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Re: RDF (and RSS?) for the "future Web" (Was: Welcome back!)
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Aaron Swartz
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Jan 18, 2001 13:42 PST
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Silvio Porcellana <spo-@box1.tin.it> wrote:
| | First of all, as an RSS-DEV lurker, I know your involvment in RSS and I
would like to thank you (and all the other WG members) for the great job
you're doing.
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Thanks!
| | Now, my question is: how are we going to build this "Web of the future"?
I mean, basically: what are we going to do with the tons of resources
that are already out there?
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Well, it's my opinion (which many disagree with) that the vast quantity of
resource out there are not going to be made into semantically-enhanced
systems. People just don't want to do it. Instead, if they are ever
converted, they will be the last to come. The first thing, and that which
will really allow the Web to take off is that of big corporations which
already have large quantities of data in databases and other such systems.
What's needed is a vocabulary for them to express this information and place
it on the Web. What we're doing is we're unlocking the databases that
already exists, and stringing them together. Once people see how well this
works, new databases will be created expressly for the Web. It's basically
the shovelware idea...
| | Another example: we have now thousands of RSS feeds and channels, and
navigating thru all these resources has become already quite difficult.
Should we start thinking about a meta-RSS? And then we will need a
meta-meta-RSS, and so on...
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One of the projects I have for RSS is building RSS files to aggregate RSS
files. Take a look at some of the great work done by Dave Winer on this.
He's built a program (My Userland On the Desktop) that takes lots of RSS
files and lets you build your "pick of the litter" file. Dave's already
doing this, see scripting.com and click on one of the news links on the
right. Here's an example:
http://www.thetwowayweb.com/xmlNews
Click on the bullet on the left to get the original RSS file.
This is just one in a string of the aggregation and approval done by
"Webloggers" -- helping us manage our information overload.
I hope what I'm saying makes sense. I'm eager to realize the Semantic Web!
--
[ Aaron Swartz | m-@aaronsw.com | http://www.aaronsw.com ]
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