Isn’t it semantic? - Interview with Tim BL
Isn't it semantic? is an interview with Tim Berners-Lee, from BCS. A choice quote:
Q: Ian Horrocks spoke to the BCS on ontologies, the application of which would clearly see a true Semantic Web, but how can we apply these principles to the billions of existing Web pages?
A: Don't. Web pages are designed for people. For the Semantic Web we need to look at existing databases and the data in them.
To make this information useful semantically requires a sequence of events:
1. Do a model of what's in the database - which would give you an ontology you could work out on the back of an envelope. Write it in RDF Schema or OWL (the Web Ontology Language).
2. Find out who else has already got equivalent terms in an ontology. For those things use their terms instead.
3. Write down how your database connects to those things.
Q: Ian Horrocks spoke to the BCS on ontologies, the application of which would clearly see a true Semantic Web, but how can we apply these principles to the billions of existing Web pages?
A: Don't. Web pages are designed for people. For the Semantic Web we need to look at existing databases and the data in them.
To make this information useful semantically requires a sequence of events:
1. Do a model of what's in the database - which would give you an ontology you could work out on the back of an envelope. Write it in RDF Schema or OWL (the Web Ontology Language).
2. Find out who else has already got equivalent terms in an ontology. For those things use their terms instead.
3. Write down how your database connects to those things.