Pages tagged with Microformats

Update: Joe from the Squio blog has posted a response to this entry.

Microformats are a wildly popular set of formats for embedding metadata within normal XHTML. The primary advantage Microformats offer over RDF (including its embedded serializations) is that you can embed metadata directly in the XHTML, reducing the amount of markup you need to write (e.g. you don't have to write XHTML and additional RDF). Many people have contended that Microformats are a possible replacement for RDF, however Microformats were not designed to cover the same scope as RDF was. While both Microformats and RDF make it possible to store data about data, they simply do not work to solve the same set of problems.

Continue reading Microformats vs. RDF: How Microformats Relate to 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

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

I was reading a blog entry by Matt at PeerPressure that brings up a point worth sharing. One of the biggest problems supporters of the Semantic Web initially faced was, as Matt stated, the classic tech catch 22. His explanation is:

Continue reading To reach the Semantic Web, must we already be there?

• Semantic metadata for video and other multimedia?
• Will a new platform away from the browser have huge success? (ala Joost)
• How can video games benefit from what we're doing with the Semantic Web?
• Is Wikipedia the best playground for natural language processors to test their ability?
• Does the World Wide Web as we know it need to be replaced?
• Is HTTP inadequate for the future of the Web where streaming and maintaining state are becoming increasingly important?
• Are we entering another brutal browser war? Maybe this one will be different because we know the importance of compatability
• Will RDF or RDF/a be adopted by mainstream Web developers to markup semantic metadata?
• ...Or will something come along that's better suited and easier for beginners to pick-up
• Are we making any progress as-is towards our goal, or do we need to look for a different approach?
• Is the best course bottom-up (building the Semantic Web from the ground up by using semantic markup, microformats, RDF, etc) or is it top-down (using natural language processors to read the Web and make sense of it for us).
• With the freedom to create any RDF vocabulary or any ontology for that matter, will the real power be in mapping my meaning to your meaning?