What is the semantic web? Why do I want it?

“Semantic web” is a term you hear more and more about these days. But what does it mean? Why should you care? And what has it done for you lately? The official definition is:

“The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries. It is a collaborative effort led by W3C with participation from a large number of researchers and industrial partners.”

My plain-English definition would be this: it is the web that speaks to itself.”

Why do we want this? Because right now the web is filled with a great deal of data but very little information.  Take the humble calendar for example.  You create a listing of all your trade show presentations.  But can that calendar talk to other applications? Can a search engine do your bidding to find “all events in New York related to XYZ coming up in the next three months?”  Not yet.  Because that published calendar is formatted in HTML.  And HTML just describes layout.

But changes is upon us. According to Tim Berners-Lee, we are approaching the 3rd of 4 important stages of information evolution. Standards are emerging which automate the connection of information. To get a feel for the brave new world of semantic marketing, take a look at examples from The Arts and The Life Sciences.  And form your own opinions.

• Mutual Art  – Beta version. Connects the records of 140 leading public museums, including the Tate in London and The Museum of Modern Art in New York.  A helpful overview video of Mutual Art can be found here (click the video to play)
• Pharma Surveyor – A patient friendly site designed to guide consumers through the trade-offs between drug regiments and their concomittant safety, efficacy and side-effect profiles.

In Part 2 of this series, I’ll offer up opinions on which standards clients should pay attention to and should be included in your Requests for Proposal and Vendor Selection Process.