So what is semantic web anyway ??

So what is semantic web anyway ??

So semantic web is catching momentum with standards , formats and applications being developed around it . I was checking out the semantic web applications called twine which was launched for public recently by Radar systems which sweet funding this month from a VC . Twine is basically a semantic web data aggregator where you can create and share data in the "semantic web form" So its kind of social networking for semantic web .

So what is semantic web anyway

What I heard and understand in bullets ....

• Hypertext to Hyperdata
• Web as a Platform
• HTML pages as a database
• Web as a Database
• Unknown websites talking to each other
• data with metadata
• Drag and Drop to next level . Drag anything and Drop on anything

Sounds exciting but whats its implementations will it be able to use the existing unsemantic data that is already present in the web even at this early stage there are too many formats that are evolving ...will there be too many different standards to follow ..


whats my vision about semantic web .....

• reuse of existing data ..pls dont ask me to create another profile ,calendar,to do list etc etc .

• my calendar/organizer should be seamlessly to talk to any of my phone ,bank accounts ,blogs,email,contacts, photos etc and vice versa . so that I have one calendar to maintain.

• I should be able to have my universal profile which talks to all the social networks out there .

• I should be able to view my data in any form I want and arrange ,view and present as i want no restrictions .

• I should be able to time travel :)

So I wonder isn't yahoo pipes and google mashups kind of semantic web applications ?

But the challenge would be to convert the existing data on the web to a be understandable by semantic web applications.

So as per the vision the existing data should be converted to standard formats such as RDF ..thats a humongous task ...seems very difficult ...or my understanding is incorrect ...


Challenges for Semantic Web ....
Current Web data is unimaginably huge
Too many formats already in existence .


Lets see how it shapes ...........

The Best Semantic Web Examples
http://simile.mit.edu/


Some Resources ..
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/10_semantic_apps_to_watch.php