Summary: The original vision of the semantic web as a layer on top of the current web, annotated in a way that computers can "understand," is certainly grandiose and intriguing. Yet, for the past decade it has been a kind of academic exercise rather than a practical technology. This article explores why; and what we can do about it. Update: Part 2 is available now Top-Down: A New Approach to the Semantic Web
The semantic web is a vision pioneered by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, in which information is expressed
in a language understood by computers. In essence, it is a layer on top of the current web that describes concepts and relationships, following strict rules of logic.
The purpose of the semantic web is to enable computers to "understand" semantics the way humans do. Equipped with this "understanding," computers will theoretically be able solve problems that are out of reach today.
AOL's social news site relaunched today under the new name Propeller. No longer "the new Netscape", Propeller seems on face like a clone of a clone. There may, though, be much more going on underneath the surface.
The news of the move was received quietly, deemed proof by some critics that the project was just a failed Digg-clone; that its paid editors, friendly design and broad topic areas just didn't have the raw masculine power to discover great stories that Digg offers in its wild, untamed model of social news. That sounds ridiculous to me, but I don't spend any time on Netscape, either - I like Digg. (See also TechCrunch's mockery of Propeller, pirate style.)
You've probably noticed that today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Others may joke about the matter, but Read/WriteWeb is a serious blog. Thus we present to you our Top 5 Online Resources for Real, Live Pirates. Perhaps someone who likes lists has boarded this blog and seized the captain's wheel!
The International Chamber of Commerce has for years published a fascinating Weekly Piracy Report on its website. These fairly detailed accounts of attacks on commercial vessels at sea must read like the sports page for real pirates. Thousands of pirate attacks happen every year, still today. The report is a fun, if twisted, site to read for anyone on any day of the year. For example, this week's report includes this account:
"13.09.2007: 0550 UTC: Posn: 18:33.9N - 072:23.0W: Port au Prince, Haiti. Robbers, armed with knives, boarded an anchored general cargo ship unnoticed. Ship's general alarm sounded and crew mustered. Robbers jumped overboard and escaped with ship's stores. Attempts to contact local authorities were futile."
Online CD retailer CDBaby's got a page for kid-friendly pirate band Bogg and Salty where you can listen to all the songs on the album online. The site also recommends a variety of other pirate themed bands. If you've got wee ones to indoctrinate into the lifestyle, this could be a great way to do it.
Sometime today, according to BusinessWeek, social news site Digg will launch a slew of new social networking features that will put the site in closer competition with services like Facebook and MySpace. The features will enable easier communication between diggers and allow them to form groups based around their interests. "This is really the first time that we have enabled communications between users," Digg founder Kevin Rose told BusinessWeek.
The reason for the change, implies BusinessWeek's Catherine Holahan, is that as Digg has expanded its reach beyond technology focused stories, its early users have complained that the main page has become diluted with news in topics that don't matter to them. The new features will allow users to form connections and share stories with people that have common interests.
Google announced the limited release of their new Gadget Ads program, which they tout as "mini versions of your website in any AdSense ad size." The rich media ads combine "data feeds, maps, images, audio, video, Flash, HTML or JavaScript in a single creative," according to Google, and are available to select high volume AdWords clients and distributable across the entire AdSense network.
Gadget Ads are created on top of the Google gadget framework used to create widgets for their iGoogle start page property. The ads themselves are actually entered into the Google gadgets directory automatically.
It's been a busy couple of days, with the announcement of Zimbra being acquired by Yahoo! for $350M, Google launching its much anticipated Presentations app, and Mozilla launching a new organization to focus on email innovation. Also the TechCrunch40 conference has commanded much attention (see R/WW's coverage of the 8 sessions).
Now it's time to catch our breath and check out some of the recent highlights from the Read/WriteWeb Network...
Google Reader Goes Multilingual, Comes Out of Beta - Marshall Kirkpatrick reviewed Google Reader now that it's gone out of beta. He gave it the thumbs up, but with some provisos:
This was the final session on Day 2 - and the title said it all. Some of these 5 entertainment startups target kids, some target adults!
FlowPlay is a gaming social networking site that targets the teen demographic. It consists of Flash-based animatable avatars, enabling you to interact with your virtual friends without revealing who you are. The main part of the site though is Flash-based online games. They currently have 100 games, not all of them in-house developed - some licensed from others. While you play, you can earn virtual money - with which you can buy virtual things for yourself (e.g. clothing). After dressing up your character, you can go to places, bars and hang out with your friends, dance, chat and have fun. The fact that there is a virtual economy inside the platform makes it quite attractive.
The third session of the day dealt with rich media and mashups. These companies all had something to do with images, music, or movies in some way. Below are summaries and thoughts from the five presentations in this group.
xtr3D is trying to change the way we interact with computers. Their software replaces the traditional mouse and keyboard with real-time 3D motion analysis. Their "3D Human Machine Interface" can translate your physical movements into mouse moves and keyboard clicks.
Right now the Wall Street Journal web site cost $79/year for full online access. New owner Rupert Murdoch (CEO of News Corp.), however, said today at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference in New York that he is leaning toward making the site free. According to Reuters, analysts worry that the move will slice out a reliable revenue stream for one of the few Internet media properties that has managed to attract a paying clientele, which may not be able to be recouped with ad sales.
Murdoch disagrees. "Will you lose $50 million to $100 million in revenue? I don't think so," he told investors. "If the site is good, you'll get much more." The Wall Street Journal doesn't have to make any hasty decisions. Rival paper, the New York Times did away with its pay section, Times Select, just yesterday in the hopes of attracting more ad revenue. Murdoch and company can wait to see how it works for the Times before trying anything similar with the Journal.
In the second session of the second day, it is the turn of advertising companies.
AdBrite has announced a new product: SPOTTT.com. It's a link exchange program that is very similar to LinkExchange (from the web 1.0 era). Just to remind you; LinkExchange was sold to Microsoft for $265M in 1998.
Started by FuckedCompany's founder Philip Kaplan, AdBrite says they are bringing back LinkExchange with new innovations. Instead of LinkExchange's 2:1 ad publishing program, they have a 1:1 display program - this means for every one ad you publish, your ad is published on other sites as well. Tony Hsieh, co-founder of LinkExchange, is also assisting with the product.
