We at the OpenCalais Initiative are seeing a steady uptick in the pace of adoption of our free metatagging service — and not just by the bleeding edge.

More and more mainstream publishers are preparing their content for interoperability and tapping the Linked Data cloud — and not just for some future state vision of a “web to come.’

Rather, because they seek immediate term increases in productivity from automating metatagging, grasp the value of enhancing their content with linked data assets for free, and want to be able to automatically create topic hubs and microsites for improved SEO and reader engagement.

technology is reliant upon web designers embedding special mark up codes within their content that will allow Google’s linking algorithms to grab the data

I don’t think you stressed how big this one is. There’s a real chicken-and-egg problem here:
- why mark up your site using RDFs (I assume Google’s tech uses RDF – the XML format developed by TBL’s W3C Semantic Group) when there are no apps to use it;
- why develop apps when there’s no data?

Another problem was best illustrated when I saw TBL trying to convince people to prime the pump to break this deadlock a few years back: while online publishing was easy to grok (“it’s like paper publishing, but online), the SW is hard to explain. The previous metaphors just don’t serve.

The potential goes way beyond Wolfram, particularly when coupled to ambient intelligence and natural language processing. Can you imagine being able to get any answer to any question about anything, anywhere, at any time?

- Mathew

PS Some useful links on SW: http://delicious.com/mathew/semantic

The power and potential of the semantic web should be making everyone feel a little uncomfortable, especially if they’re not paying attention to it. Even early adopters need to start thinking a hundred miles ahead to be ready to leverage it.

You might enjoy a post I wrote about information aggregation. It’s in line with your last comment about the next big thing being how we use information. I agree!!

In lieu of a trackback:
“How Can Big Media Get Back in the Game? The Big Bang Business Model”
http://trippmichelle.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-can-big-media-get-back-in-game-big.html

Michelle Tripp’s last blog post..Old Media Falling Into The “Digeration Gap”

In his latest blog (http://d8c.org/2009/05/18/nerdy-chef/), which was pointed to me by the Exec. Chef/Owner of Epicuria, Jonas points to Wolfram Alpha as one of several new tools that people in his industry need to start paying attention to. Wolfram Alpha provides more “value” than traditional tools like Google. It readily gives information that chefs can “really use.”

Such more than likely stems from Wolfram Alpha’s strengths: 1) careful input of selective information from reputable sources and 2) natural language interface. The tool thus carries automatic legitimacy and authority. Not only can it reason, which is already novel, but it reasons with information that was already selected to be legitimate.

And yes, this is also Wolfram Alpha’s weakness because the information base, upon which the tool reasons, needs to be maintained. It will be labour intensive. Semantic technologies aim to add meta data to existing user-generated information so semantic-aware application can reason with it. Wolfram Alpha is essentially a proof of concept, employing a closed information base.

I feel Jonas is alluding to chefs to think outside the box, perhaps think at the molecular level and try avant garde techniques using such things a cryo and immersion circulators.

In the same vein, everyone should try new things, especially with respect to the world wide web. There is much to do to make the semantic web a reality, but the impetus must be put to the “nerds” to move in that direction.

I want more leverage-able information with my first query. I want to be able to converse with the web, be it on a smart phone or computer, with conversational prose. I want to be able to make use of crowd sourcing beyond summarizing dozens of blog entries, tweets, or conversations in an online forum. I want all information on the World Wide Web to be more accessible.

I think Joe the plumber would appreciate such too. This is especially true when he becomes aware of services like AskAroundOttawa (http://www.askaround.ca) that recommend him, by name, to potential clients because he does good work.

You can tell just by the major complaints about the web right now “there’s too much noise” “I don’t have time to sort through it all..” etc.

And thanks for sharing the Wolfram Alpha tool… very fascinating!

Kelly

Kelly Rusk’s last blog post..Next Social Media Breakfast May 6 with Remarkk’s Mark Kuznicki

The fact is, there are new concepts emerging in terms of how we think about and deal with information. John the Plumber may not know how to use this information, but I don’t think that matters now and I don’t think it will matter in the future. However, those people whose job it is to figure out how to make information relevant are going to be left in the dust if they aren’t paying attention to what’s going on with the Web. One version – yes – but an ever evolving one. And that’s the way it should be anyway.

As for the equation – mathematics is lost on me. So I’m not seeing your point.

You talk about versions. I’m thinking in singularities: there is one web, version it all you want, but one web. Your blog post is information, this comment is information; how will John the Plumber who’s never touched a computer or cellphone in his life use what we’re creating?

Semantics, indeed.

Oh, so I just ran a mathematical search in that Wolfram engine. I don’t know what I typed-in, other than a random series of letters and symbols. See the result: http://www38.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=pi%2F(sin(x^3)%2Fy)%2B16%25

Ari Herzog’s last blog post..2 Years, 1 Month, and 10 Days Later