I've been steadily churning out code for the Planet Semantic Focus aggregator and interface, and I'm happy to say that it's nearing completion. Believe me, I can't wait to release that site!

The aggregator uses SimplePie to process various feed types and I have to say it's been a pleasure to work with! It has made getting a feed aggregator off the ground a much simpler task.

Continue reading Update on Planet Semantic Focus

Update: I've posted an update on the status of Planet Semantic Focus.

Since day one my goal for Semantic Focus has been to create a central hub for Semantic Web talk and activity. To help reach that goal I've been hard at work on a new feature for Semantic Focus! Planet Semantic Focus is an aggregator of Semantic Web buzz, capturing talk about the Semantic Web from hundreds of sources including:

Continue reading Launching Soon: Planet Semantic Focus

Jim Rapoza at eWeek has an opinion about gaming the Semantic Web regarding companies and developers that are using the Semantic Web label inappropriately. He makes a good point worth mentioning: When an innovative new idea comes along and gets popular enough it is commonplace to see vendors and companies take some of the concepts and strategies of the idea and try to adapt them, but are often not true to the idea's core principals (either purposely or accidentally).

Continue reading Misrepresenting the Semantic Web

The Semantic Web has been discussed and debated by academics for years, and really, we are not getting anywhere fast. This post will discuss how to start building semantics into your website from the ground up. While doing this won't create the create the great Semantic Web straight away, it will provide an underground layer of accessible data which applications can start processing and using.

Continue reading Semantic Building: Starting a Revolution

Lately we've been talking a bit about Web evolution, and right now we're tossing back and forth the idea of grassroots vs. ivory towers. In that entry I described the belief Yihong and I have that the grassroots (developers) will need to take the reins so to speak from the ivory towers (W3C, purely academic research, etc) in order to ensure its adoption.

Continue reading The Pragmatic Semantic Web and Web Evolution

Here are five interesting sites to checkout. The first four are recommended reading (good Semantic Web material). The last link is to the LinkingOpenData project. On there you can find links to projects working towards the Semantic Web, as well as datasets and links to other resources (and more). Enjoy!

• Thinking Space
• Semantic DataBase
• Geospatial Semantic Web Blog
• About the social Semantic Web
• LinkingOpenData

This post is a complement to the grassroots vs. ivory towers discussion. In the previous post, James mentioned two trends of realizing the dream of the Semantic Web. While the grassroots way encourages the wider adoption of the Semantic Web, the ivory-tower way stimulates the construction of Semantic Web standards. Besides all of these, these two sides indeed play different roles in weaving the Web — the destiny of web evolution.

Continue reading Weaving the Thread-Driven Semantic Web

The most pertinent issue surrounding the Semantic Web is why it has not yet gained strong traction from the development community. First, when I say grassroots I'm referring to the initiative of people like you and I to create the Semantic Web from the bottom-up. The ivory towers is the W3C and their initiative to create the Semantic Web. Both groups are pivotal to the acceptance and adoption of new standards and technologies. Without grassroots initiatives we would not have adoption and without the W3C we would not have standards (which we all have learned the Web most certainly requires).

Continue reading Moving Towards the Semantic Web: Grassroots vs. Ivory Towers

The Semantic Web is a thing of data purity and interconnectedness the likes of which we have not seen. However, people are selfish. On top of that, people are lazy and fallible. All of these qualities in humans form a road block that we must get past if we hope to create the Semantic Web. We need to both satisfy the selfishness of man and overcome our error-prone nature if we are to reach our goal.

Continue reading The Semantic Web is not Impossible to Reach

There is a contradiction. The dream of the Semantic Web is beautiful, but few people are willing to realize it initiatively. The reason is primarily due to the pitiful nature of the selfishness of mankind; we prefer to enjoy contributions from others rather than contributing to others in the first hand. Some pessimistic ones of us, such as Stephen Downs and Mor Naaman, had even sentenced the Semantic Web to death due to this reason. Others of us, however, also cannot avoid but only try to solve this contradiction, actively and optimistically.

Continue reading Satisfying the Nature of Selfishness: The Key to Initiate the Semantic Web