Welcome To Headup – The semantic web – Blog

Once in a while humanity comes up with a discovery, product or service, that influences our daily reality to such a degree it becomes impossible for us to envision the world without them. Cell phones, the Web, Google and “Dancing with the Stars”, are just a few such revelations that I myself have come to view as being impossible-to-live-without.
It’s worth noting that as the tools available to inventors and entrepreneurs become ever more powerful the process of innovation itself is speeding up, daily increasing the number of innovations we “just-can’t imagine life without”.

Big changes change everything

Changes that have this type of impact on the way Humanity goes about its business always affect the way humanity does business as well. Indeed all the innovations I mentioned earlier (including “Danceing with the Stars”) have had a profound influence on the commercial aspects of our lives.

Change (image by David Reece)

Change powers evolution

Changes of this magnitude require us to evolve both as customers and as business owners and in any case eventually most of us have no choice but to incorporate the change into our daily routine. We learn how to leverage the change in our favor as consumers, and as business people we investigate how best to monetize it. Regardless of which side of the commercial equation we’re on, evolution is a survival imperative and failure to adapt is bound to have grave consequences…
In my humble opinion the ascent of the Semantic Web is a change of this magnitude and it’s happening all around us right about NOW.

What is the Semantic Web?

Before I continue and explain some of the ways I believe you can prepare to benefit from the ascent of the Semantic Web, it’s important to explain what exactly the Semantic Web is. The way I see it, understanding something tends to be beneficial to profiting from it…

The Semantic Web – a short intro:

In order to understand the meaning of the Semantic Web one must first embrace two concepts – totality and accessibility:

Totality – to what extent are things defined online
The Semantic Web is a web of data where everything is defined and linked to anything with which it has an association. In this Web anything conceivable must be represented and relevantly associated.

Accessibility – to what extent is the Web accessible to computers
The Semantic Web is a web of data perfectly accessible by machines. It is a Web that computers are able to interact with, interpret and utilize autonomously – without the need for any human intervention.

Tim Berners-Lee speaking about the Semantic Web at TED (image by Erik Charlton)

Need clarifications?

If the previous definitions seem a tad vague to you, I suggest you check out the following textbook example that illuminates the difference between the “traditional” web and the Semantic web, by comparing how an identical paradigm, planning a vacation in Scottsdale AZ, might be resolved in either environment:

The vacation plan paradigm – as solved on the Traditional web:

If you’re reading this chances are you’ve already used the Web as a travel aid at least once and it’s pretty safe to assume that if you had to arrange a vacation in Scottsdale AZ you’d probably do some or all of the following:

• Run a quick Google search to find resources for learning details about Scottsdale.
• Check Google maps to find out where Scottsdale is and get directions.
• Search http://Expedia.com for deals on your Scottsdale bound transportation.
• Check out http://Upcoming.Yahoo.com to discover what you can do in Scottsdale once you get there.
• Send messages to your Myspace, Facebook, Twitter buddies to see if anyone is planning to be in Scottsdale while you’re there and might want to hang-out together.

I’ve probably left out an activity or two, but you get my gist. Planning a trip on the traditional web requires a fair deal of man-powered research and visiting quite a few disparate web services in order to come up with a complete and satisfying agenda. Of course once your research is done all you have to do is make all your reservations, deal with all the payments, make sure all the paperwork gets done properly, handle the filing…

Holiday in Scottsdale? Seems the Phoenician is the place to stay... (Image by Hyku)

The vacation plan paradigm – as solved on the Semantic web:

Planning a vacation on the Semantic Web starts at a point where it is a given that all the data relating to you, a vacation-prone-individual, and all the data relating to your destination, sunny Scottsdale, is already available online in a format legible by computers. In this type of environment creating the perfect Scottsdale trip for you is simply a matter of generating a computer optimized comparison between Scottsdale’s data and your own:

• Your transportation and accommodations are arranged automatically after a quick analysis of your financial capabilities, personal preferences, and the travel and accommodation options available.
• Your activities and meals are all preplanned. Your agenda in Scottsdale has been computer-generated based on analysis of how your tastes in food and entertainment align with what Scottsdale has to offer. You have front row seats to hear Mastodon at the Martini Ranch
• Alerts have been sent out to all your friends and social contacts notifying them of your planned itinerary. An old college flame has responded and offered to join you for an afternoon of art at the SMoCA.

Planning a trip in a Semantic Web reality is a matter of indicating your destination and purpose, and trusting the omniscience of the Web with everything else. In a perfect world the result should be an effortlessly generated vacation agenda perfectly coordinated and tailored to your tastes and abilities.

Continue to Part 2