'd be doing today I would have said "working on a game engine." I still enjoy game development and (naturally) playing video games as well. I often wonder how the Semantic Web will affect game development, and how games may take advantage of Semantic Web technologies. I've searched high and low (on Google) and haven't found a single written piece on people's ideas of the Semantic Web and video games so I will describe my own, as well as provide some visuals to give you a clear picture.

Continue reading Possibilities for Video Games and the Semantic Web

Update: Paul Miller from Talis updated me with some new information.

I just recently stumbled upon Talking with Talis, a blog by Talis that hosts podcasts they've created from interviews with various people in the Semantic Web community. In their archives you can find nearly 60 podcasts, and this number is growing. The podcasts are fairly lengthy too, with most ranging between a half-hour to an hour long. For convenience and reference, each podcast entry lists the sites they talk about during the conversation, which makes following along easier.

Continue reading Semantic Web Podcasts at Talking with Talis

Yihong Ding, contributing author of Semantic Focus, is celebrating the anniversary of his blog's launch. Thinking Space delivers a unique and inspiring view of Web evolution and the Semantic Web. Yihong expresses his sincere appreciation to all his readers, and I know that you guys like his work as well; Yihong's posts on this blog have received some of the best community responses. If you aren't a reader of Thinking Space you should go check it out!

Hey everyone, I've gathered some good reading material for your enjoyment! If you're new to the Semantic Web or just want to brush up on your knowledge then take a look at the following articles. Listed below are over thirty introductions, primers, references, guides, and tutorials on the Semantic Web, RDF, OWL, SPARQL, and GRDDL. If you know of other articles that would fit well here leave me a comment and I'll be happy to add them to the list. Enjoy!

Continue reading 30+ Semantic Web Introductions, References, Guides, and Tutorials

Yihong Ding released the 10th and final installment to his series A View of Web Evolution. In the final installment of the series Yihong poses the question of how we will know when we've finally reached the next stage in Web evolution.

Continue reading Yihong Ding Wraps-Up "A View of Web Evolution" Series

I recently read on Network World that Gartner's David Mitchell Smith said "There are a lot of constituencies trying to hijack the term Web 3.0." I don't think I like Web 3.0 just yet, do you? I agree with the Gartner representative that Web 3.0 wreaks of marketing hype, and in my opinion it is a race by people that felt left behind by the Web 2.0 movement. Vendors pushing the term Web 3.0 are advocating the rise of the Mobile Web, virtual worlds, and the Semantic Web. I agree that all of these technologies will take rise, but I don't agree that we should call that era "Web 3.0."

Continue reading Where Do You Stand on Web 3.0?

The World Wide Web has long been evolving towards the vision of the Semantic Web — an extension of the existing web through which machines are better able to interoperate and work on our behalf. It promises to infuse the Internet with a combination of metadata, structure, and various technologies so that machines can derive meaning from information, make more intelligent choices, and complete tasks with reduced human intervention. It is a dramatic vision that stands to transform the existing Web in devastatingly powerful ways.

Continue reading Introduction to the Semantic Web Vision and Technologies - Part 1 - Overview

Ping the Semantic Web, the repository for RDF documents, has a page that lists every namespace they've come across as well as the number of references to each namespace. I've listed the top 20 namespaces and the number of references to each. It's interesting to see the sharp drop in references once you get past the top 5. Each of the links below point to a Zitgist Browser page for that namespace so that you can explore them further.

Continue reading Top 20 Namespaces via Ping the Semantic Web