Comments on: Guus Schreiber on Semantic Web best practices http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices Richard Cyganiak's Weblog Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:36:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Rowland Watkins http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices#comment-7 Rowland Watkins Sat, 16 Oct 2004 09:10:27 +0000 http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices#comment-7 <p>I agree 100% Manipulating RDF and ontologies is hard work. I think RDF is hard work. How am I going to get my family members to use it with their webpage? "Oh, you need to load the RDF into memory and flip the switch that fires the inference rules to make suggestions about which recipe to use for making apple pie." ;-) That's not going to happen in the next five minutes!</p> <p>And your right about the lack of intuitive tools for vocab/ontology development - Protege is getting better. A colleague of mine at Southampton just writes his in a text editor - he claims it to be faster compared to wrestling with Protege. Maybe this has more to do with the concentration on technology than thinking about how to make the Sematic Web simpler to develop and use....</p> I agree 100% Manipulating RDF and ontologies is hard work. I think RDF is hard work. How am I going to get my family members to use it with their webpage? “Oh, you need to load the RDF into memory and flip the switch that fires the inference rules to make suggestions about which recipe to use for making apple pie.” ;-) That’s not going to happen in the next five minutes!

And your right about the lack of intuitive tools for vocab/ontology development - Protege is getting better. A colleague of mine at Southampton just writes his in a text editor - he claims it to be faster compared to wrestling with Protege. Maybe this has more to do with the concentration on technology than thinking about how to make the Sematic Web simpler to develop and use….

]]> By: Richard Cyganiak http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices#comment-6 Richard Cyganiak Fri, 15 Oct 2004 19:05:23 +0000 http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices#comment-6 <p>Yeah, we need widespread discussion to develop great vocabularies and ontologies. The main roadblocks, I think, are the complexity of the Semantic Web technology stack, and the lack of an intuitive tool for developing vocabs/ontologies.</p> Yeah, we need widespread discussion to develop great vocabularies and ontologies. The main roadblocks, I think, are the complexity of the Semantic Web technology stack, and the lack of an intuitive tool for developing vocabs/ontologies.

]]> By: Rowland Watkins http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices#comment-5 Rowland Watkins Fri, 15 Oct 2004 15:12:15 +0000 http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices#comment-5 <p>I think it would be a good idea for people to talk to each other more. Apart from gaining a better understanding of the problems with sharing vocabularies, open discussion will accessible to (hopefully) a large audience. The more people know and understand about the Semantic Web and the value of shared ontologies, the greater the acceptance and adoption.</p> <p>An we haven't even got to inferencing yet!</p> I think it would be a good idea for people to talk to each other more. Apart from gaining a better understanding of the problems with sharing vocabularies, open discussion will accessible to (hopefully) a large audience. The more people know and understand about the Semantic Web and the value of shared ontologies, the greater the acceptance and adoption.

An we haven’t even got to inferencing yet!

]]> By: Richard Cyganiak http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices#comment-4 Richard Cyganiak Fri, 15 Oct 2004 13:05:30 +0000 http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices#comment-4 <p>The important point, I think, is that ontologies and vocabularies should be created and maintained in a community process. DC and FOAF are good examples of that. DOAP also, in a way, because Edd is a very prominent figure who is in contact with lots of people from the community. I believe that failure or success of an ontology is determined by social factors more than its technical merits. But there hasn't been much discussion about these social factors yet.</p> <p>Of course, sometimes you just have to roll your own vocabulary or ontology because nothing suitable exists. But in this case there's the question if using Semantic Web technologies has an actual benefit.</p> <p>Hm... maybe we Semantic Web developers should stop focusing on technology and start getting people to talk to each other about shared vocabularies.</p> The important point, I think, is that ontologies and vocabularies should be created and maintained in a community process. DC and FOAF are good examples of that. DOAP also, in a way, because Edd is a very prominent figure who is in contact with lots of people from the community. I believe that failure or success of an ontology is determined by social factors more than its technical merits. But there hasn’t been much discussion about these social factors yet.

Of course, sometimes you just have to roll your own vocabulary or ontology because nothing suitable exists. But in this case there’s the question if using Semantic Web technologies has an actual benefit.

Hm… maybe we Semantic Web developers should stop focusing on technology and start getting people to talk to each other about shared vocabularies.

]]> By: Rowland Watkins http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices#comment-3 Rowland Watkins Thu, 14 Oct 2004 17:20:49 +0000 http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices#comment-3 <p>Richard,</p> <p>It's good to see that people are discussing good vs. bad ontologies. Having said that, is it a good thing to reuse parts of well known ontologies in your own ontology as opposed to simply starting from scratch? And what happens if there aren't any suitable ontologies for your domain?</p> <p>This is applies especially to cutting edge research. And if we do develop an ontology that is used in applications, just how long will it take to come up with a concensus - Dublin Core is an example of this.</p> <p>Maybe we need some kind of RFC mechanism for ontologies;-) This might be suitable for active commuities - schemaweb.info has a whole load of ontologies, however, I'm not sure how much of a concensus there is on its contents. FOAF is an obvious success story and even Edd Dumbill's DOAP vocab is getting some attention. It is interesting to note that both are being developed faster than that of DC!</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>Rowland</p> Richard,

It’s good to see that people are discussing good vs. bad ontologies. Having said that, is it a good thing to reuse parts of well known ontologies in your own ontology as opposed to simply starting from scratch? And what happens if there aren’t any suitable ontologies for your domain?

This is applies especially to cutting edge research. And if we do develop an ontology that is used in applications, just how long will it take to come up with a concensus - Dublin Core is an example of this.

Maybe we need some kind of RFC mechanism for ontologies;-) This might be suitable for active commuities - schemaweb.info has a whole load of ontologies, however, I’m not sure how much of a concensus there is on its contents. FOAF is an obvious success story and even Edd Dumbill’s DOAP vocab is getting some attention. It is interesting to note that both are being developed faster than that of DC!

Cheers,

Rowland

]]> By: Richard Cyganiak's Weblog » [bxmlt] Guus Schreiber: From Representations to Applications http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices#comment-2 Richard Cyganiak's Weblog » [bxmlt] Guus Schreiber: From Representations to Applications Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices#comment-2 <p>[...] p beim W3C. Sehr interessante Präsentation über die Arbeit seiner Gruppe. Mehr in meinem <a href="http://dowhatimean.net/2004/10/guus-schreiber-on-semantic-web-best-practices">englischen Blog</a>. Kommentare [...]</p> [...] p beim W3C. Sehr interessante Präsentation über die Arbeit seiner Gruppe. Mehr in meinem englischen Blog. Kommentare [...]

]]>