<$BlogRSDUrl$> Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Internet Happenings, Events and Sources


Thursday, December 18, 2003  

Realizing the Potential of the Semantic Web
http://www.oclc.org/research/announcements/features/tbliview.htm

World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee says the Semantic Web is "a key to realizing the potential of the Web… The library community has historically seen the Semantic Web as primarily about metadata. While that is important, it is only one aspect of the larger picture. There is financial data, chemical data, biotechnology data, experimental data, geographic data and more. All of these domains have their own vocabularies, with few explicit points of connection. The Semantic Web is aimed at bridging those gaps, and allowing links across fields… To the extent that data can be encoded in common syntaxes like RDF [Resource Description Framework] and described with public vocabularies, they can be more accessible and more useful... Perhaps nowhere in the academic environment is this more important than the area of scholarly communication." But Berners-Lee warns that there are several impediments to be overcome before the benefits of the Semantic Web can be realized: "We currently lack an ethos for reliable Web publication. We need a closer connection between the technology and the institutional commitments necessary to maintain persistent identifiers and namespaces. We need a realignment of legal constraints and recognition of fair use within the context of the new digital infrastructure. We need to avoid as far as possible the constraints of patents or monopoly at any of the layers of the infrastructure. We also need to sustain the open connectivity -- the linking among people, organizations, data and ideas -- that drive the growth and diversity of the Web."

posted by Marcus Zillman | 12:13 PM
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