The Semantic Web in Action [Scientific American]
A set of technologies that provide a common language for representing data that could be understood by all kinds of software agents; ontologies—sets of statements—that translate information from disparate databases into common terms; and rules that allow software agents to reason about the information described in those terms. The data format, ontologies and reasoning software would operate like one big application on the World Wide Web, analyzing all the raw data stored in online databases as well as all the data about the text, images, video and communications the Web contained. Like the Web itself, the Semantic Web would grow in a grassroots fashion, only this time aided by working groups within the World Wide Web Consortium, which helps to advance the global medium.

The Giant Global Graph
The WWW increases the power we have as users. The realization was “It isn’t the computers, but the documents which are interesting”. Now you could browse around a sea of documents without having to worry about which computer they were stored on. Simpler, more powerful. Obvious, really.

Now, people are making another mental move. There is realization now, “It’s not the documents, it is the things they are about which are important”. Obvious, really.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee: Semantic Web is open for business [ZDNet.com]
A write up of an interview with TimBL. Take away story: little steps using technologies such as SPARQL and approaches such as LOD we are already seeing the Semantic Web taking hold.

Interview with Tim Berners-Lee on the Semantic Web [YouTube]
TimBL discussing the itch the semantic web will scratch. How making data available the webby way will allow a whole new class of applications to be developed and how those might be used.

Intro to the Semantic Web [YouTube]
Nice introductionary video.

Does the Semantic Web matter? Paul Miller thinks so [ZDNet.com]
Much that was once amazing is now taken for granted. Many that were once ‘the next big thing’ are no more. The number of people connected, the ways in which they connect, and the things they seek to do once online grow every day, yet the fundamental means of connection between all of these people, all of these places, and all of these things remains the dumb hyperlink. A simple ‘look here.’ A blind pointer into the Void. An impediment to further progress. This is what the so-called Semantic Web sets out to address. All of the specifications, all of the technology, are about enabling the description of ’stuff’ – and the connections between one piece of stuff and another – to be declared in ways that are explicit, intelligible and actionable to both humans and software applications acting on their behalf.

Native to a Web of Data [Tom Coates, plasticbag.org]
Tom’s presentation on the web of data… full of lots of good stuff.

Following your nose to the web of data [inkdroid]
The philosophy is quite different from other data discovery methods, such as the typical web2.0 APIs of Flickr, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, Google, etc., which all differ in their implementation details and require you to digest their API documentation before you can do anything useful. Contrast this with the Web of Data which uses the ubiquitous technologies of URIs and HTTP plus the secret sauce of the RDF triple.

Tim O’Reilly: Web 2.0 Is About Controlling Data [wired.com]
Why, despite many attempts, have we seen nobody able to dethrone eBay? Well, it’s because there are network effects at work in auctions. You have a critical mass of buyers and sellers. We’re seeing that with Google AdWords — it’s just a bigger and better marketplace. There are these tipping points where these services really become monopolistic.

Many thanks to…

Yves Raimond, Chris Sizemore, Richard Northover, Michael Smethurst, Zach Beauvais and Leigh Dodds.