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Web Evolution

FEB 12th 2008

Image credit: Node GardensOnce again, the main idea behind the social network comes from a reversal process. We're dealing with an approach focused on the people (user-centric) and not on the applications allowing us to produce various data (text with blogs, pictures on Flickr, videos on YouTube, etc.). Rather than indicate to our contacts the numerous RSS feeds representing our "digital life", we are going to point at a unique address (our OpenID) whereby they will have access to any shared data. Even better, they will be able to add us in their contact list in order to automatically receive our new data (our "lifestreams"). To draw a parallel between an existing tool, adding an RSS feed to an aggregator like Google Reader comes down to adding a contact in our social network. But there is a major difference because this new approach simplifies things a lot while introducing many new fascinating possibilities.

Continue reading The Object Oriented Web - Part 3 - Social Networks

NOV 16th 2007

Image credit: Node GardensTo begin with, there is a very simple idea: Websites should themselves indicate their changes to the search engines. I've already touched upon the subject in the previous part of this series, right now search engines have a reversed approach which consists of crawling the Web constantly looking for the slightest modification. Don't you think it's silly? Think about the number of Web pages to visit, imagine the cost to get the lowest frequency between each visit. Consequently, it seems difficult to consider the development of new search engines today. Nevertheless, the advent of the Semantic Web should lead to their multiplication, in a vertical way, while search engines are getting specialized more and more in specific fields.

Continue reading The Object Oriented Web - Part 2 - Datahubs

NOV 1st 2007

Image credit: Node GardensThe more we use the Internet, the more we realize the necessity of finding new solutions to better organize the growing mass of information. Today we actually have a certain number of tools to add meaning to the information that we drop all over the Web. Adding a comprehensible meaning to computers, allowing them to help us better organize things. That's the big idea behind the Semantic Web, an idea which appears more and more obvious to us everyday. In this field, we already have many advanced technologies, starting with those offered by the W3C itself: XML, RDF, OWL, etc.

Continue reading The Object Oriented Web - Part 1 - Backlinks

After the last post about "web of agents", I received a few questions about the "web of data." A few readers mistook my argument to be opposite of a web of data. Don't get me wrong, I have never been opposed to the presentation of a "web of data." I only emphasize that the web-of-data presentation is short of describing the human-web relationship in the Semantic Web. To encourage the engagement of more ordinary people to the grand vision of the Semantic Web, we need a more user-oriented presentation, i.e. a web of agents.

Continue reading Metadata or Hyperdata, Link or Thread, What is a Web of Data?

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

SEP 6th 2007

Richard McManus of Read/Write Web just posted an insightful list of future web trends. I like this list for three reasons:

  • The Semantic Web is listed as the #1 future Web trend
  • Richard is a huge player in Camp Web 2.0
  • I agree with every item on the list (though not necessarily what was said about them)

Continue reading The Calm Before the Semantic Web Storm

AUG 29th 2007

More and more people are starting to discuss the Semantic Web, but few truly understand how it is different from the traditional World Wide Web. Though the Semantic Web will be realized as a layer upon the current Web, some of their basic philosophies are going to be updated significantly. This post tries to list some truth about the Semantic Web that is critical but often overlooked.

Continue reading Some Truth about the Semantic Web

AUG 24th 2007

Yihong Ding (contributing author of this blog) has posted the fourth installment to his thought provocing series A View of Web Evolution. In this installment Yihong states that there exist natural mappings between the stages of web evolution and the stages on human growth. He goes on to describe the life stages of web nodes beginning with Web 1.0 nodes as newborn babies, Web 2.0 nodes as pre-school kids, and Semantic Web nodes as educated children.

The entire series is an engaging read and I suggest to everyone that hasn't already read it to do so!

JUL 28th 2007

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

JUL 24th 2007

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

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