"The Web was designed as an information space, with the goal that it should be useful not only for human-human communication, but also that machines would be able to participate and help. One of the major
obstacles to this has been the fact that most information on the Web is designed for human consumption, and even if it was derived from a database with well defined meanings (in at least some terms) for its columns, that the structure of the data is not evident to a robot browsing the web. Leaving aside the artificial intelligence problem of training machines to behave like people, the Semantic Web approach instead develops languages for expressing information in a machine processable form... The Semantic Web is a web of data, in some ways like a global database. " >from 'Semantic Web roadmap' by Tim Berners-Lee, September, 1998

From a web of a human readable documents to a web of processable data too. "The Semantic Web is a vision: the idea of having data on the web defined and linked in a way, that it can be used by machines - not just for display purposes, but for using it in various applications... The Web can reach its full potential only if it becomes a place where data can be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people." >from W3C Semantic Web Activity Statement

"The Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web that will allow to find, share, and combine information more easily... Ultimate goal - the design of enabling technologies to support machine facilitated global knowledge exchange." >from 'The Semantic Web' by Eric Miller, W3C Semantic Web Activity Lead. WWW2002, May 2002

semantic web vision:

> the semantic web by eric miller
may 2002
www2002 w3c track

> berners-lee: prepare for next-gen web now
by c. aaley. boston.internet, april 19, 2002
it's the same challenge we faced with the web: bringing the vision into reality

> web founder seeks simplicity
by a. weber. software development magazine. june 2001
globally unique identifiers key to semantics and services on the web

> semantic web to be berners-lee's second success?
by eric van der vlist. xmlhack, may 4, 2001
a report from www10. on semantic web skeptics

> not done yet, says berners-lee
by edd dumbill. o'reilly network, may 2, 2001
about berners-lee opening keynote at www10

> semantic web
by t. berners-lee, j. hendler, o. lassila. scientific american, may 2001
new form of web content meaningful to computers will unleash a revolution

> web architecture from 50,000 feet
by tim berners-lee. september 1998
high-level view of the architecture of the world wide web

>>> google it!

Characteristic

First-Generation Web

Second-Generation Web

core markup language

HTML

XML

formality and structure

unstructured documents

structured documents

semantics

implicit semantics

explicit labeling (metadata, Semantic Web)

relationship between content and form

HTML = conflation of content and form

layering of content and form: XML + transformation (e.g., XSL) to HTML, WML, PDF, or other formats

changeability

static documents

dynamic documents

decomposability and recomposability

monolithic, standalone websites

bricolage (aggregation), syndication, repurposing of content

interactivity

one-way, broadcast medium

two-way, writeable web

audience

for human consumption

for human and computer consumption (e.g., web services)

production control

centralized

decentralized (peer-to-peer P2P)

>based on 'The sea change of the Web: What is the Second-Generation, Semantic Web?' by Raymond Yee, IST‹Interactive University Berkeley Computing & Communications, Vol. 11, N. 4 (Fall 2001)

"The semantic web is a conceptual information space in which the resources identified by URIs (Universal Resource Identifier) can be processed by machines. It operates on the principles of 'partial understanding' and 'inference' (being able to infer new knowledge of terms from data that you already understand), and hence evolution and transformation. Because the URIs are being used to represent the resources, systems can grow on a globally decentralized basis, similar to hypertext documentation systems on the early WWW.

"Once data is given a URI, it can then be referred to by anyone else, and as such, complex and intricate relationships can be built, queried, and processed. At the base of this plan is the hope that people will start publishing their data in RDF (Resource Description Framework)... In general, XML RDF is the format of choice for the semantic web... There seems to be a little confusion between people about the difference between RDF and the Semantic Web. RDF is simply a data model and format that allows people to create machine readable data. The Semantic Web will be built on top of this data. Hence, when you publish something in RDF, you aren't necessarily creating something 'Semantic Web-ish,' but you are possibly making your data available to Semantic Web processors, if it means anything... The principle of the Semantic Web is actually fairly basic - machine readable data, global basis.

"RDF Schema and DAML, the Darpa Agent Markup Language (+OIL. Ontology Interchange Language), are two very important base level RDF languages. Between them, they enable people to define new applications on top of RDF in a structured and interoperable manner... Ontological and inference languages are a step above this, and provide even more power. You can create inverse terms, transitive terms, equivalences, datatypes, unions, intersections, and so forth..." >from 'The semantic web, taking form' by Sean B. Palmer, Semantic Web Agreement Group, June 2001

semantic web evolution:

> w3c issues recommendation for resource description framework (rdf)
introduces model for defining and organizing information.
february 24, 1999

semantic web related organisations:

> w3c semantic web
w3c semantic web activity

> semantic web org
semantic web research community

publishing rdf data on the web:

> dublin core metadata initiative
open forum for interoperable online metadata standards

> prism
publishing standards for industry standard metadata

> rdf site summary
rss 1.0: the new syndication format

> xmlnews
xml and the news industry

"One reason why a new politics of intellectual property is necessary is that copyright now affects everyone. Advances in information technology and digital networks allow everyone to become a publisher... Because copyright infringement by individuals is so difficult to police in a distributed networked environment, copyright owners are increasingly going after technologies that enable copyright infringement... Hollings' Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act would outlaw the general purpose computer and open source digital media players... Innovation and competition would be stifled if mandated trusted systems became the law... James Boyle has argued for a new politics of intellectual property in his essay 'Environmentalism for the Net'. This essay points out that in the 1950's there was no concept of the 'environment.' Logging and mining companies thought that they alone were affected by legislation concerning natural resource issues and they lobbied for policies that sometimes caused erosion and pollution to ruin streams and lakes, scar the landscape, and kill off of fish and other wildlife. It took a while for bird-watchers and hunters (as well as society more generally) to realize they had a common interest in preservation of nature. Together they invented the concept of the environment, and this concept enabled a powerful political movement to protect it. What is needed is a similar movement to protect the intangible interests we all have in an open information environment, in robust public domain, and in balanced intellectual property law." >from 'Toward a New Politics of Intellectual Property' by Pamela Samuelson, speak at WWW2002, May 10, 2002.

patent policy:

> world wide web consortium releases new draft of patent policy
community and member feedback shapes new royalty-free draft
february 26, 2002

> archive of public comments received by w3c

> w3c patent policy working group

> background information from w3c

w3c semantic web
<http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/>

tim berners-lee
<http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/>

the semantic web
by eric miller. www2002, may 2002
<http://www.w3.org/2002/Talks/www2002-w3ct-swintro-em/>

berners-lee: prepare for next-gen web now
by c. aaley boston.internet.com, april 19, 2002
<http://boston.internet.com/news/article/0,1928,2001_1012781,00.html>

web founder seeks simplicity
by a. weber. software development magazine. june 2001
<http://www.sdgnews.com/sd2001es_006/sd2001es_006.htm>

semantic web to be berners-lee's second success?
by eric van der vlist. xmlhack, may 4, 2001
<http://www.xmlhack.com/read.php?item=1200&v=1>

not done yet, says berners-lee
by edd dumbill. o'reilly network, may 2, 2001
<http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/287>

semantic web
by t. berners-lee, j. hendler, o. lassila. scientific american, may 2001
<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00048144-10D2-1C70-84A9809EC588EF21&catID=2>

web architecture from 50,000 feet
by tim berners-lee. september 1998
<http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Architecture.html>

w3c issues recommendation for resource description framework (rdf)
<http://www.w3.org/Press/1999/RDF-REC>

semantic web org
<http://www.semanticweb.org/>

dublin core metadata initiative
<http://dublincore.org/>

prism
<http://www.prismstandard.org/about/>

rdf site summary
<http://www.webreference.com/perl/tutorial/rss1/>

xmlnews
<http://www.xmlnews.org/>

Toward a New Politics of Intellectual Property'
by Pamela Samuelson, speak at WWW2002, May 10, 2002
<http://www2002.org/speaker-abstracts.html#samuelson>

w3c releases new draft of patent policy. february 26, 2002
<http://www.w3.org/2002/02/pp-update-pressrelease.html.en>

w3c patent policy working group
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-patent-policy-20020226/>

background information from w3C
<http://www.w3.org/2001/08/patentnews>

archive of public comments received by w3c
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-patentpolicy-comment/>

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a fleshy fruit that has a single hard stone enclosing a seed
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